Adult & Teen Challenge New Mexico, Men’s Center

My experience with Teen Challenge has been deeply concerning and, unfortunately, very dismissive of both student and family needs. Staff, including the director, labeled me as “extreme” or “obsessive” when I advocated for my husband’s care. This created a culture where my valid concerns were minimized rather than addressed. When I initially asked for simple monthly updates on how my husband was doing, I was told they would not provide that level of communication and that I should instead “trust God, try my husband, and be submitted to the program.” The marriage counselor I found independently was excellent and extremely credible. Teen Challenge did not provide marriage counseling themselves—I had to arrange and book it on my own. Despite this, our counseling sessions were left off the schedule, causing my husband to arrive late due to program conflicts. I had to move our sessions to the evenings because the program would not properly accommodate our scheduled times. When I raised this issue with the director, his response was dismissive—telling us to “just have the counselor stay longer,” even though her schedule was fully booked. In addition, my husband’s personal counselor assigned by the program used divisive language about our marriage and condescending language about me. My husband would reflect on the negatives of our marriage instead of seeking resolution and peace keeping. I believe this speaks of the level of focus that the program gave toward marriages - the sole focus was on getting the addict sober rather than addressing root causes and mending relationships. Letters—our main form of contact outside a single 15-minute weekly phone call—were frequently delayed and not sent out on time. Even after I received an apology from staff for this, mail continued to arrive up to a week late afterward. This was extremely difficult given Teen Challenge’s claim that “family restoration” is central to the program. I will note that after 3 months of late mail and minimal communication, the director did allow my husband to obtain his own cellphone which was helpful. My husband was once sent to the ER without any notice to me as his spouse. When the director eventually called, he admitted he didn’t even know it was policy to inform family members when this happens. This was alarming and unacceptable. The program did initially approve splitting my visit dates to better accommodate my work schedule and limited time off. However, when I requested that Kyle fly out on a Thursday evening instead of 5 AM Friday morning—because airfare was significantly cheaper and more affordable (I am the sole provider for us during this season)—the director still counted that Thursday evening as an entire full visit day. My husband had been traveling the whole day and didn’t meaningfully spend time with me, yet the full day was deducted from our next visit. This was especially unreasonable given that our visits were already shortened since my husband had four travel days instead of two like the other students. Because so many of these concerns went unresolved (even some that have not been listed), I escalated them to the executive director, the executive director’s wife, and HR. Unfortunately, there has still been no accountability or resolution. The executive director’s wife, in particular, was extremely dismissive, unprofessional, and immature in her responses toward me, which only deepened my concerns about the culture of leadership within this program. I want to note that my experiences with other Teen Challenge programs in the past have been extremely positive. However, this particular program has left me on edge about my husband’s care and has consistently failed to provide the professionalism, compassion, or communication that families should be able to rely on. While Teen Challenge claims to value family restoration and holistic support, my experience shows a troubling pattern of neglect, dismissiveness, and poor communication from staff at every level

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