Third Way Center

Third Way Center is a Denver nonprofit serving adolescents with complex trauma and mental health needs. Our founder, psychiatrist Hildegard Messenbaugh, MD, started Third Way in 1970, and we grew from one shelter for teens into residential programs at five metro Denver locations, with individual, family, and group therapy.

Our students attend Joan Farley Academy, our two state-approved facility schools. The KW Brill Center serves up to 60 youth from our community-based residences, and the Lowry campus serves up to 34. Licensed Master's-level special education teachers, licensed school social workers, and counselors staff both campuses. Our classes are small, and experiential learning includes service-learning trips to Mission: Wolf and vocational programs at Denver Public Schools' CEC Early College. Eighty percent of our eligible students earn a high school diploma or GED during the program.

Our treatment follows Dr. Messenbaugh's Six Boxes methodology. Our Encephalopathy Unit addresses the effects of trauma on the brain, combining medication with meditation, sound therapy, yoga, word puzzles, and learning an instrument or a new language.