CKaC will be Monday, July 21-Wednesday, July 23, 2025.

Camp is held at the Shepherd of the Lakes school, at 2101 South Hacker Road in Brighton, Michigan.

Advanced campers are able to establish speech with most new people, in new situations. At this point in their journey, they're ready to work on trickier, advanced goals, such as:

• Initiating & maintaining conversations

• Mastering social niceties

• Self-advocacy

• Navigating peer negotiation & conflict

• Giving & receiving compliments

• Completing oral presentations & engaging in group projects

Caregivers also participate in Advanced Camp, in order to receive advanced, live coaching in how to support their child’s bravery and growth.

Children who are eligible to attend Advanced Camp have already participated in CKC (Michigan, Toronto, or D.C. locations), and/or have been working with a Thriving Minds clinician who recommends them based on their progress in individual treatment. Children who have participated in similarly-run intensive-camps may also be considered.

A 15-minute consultation call may be conducted prior to confirming enrollment to determine goodness-of-fit for advanced camp.

A "good fit" for Advanced Camp is:

1. The child is motivated, or at least willing, to participate in camp.

2. With support, your child is typically able to speak to new adults upon meeting them--even if speech is minimal and/or at a low volume.

3. Your child needs practice in a school-like setting.

4. Your child needs practice with peers.

5. You, as their caregiver, are motivated to strengthen your brave coaching skills.

Additionally, the 60-minute pre-camp consultation with caregivers is intended to verify good fit for your child's specific needs.

During Advanced Camp, caregivers serve as their child's brave coach. Caregivers will be expected to participate in all of the group lessons and activities. This hands-on learning experience will offer caregivers more practice in facilitating brave work, paired with coaching feedback from our clinical staff.

Caregivers will gain increased skills in:

• Setting just-right goals for their child

• Social skill and emotional regulation coaching for your child

• Fostering playdates with peers

• Preparing for tricky school experiences (e.g., participating in whole-class discussions, self-advocacy with peers, group presentations)

There are no lead-in sessions for Advanced Camp, as caregiver attendance during camp is required. To be eligible for Advanced Camp, it is expected that your child will be able to establish speech with their classroom teacher the first morning of camp.

Generally, classes will be 6-10 campers.

We keep a small wait list for each classroom of only 3 people. Given the high number of registrations that we receive every year, we recommend that families sign up as early as possible to ascertain a slot in camp or a place on the wait list.

Wait list registration is completed in the same manner as regular registration. Families fill out the registration packet, and will be alerted that they are on the waitlist. The waitlist is only 3 slots per classroom.

If a slot opens up in your child’s age group (classroom), we will immediately call the first person on the wait list. We suggest responding quickly to that phone call, as we will continue to move through the waitlist until we find a match.

No slot can be held without a deposit. The application is not considered complete until a deposit is paid.

If there is significant interest in a certain age group, we consider opening up another class, provided we have enough teachers available.

No, we can provide a formal diagnosis via our interactions, observations, and questionnaires completed as a part of camp.

Yes, we encourage patients at Thriving Minds to consider CKaC as a component of their treatment!

It is possible that the child’s clinician will be a teacher at camp, but teacher assignments are based on a variety of variables so we can’t guarantee specific placements for a single camper.

We regularly reach out to treating clinicians (non-TMBH) as a part of our intake process, to obtain more information on the child, the interventions that work/don’t work, and goals that the clinician might have. Please make sure to include them in the disclosure form as a part of the intake paperwork so that we can reach out to them.

We welcome children who are both treated with medication and not treated with medication at camp. If your child is medicated, please continue that intervention during the week of camp.

We ask for those videos to be sent to us ASAP, but certainly prior to the 60 minute pre-camp consultation with a camp director. Please attach the videos to your application, or send them via email or a link to ckc@thrivingminds.info ASAP.

Yes, we welcome families from all over the country and world. Please note that the only language used at camp is English, and therefore children/parents would need a working knowledge of the English language to make the most of the camp experience.

Please see our tab on activities and places to stay for more information HERE

CKaC 2025 is $1952, paid out in 4 installments prior to camp. This cost includes the pre-camp consultation, the cost of camp, caregiver training during the week of camp, post-camp caregiver consultation, and a full personalized report with recommendations provided after camp (which can be shared with the school and/or treating providers). Payments are $488 at registration, $488 on April 1, $488 on May 1, and $488 on June 1.

Yes, after the first downpayment on camp, we can charge your credit card on file at each installment.

Yes, we accept HSA and FSA cards.

If you need to change your credit card on file, please alert us at ckc@thrivingminds.info, and we will send you an updated credit card authorization form to complete. Please do so before the next payment is attempted

We provide a short grace period. We will immediately contact you; please contact us with updated credit card information to hold your camp slot.

If a credit card can be used by that organization or individual, it is no problem for us to charge someone else for camp costs. Other circumstances can be discussed by emailing the billing department at billing@thrivingminds.info.

Unfortunately, we are not offering any scholarships for CKaC this year.

All families are required to pay the entire amount of $1952 for camp, with refunds coming after the camp sessions have been submitted to BCBS. Therefore, the only change would be that a family who initially had BCBS at the time of registration but changes to another insurance company prior to the week of camp would not receive any insurance-based refund post-camp.

Yes, if your primary health insurance is BCBS Traditional or PPO, we will bill the allowed amount to your insurance company after camp is completed.

The amount paid towards camp is dependent on your copay and deductible; it’s important to look at your benefits and call about coverage. Billable reimbursement could be up to $1000, depending on benefits.

No, non-BCBS plans will not be billed on your behalf. However, we do provide a detailed superbill after camp, and those can be submitted to your insurance company for out-of-network benefit reimbursements, if you are eligible. It is recommended that you contact your insurance company to ask about out-of-network coverage.

During camp, we use one code of 90791 (intake), 3 codes of 90837 (individual therapy), 3 codes of 90785 (complexity code)., 3 codes of 96202 (multi-family group therapy) and one code of 90846 (parent-only post-camp consultation). 

Superbills are a detailed receipt of all services, procedure codes, dates, and costs from camp. For families who are interested in submitting the costs to their non-BCBS health insurance plans, these superbills will have all of the information that an insurance company will need to consider reimbursement. Alternatively, some HSAs and FSAs require superbills be kept for proof of service.

Given that parent involvement and active participation is a huge component of Advanced Camp, we ask that siblings not attend.

Please send campers with a change of clothes if there is a possibility that they will have an accident (or just get dirty outside!), a water bottle, a lunch and at least 1-2 nut-free snacks, and sunscreen. We do have a refrigerator for lunches that need refrigeration.

We ask that one caregiver participate at a time. If both caregivers are interested in participating in CKaC activities, we ask that caregivers make a plan to split the day between themselves. To reduce transitions in the classroom, we ask that caregiver switching takes place during lunchtime.

We make every effort for camp to have similar challenges to a normal school day for your child (based on age), while also including psycho-education and community practices. For example, a day may include circle time, show and tell, answering teacher’s questions, and going on a field trip to talk to community-based adults. For an example camp schedule, click HERE

Yes! We plan to have 1-2 off-site field trips during CKaC. Each caregiver will be expected to drive themselves and their child to the field trip sites. Field trip sites are anticipated to be within a 20 minute drive from camp. Additional details coming soon!

We strongly encourage all children to fully participate in the entire 3-day camp. With the exception of an emergency or illness, there would be no reimbursement for missed time at camp.

If there was proof of an emergency situation or illness that would preclude your child from attending camp, a reimbursement may be considered (situation-dependent).

In Summer 2025, we will run Confident Kids Camp (CKC) and Confident Kids Advanced Camp (CKaC). We do not run any additional camps, but there are other camps nationwide that occur at other times of the year.

We do have other treatment modalities, such as individual therapy, group therapy, parent training and consultation, and school training and consultation offered year-round. Click here to learn more about these additional treatment options.

Camp isn’t for everyone! As a specialty clinic for SM, Thriving Minds offers many other treatment options; for more information you can set up a free 15 minute phone consultation with Katelyn Reed, our Director of Selective Mutism Treatment by emailing admin@thrivingminds.info.

Refunds take time to process due to BCBS’s processing speed; it can take up to 3 months to process the refunds. The refund will be provided as a check sent via mail.

No, unfortunately our credit card system isn’t able to refund directly to an HSA or FSA card. The refund will be sent via check.

For families who are “returners” to camp or who already get services through Thriving Minds prior to camp, we have a bonus – they are able to send one individual to attend Dr. Kotrba’s “Unlocking the Mystery of Selective Mutism” workshop for free! This full-day workshop provides training specifically for school personnel, although parents/caregivers are also invited to attend. If your child already receives treatment at Thriving Minds or has already attended CKC in the past, just email Dr. Kotrba after camp to get a promo code for registration. (This will be explained more fully during camp, as well).