Our Philosophy

After working with families coming out of wilderness programs, residential treatment centers, and therapeutic boarding schools for years we have seen that a majority of our families come out of whichever treatment track tend to have very similar experiences of struggle as they integrate back into a family unit. With many kids, they are able to accept that they needed some level of intervention and that wilderness fulfilled that role effectively. Often, the same kids held a higher level of resentment towards their parents over the decision to send them on to a longer term treatment program. Given these two factors, we had a sense that a significant percentage of the adolescents and young adults being sent to wilderness were, in turn, being over treated with the secondary placement into a long term program. There are likely a number of factors on how that came to be, but has now become entrenched in the culture of the majority of the adolescent and young adult treatment field.

We aim to provide families with an alternative approach that focuses on providing the least disruptive, effective treatment experience that their child requires. For the majority of families that we work with, the right placement in wilderness, with the right expectations will be enough. For the minority that do have a defined need for aftercare we can refer you to a partner who offers a discounted rate for doing just the long term placement.

We look to work with wilderness programs that are flexible enough to work with a different perspective on how to use the wilderness experience, have therapists who’s skill sets match the needs of our client, and have a group milieu that will be supportive of our client. We want our clients to have an experience where the default is preparing them to return home, rather than preparing them for long term care.