A number of testimonies from Blue Fire Wilderness

A number of people who have been forced to stay in this wilderness program, has reported back to us and well as some of the parents. Here are their testimonies found on Google and Yelp

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I went to bluefire in the summer of 2020 it was not a good exprice i am at home now but after 2 years at a therapeutic boarding school after the therapist made a bad decision to send me to a boarding school i lost all my friends and now i don't have any and I am still addicted to Fortnite like in the beginning

Connor Mangold - Google review

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One of the biggest mistakes I have ever made. My child was struggling immensely, and we found bluefire through their therapist. It seemed like the only option so we sent them, but I promise it is not. They have bee back for 7 months, and I have never seen them this unhappy. I talked to other parents of children who went, and they shared similar experiences. Some kids will not even speak to their parents anymore, which I am incredibly thankful is not true for my family. This place should only be used as a very very very last resort. Please do not send your child here.

abc 123 - Google review

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Absolutely awful. I am considering filing formal complaints with the State of Idaho. The therapist we worked with broke one of the main agreements we entered into within the first week and then tried to convince me 'it wasn't really an agreement.' This lack of accountability, outright dishonesty and unprofessionalism only grew throughout my experience as the father there. Their 'one hour of family therapy every two weeks' is absolutely subpar. Families like mine with struggles this intense need at the least, one hour every week if not two to three. In the first two weeks of her being there my daughters therapist said she needed to go to a transition program....within the first two weeks. Suggesting a young adult should attend a six month to one year residential transition program AFTER blue fire when she was only at blue fire for two weeks was, to me, absolutely irresponsible and indicated a strong sales position the school was taking that is totally at odds to what real therapy actually requires - individual consideration, time and thorough review. I submitted a nearly 17 page complaint to the school and had to record a conversation I had with the therapist in order to show how much lying and lack of professionalism this person was engaging in. In their 'agreement' they try to have the parent and client sign away their right to complain openly/publicly about the program. We voided that section and refused to sign it. I should have left the program right then and there when they even suggested we sign that. They all but admitted guilt to having a huge string of disappointed and hurt clients and parents, so much so that they try to ask new ones to agree to never speak poorly about their program.
Stay away from this place and sadly, I wish I could say where to go but the intense lack of truly helpful and supportive programs for struggling youth and their families is staggering.
Also, search Blue Fire Wilderness Therapy on YouTube and notice how every one of their video's has comments turned off.

Imagine Do - Google review

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I voluntarily went to bluefire when I was 14 (I am not 19 and in my freshman year of college), my parents suggested it and I agreed. If I could go back in time and tell myself to say no I would. I lost many of m friends because I was gone for so long, and it took me a very long time to make new ones. It may sound easy, but it is really hard to get back to the same level of friendship you had with someone after not speaking to them for 3 months. Even now 5 years later I regret going there.

Oscar Untruelove - Google review

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Hi i am a past student of blue fire and I am writing this for struggling parents who feel like they have no option but so send their kid here DONT DO IT this place can care less if you come out better and even less that you actually go home. At my time at blue fire they used cruel punishments on me and the kids in my group we were constantly deprived of food when I first got there it was 8 kids when I left it was 16 kids and we were still getting the same amount of food it was used against us as punishment and what made it worse is the staff knew what they were doing because me and the kids would constantly say you can’t use food as punishment and even are therapist tried to help but once the therapist left and it was just the unsupervised staff with the kids they were free to do as they please and punish how they pleased so we were genuinely scared that whatever we said about the staff out of fear that it would be used against us or that our “privilege” of talking to our family be taken away much of the program is hiking and I remember an occasion when we actually ended up getting lost in the desert and they forced us to hike 25 miles all the kids had blistered feet and we were out of food but of course the staff still had food and they were eating beef jerky in front of us when they knew damn well we were deprived of meat there I could write a whole other review talking about the food they fed us horrible beans and rice almost every meal also forgot to mention to have any contact with your parents you have to write them a letter saying how good of a program you are at and how much of an opportunity it is for you to be there and if you don’t your not allowed to talk to your parents these people who run this place are sick in the head and see basic necessities as privileges

carter kessing - Google review

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Get rich quick scheeme, you have a bad kid? Theyll make your kid good in just a few weeks? This is bs. I attented bluefire for more than 2 monthes and it ruined my entire social life it ruined my family life, how are they going to help your teen when they have only 2 theripists, and you only meet with them once a week. They have the say weather u go home or not. They have more than 10 other kids cases there working on too if and if its not working out how they see it they will just say your kid needa boarding school... this is how they make there money its sad. I stay intoucu with everyone i was at bluefire with and there lifes all went down the drain as did mine. One of the biggest issues is there website is a lie. We sleep on the floor eat out the same cup have no chairs nothing and during family spark they bring out tents and chairs and acual good food only when the parents come to visit than right when the parents leave its right back to sleeping on the floor no chairs or nothing. Everyone i was there with agreed it was a front. Please dont waste your money on this scheme, dont put your family thru what mine went thru, dont put your kid through what i went through. It made me worse off as a kid made me way worse i had to learn everything myself amd i had years of therepy because of bluefire and they all agree bluefire is a scam a scheme.. they literally have tents bur won't let you sleep in them unless ur familys there. This wont help your kid dont give them your hard earned dollars just to make things worse for your family

Highway Racing - Google review

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Ruined my life - it was an abusive experience. I could talk for days about how disgusting this program and the staff are. Don't send your kid here unless you are a parent who is sick in the head

julia thornton - Google review

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The experience turned out to be irrelevant and a waste of hard earned money. After blue fire, our son went to one of their recommended high schools in Texas. After he graduated, he fell into the same group of people (even though we were 1500 miles away). Blue Fire did not help him. We would have been in the same position if we had not sent him there. It did not work for us.

Matt A. - Yelp

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Additional resources

• BlueFire Wilderness (2013-present) Gooding, ID (Anti-Troubled Teen Industry Activism & Survivor Support)
• Matt A's testimony on Yelp

A wilderness program experience

This testimony was found Reddit. All rights go to the original author known as tobyhztheg

Not to long ago I was sent to one of the many wilderness programs out in Utah. While there was some good therapy and help I received there there’s lots of silenced negatives that come with it and the industry as a whole.

I was there for about 14 weeks. If your wondering I was gooned or “transported” as the like to say. First of I’ll start with the fact that them calling this morally questionable service a “transport service” is pretty dehumanizing on top of the whole experience. It’s like we are simply a object being brought somewhere when we are human beings as well. My experience with being gooned was nothing out of the ordinary or too interesting. Just the normal 2 bouncer sized men coming in my room at 3am and taking me away. Although I’ve heard other rough experiences with this practice from my peers while I was at the program. One told me about how when he walked towards his mom too try to tell her goodbye he was tackled to the ground and handcuffed. During this restraint he had his lat re-Injured from a injury he was recovering from and in PT for months for. He was given next to no medical attention while he was at the program. He hiked 4 days a week with a 40+ pound backpack and was told to stretch and sometimes was given ibuprofen. Another story I heard was from my student mentor at the program. He explained how in the car ride his goons recalled and laughed about a time they beat a kid up, kicked his head, and dragged his bloody self into the car. This shows there are some legitimately sick people in this job and it makes me question the morals of these companies even more. Another student told me about when he was spending a night in a hotel with his goons. His goons asked him to spit out his gum, he told them no and they beat the living shit out of him, tackling him, punching him, and even repeatedly stomping on his head. There’s many more stories I have but I’ll keep it to that.

My experience and wilderness therapy was often agonizing, depressing and mad me feel like a inferior prisoner sometimes. I had to either count or call my name every time I shat in a hole or pissed in the woods. I couldn’t have a single conversation without a thing called “ears”. This is a non negotiable rule that a staff must be present to listen in on a conversation between 2 students or more at all times. They would completely shut the conversation down if it wasn’t deemed “therapeutic”. If you ever argued it would get you nothing. This felt like one of the many invasions of any privacy. Having monitored and censored discussions for more than 3 months got old really quick. Whenever we would speak up about any of the ridiculous rules and vented about or hard times at the program to each other we were constantly reminded by staff that it is our fault for being here and these are the consequences of our actions. This essentially made the rules untouchable and not up for debate. Staff also reminded us often about our “privileged” lives specifically our white privilege which basically made us feel like we had no right to have any sort of pity of ourselves or our peers. All of our lives at the program were constantly rendered back to it being our faults. Me and almost everyone came to the conclusion early on that we essentially had to robots to the therapists, staff and the program. Do what your told, bite your tounge and don’t complain. I found the most success in basically being a complete yes man the whole time. The outspoken ones never succeeded there. I also want to talk a bit about abuse of power. There was this one day where a kid was refusing to wear his face mask (covid reasons ofc) because he saw staff the other night being very close to each other and not wearing them. After refusing for about a minute to staff came over to him and tackled him to the ground. One of them shoved his face in the dirt while he yanked the kids arm and shoulder back while he was screaming in pain. For almost all of it they were being physical while he wasn’t even resisting. What really suprised me about this situation was that earlier on in my stay when a kid litterally physically attacked me all staff did was grab his arm and walk him away so clearly the amount of force in the mask situation was beyond excessive.

Often at the program we did much more physical labor and hiking than actually therapy while staff would bullshit us and say “hiking is therapy”. Litterally we had 1 therapy session a week for about 30 minutes when the therapists came once a week.

I also want to describe some of the lack of medical attention I received there. Throughout my stay I consistently had violent diarrhea. Looking back it’s not surprising because of the often rotten vegetables, and cleaning all of our cups out with dirt. (This next part could be disturbing) There was one week in which it was the worst. The whole week I was having such violent diarrhea that it god to a point where I was shitting so violently that I cut open the inside of my anus. All the shitty “med team” would do is give me a bad diarrhea medicine and sometimes tums when it was bad enough. It was litterally hell. A staff accused me of faking my diarrhea to get out of chores, hiking etc.

Sorry for the long post I might make a Pt 2 later. If you actually read through this thank you for hearing a little bit about my experience

Source:
My experience and my peers experience at Wilderness Therapy (Reddit)

Second Nature (Evoke) testimony

This testimony was found on Reddit.

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Hey, did anyone else have a really negative experience at Second Nature Entrada in Utah? Now called evoke I think. I went there in 2013 and still think about it all the time, but the lists of the bad places never include it. Some of the stuff that happened to me there:

• put us on 48 hour isolation in solitary confinement on the whim of the staff members. Not even as punishment.
• i was forced to drink a gallon of water in 5 minutes on two separate occasions as punishment for forgetting to get my water bottles logged (they can’t be held liable). They told me if I finished it the group would get quesadillas, so everyone cheered me on. Both times I drank until I threw up water, and both times I was forced to scoop up my own vomit even though it was just water, dig a hole for it, and was told I was dramatizing
• staff calling the girls names, encouraging us to call each other names, encouraging verbal abuse -group meetings that existed purely to humiliate and shame.
• girls being forced to hike and participate while withdrawing from serious drugs such as meth, crack and heroin
• i was put on meds that made me drowsy, accused me of faking when I kept passing out under the weight of my backpack as a result, only stopped the meds when my parents noted they couldn’t read my handwriting bc I was so weak.
• inadequate protection against the desert cold, girls would cry themselves to sleep.
• was made to write a list of things I would never tell my parents, rhwn forced to read it. When I turned around they were there for their visit which I hadn’t been told abour ahead of time.
• I never got the hang of making a fire, and they thought I just wasn’t trying, so they put me on isolation for a week where I couldn’t talk to anyone and the only thing I was allowed to do was to try making a fire all day. For a week.
• sadistic games played by the counselers just to teach us lessons, promising prizes it was impossible to win.
• clearly Morman therapist who told me I needed to find a higher power to get better, even though he knew I was Jewish and that that is a higher power.
• kept me an extra month against my parents will because they wanted to take me home instead of transfer me to a RTC in Utah.
• was not allowed to draw read or write.

I could go on. Did anyone else have similar experiences there??? I always see it listed as one of the “good ones” and I’m just confused

Sources:

• Second Nature Utah (The original testimony on Reddit)
• About the program (1000 places you do not want to be as a teenager)

Testimony about an unnamed program

I went to shorter wilderness program in the middle of the winter in Oregon. When I got there, they strip searched me and took my stuff. I was given clothes and put in the back of a pick up truck with those removal plastic tops. After that I was driven up into the mountains at dusk. By the time we stopped, it was dark out. I was given snowshoes and was told to strap on a sled to drag some of our supplies (this duty rotated). We were hiking to some place in the dark in the Oregon mountains in January. I stopped and told them this was bullshit. They said I was free to walk away assuming I would be scared to. I unhooked the sled and started to walk away. They tackled me and made me put the sled back on and keep marching.

I remember being really cold all the time. Our tents didn't have bottoms. We had to dig a hole to put our boots in and sleep on top of them at night to prevent them from freezing stiff. It was 21 or 22 days out there. The guides were nice enough, but reflecting on it as an adult, their qualifications were more related to being able to hike than to counsel teenagers. I remember the stars being beautiful at night. I remember the hikes were grueling and I looked emaciated when I finished. We weren't supposed to go into each other's mids (tents without bottoms). The last night, I heard a bunch of other kids in one of the mids. When I went in, they were all huffing gas from the tanks we used for our camping stoves.

Despite doing well in that program and being considered a leader, they recommended I get sent somewhere else. I went on to military school followed by a two year stint at the now closed Elan School. The wilderness program wasn't even my first program. I went for a 3 month stint at Turn-About Ranch when I was 14. They had a wilderness program in the same town called Northstar. It was shut down the year prior after a kid was thought to be complaining to get out of hiking. He had a perforated ulcer and was bleeding to death. The famous writer Jon Krakauer wrote an article for Outside Magazine about it called "Loving them to Death."

I was 15 for the wilderness program. It has since been closed to due to participant deaths. I know one of the deaths was considered an accident. A large branch from a tree felling on someone while they were sleeping. At their program in Nevada, a girl died of heatstroke. I think there was one more.

As far as therapeutic boarding schools go, I went to the notorious Elan School. Look it up. You will find all kinds of horrific shit about it. During my time there, I was in a house with roughly 120 kids (we came in and left 1 at a time, so this is just a guess). The house population was between 45-60 at any given time. I've lost count of how many are dead now. I'd guess at least 25%, but possibly more. Suicide, drug overdoses, a couple murders. Some are dead, but I don't know what happened. A lot disappeared and none of us know what happened. They could fine. Recently, I found one guy everyone thought was dead and he was doing awesome. However, I also found another people had been looking for and he'd been dead for 17 years.

I bring this up because people all these troubled teen placements are trying to make a profit. It's commonly a one size fits all program. Some kids end up in these places for disturbing crimes. Other kids got smoking a joint or skipping school and their parents sent them there. Nor does success in these programs predict much. One kid who had done extremely well was murdered by his friend while smoking meth out in the woods. His friend went crazy, slit his throat, and left him to bleed out. Another kid who was just in there before me, murdered his mom with a sledgehammer. Kids who had never even done drugs would come out a few years later and end up heroin addicts.

That doesn't mean others didn't do well after leaving. One of my peers is a high powered lawyer in big law firm. Another is a fairly famous healthcare political activist who is quoted in the Washington Post and interviewed on television. Many move on to be normal people. But, most of us are somewhat or extremely haunted by it.

The truth is, it's all a crap shoot. No program has any guarantees. Also, while parents might send their kids to these places because they love them and want to get help, it can feel like you are being thrown away like a piece of garbage. For me personally, with each place I went, my relationship with my parents got worse. The anger just built up at them. So, I would do great at a program. Then I would come back home and it would get bad again. Most programs unfortunately do not look at the larger context a kid's problems exist in. They are the problem. The program is being paid to make them the focus of the problem. However, in my extensive experience in these places, sure, the kids were usually fucked up, but so was most of the family. The kid was just what was called in psychology lingo the "identified patient". Kids don't usually just become messed up in a vacuum. But, in a for profit endeavor, the customer is always right. Even in cases where the parents are supposed to be involved in the therapy, it's only to a point. After all, they are the ones cutting the check. So, it creates some pretty perverse incentives.

Sorry for the wall of text. I hope some insight can be drawn from my words, but everyone's situation is different.

Source:
Question for teens that have gone to a wilderness experience for 8 weeks or more: (Reddit meassage board)

Trails Carolina Experience terrible

This testimony was found on Reddit.

Trails traumatized me. The staff force you to do everything and even when your hiking up a huge mountain with huge heavy pack on they yell at you for stopping and force you to keep moving.

The first week your there the first letter you get is a letter from your parents saying what you did and why your there. The letters you parents try to send basically gets edited by them to make it different so you cant hear what your parents actually wanted to say. The letters are not even sent through the mail they take a picture of you letter and send it through email. The staff don't care if your crying and you only see your therapist once a week and the therapist barely even listens to you and tells your parents the wrong things about you. Mine told my parents I was self harming for attention.

They make you hike in pouring rain and snow no matter what. The food is disgusting and have the same stuff every week and you have clean the pot and scrub and you have very little time to do it. We only shower once or twice a month and on the website it said warm showers and comfy beds which is a lie. Everything is dirty and you sleep in tiny tents with 4 or 5 people which is meant for less and if it is raining you get soaked in the tents. The clothes are very dirty and very low quality and never get washed. People run away all the time and try to self harm with shoe laces and stuff. PEOPLE HAVE DIED HERE!! its so messed up nobody cares about you there. You learn stupid extremely hard wilderness skills and have top learn all of them to leave.

The people try to force your parents to send you to a boarding school and lie that your child is doing bad. I was lucky and got to go home but now I have a very poor relationship with my family and only have a few friends. Trails made it worse. I cry every time i just think about Trails it was the most hardest traumatizing thing that has ever happened to me. I feel so bad for everybody who has to go through this like i did. It made me so depressed and wanted to die while I was there because of how bad it was. I felt more hopeless than ever I thought I would never be going home. trails is torture. you have to carry your food around and your heavy sleeping bad and group gear which the water is from a creek that's not cleaned. The staff don't care and dont help or carry any of it. I was always crying on the hikes because it was hurting me and they yelled at me for being slow. the "school" there is not school there is no activities at trails you just work on your wilderness skills. Many things happen there thats against the law and lie. DONT COME HERE and btw my group was fox trot.

Source:
Trails Carolina Experience terrible (Reddit)

Fred at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go the original author Fred

They took off my pictures like many other people here I got PTSD from going there along with acute intermittent porphyria. A 1:100 disease for life. I throw up blood regularly I go to the bathroom and see blood in the toilet im now on 10 pills just for anxiety and sleep and 15mg a day of oxy.

This place gave me nightmares and health problems for the rest of my life. I moved out never spoke to my parents again. I had pictures that were taken down part of porphyria is you get sun blisters my face back and chest have scars from the sun sores that will never be healed or covered up. I experience pain everyday I've had seizures as a result of the PTSD my last seizure dislocated my shoulder and tore my rotatir cuff.

I came out worse than I went in. They refused to bring me to the hospital and I was told if I didn't stop throwing up i couldn't go home. I was so sick there from the salmonella I was throwing up daily one night I was so dehydrated I passed out half way to my tent and passed myself. Sending your kid here could kill them my doctors told me im lucky to be alive and what I have (porphyria) could be passed onto my kids. It mutated my gene. Screw them if you send your kid they will hate you. Im not the only one who came out worse than when they went in. If I got sick I was supposed to carry extra weight while hiking to metaphorically reflect the weight the group had to carry from dragging me by my backpack while I was unconscious on hikes. Luckily the staff although they were told not to bring me to the hospital they atleast didn't force me to carry extra weight after they found me unconscious when I passed out and passed myself. They knew I want faking but the therapist believed I was.

I was also mocked because I read the bible cause I knew I was dying. I debated hanging myself while there because I knew I was dying I wanted to go out on my own terms. I had my will written inside my boots telling my parents to get an @autopsy done. I also told my friends in my group to tell my parents what REALLY happened to me and why I died. I HOPE THIS PLACE BURNS TO THE GROUND. Therapist lu vaughn was my therapist. The staff I had knew something was wrong but they were helpless because of her orders. I been to jail and jail was better than that place. Imagine sending ur child somewhere worse than jail they will never be the same. I don't trust anyone and cut off my entire family because of this place. Look at the other reviews more ppl left with PTSD I wouldn't wish PTSD on my worst enemy

Sources:

• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Brittany at Trails Carolina

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Brittany

Oh let me start from the top with this place. In all honesty, I cannot begin to fathom where I should begin. Let me start with my experience going thru the program. To protect my privacy, I will not name specifics in regards to timing of my dates. I was one of the lucky ones in terms of having knowledge beforehand that I was going. When your parent or legal guardian enrolls you, the admissions counselor tells them to not inform your child of when or where they are going. They have these little deceptive services they use and the rest of the students called them "goons" They came to your house in the middle of the night and literally forced you to pack your things and to get in the car with them to go to Trails Carolina. I was lucky enough not to go thru this, but everyone else in my squad did. I could tell that Trails did not like that I knew ahead of time because they called my parents and told them that I had contacted them for more information. I have documentation supporting that in case it is disputed for any reason in a response.

What was supposed to be a therapeutic experience has left me with nothing but sheer PTSD for the past years following my graduation from the program. Nightmares ensued and still ensue now even years after. The minute I walked into my first day and I was dropped off, I was sent to a room where they made me strip out of my clothes while someone watched, and change into some kind of uniform. A green t shirt and a red hoodie and these quick dry pants and some hiking shoes. I was there for a little over two months during the winter season. In the North Carolina mountains it can get below 0 degrees with the wind chill at night.

This place is anything but therapeutic. Let me tell you the menu of food we had to eat. By the way, they told us when we could eat. Yes. There were times when we were not allowed to eat. Mondays breakfast was oats which we made using a pot filled with water from the creek which was boiled. Mondays lunch? Oh the same with every lunch. One tortilla with honey. Thats it. Everyday for almost 80 days. Dinner on Monday was rice and beans. They portioned the meals into a green cup that everyone had. You had to eat at least half a cup and a maximum of 2.5 cups which you told the person making it before. We carried the food around everywhere with us. Tuesdays dinner was called mush. What is mush? It's literally everything that you didnt use from the week put into one pot and served .This included sometimes noodles, peanut butter, garlic, and whatever else wasnt used because Wednesday was resupply and we were not allowed to keep any food. Each week each person got a bag of food that was called a "p-bag" inside was a ziploc bag of raisins, mixed nuts, 1 jar of peanut butter, 6 oranges, and apricots. If we didnt eat it all we couldnt keep it. Heres the funny thing my first day, I came in on a Monday, so the next day was the last day, I got my p-bag and I had a full jar of peanut butter and all the rest of the kids were mad. So after I turned in my food bag for the night, the staff opened my jar of peanut butter and scooped out half of it to make it "fair"

So Trails has 5 different stages of the program. The first is called Trailhead, then Waypoint, then Legend, then Barron which is the red book then navigator then guide. I never made it to navigator thank god. Honestly, and I'm not going to lie, I learned nothing during those 70 days, I learned after I left that my parents almost had to hire a lawyer to get me home because the therapist assigned to me, Todd Green would not let me leave. He said that I wasn't ready. I was there for a minor reason compared the rest were there for drug trafficking offenses, and he had the audacity to suggest to my parents that I not return home but instead be sent across the country to a therapeutic boarding school. He suggested that I was doing horribly to my parents. My parents were being told that I was doing horribly. He set me up while I was there to try and get me to relapse into my old behaviors so that he could tell my parents that I needed to be sent away. I will repeat this again.

I have PTSD still from this. I tried repressing it for a long time but I face it now still. I will never forget collecting sticks from the woods in the freezing cold rain and my hands almost frostbitten and if I stopped I would have gotten reported in the blue books that they kept a log in. Once again, I will repeat that I cheated my way thru the program because I didnt think I would ever get out. We had to bust a coal which means create a spark that turned into a fire using a bowdrill. This was really stupid because the whole program was centered around busting a coal or you couldnt go home. I signed several activities as complete myself so I could go home. This place is a mess do not send your child here. I promise you it will be a nightmare. Please feel free to contact me for further info

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)

John at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author John

I attended SNBR during the summer of freshman year (I'm 19 right now). I was there for 84 days or 12 weeks before I came home. Unlike some of the other negative reviews, I'm doing great. I just got accepted into a top university and my future is looking bright. So why the one star review? Well let me get into my rant. I was sent to SN mainly for my relationship with my parents. Yes, there was a little bit of drug use and drinking sprinkled in there, but nothing that I would classify as abnormal for somebody experimenting during high school. I was extremely honest with my parents with my drug use which caused much of the problems in our relationship that culminated with me being sent to SN. Anyway, I firmly believe that although our relationship wasn't perfect, at least it was honest. After being sent to SN (I didn't attend therapeutic boarding school after) I didn't tell my parents anything, and now our relationship is extremely fake. I feel like I can't talk to them about anything.

I don't think I had a problem when they sent me, however the program created one. I would find myself admitting to things that I never did just to appease the therapist or else she would continue to berate me for lying. I actually thought there was a mistake when they sent me, I thought they didn't know what they got me into, and they wouldn't let me call them. So I decided to run on the first night to contact them. However when I turned myself in my therapist diagnosed me with a slew of conditions. I thought of myself as a pretty happy kid before I was sent, but I started having suicidal thoughts during the program and they still continue to this day. I felt like I couldn't talk to the therapist about it because another kid in my group did this and was put on "safety watch"(not fun). Anyway, I spent most of my time there feeling terrible because showing any sign of weakness would be overanalyzed to the point where it would only exasperate what you were feeling.

I don't credit SN with how I turned out one bit. I still drink (I would smoke weed still, but I'm studying abroad in a country where the penalty is extremely harsh. In addition, my summer job has random drug tests). I even got into cocaine and messed around with various other hard drugs right after my release and I don't think I would have had I not attended SN.

The other kids in my group were not as lucky, however. The one thing I am grateful for is some of the friendships I formed there. I still keep in contact with 4 of the people from my group. Well 3 now because one died from an overdose. Anyway, one of them is doing well, but his situation was like mine, he was doing fine before he was sent. One is a drop out, and works minimum wage jobs. He was doing well in high school before he were sent, but somehow dropped out of college after graduating from his therapeutic boarding school. And one sells drugs.

Let me address therapeutic boarding school. If somehow you still want to send your child to SN or a program like it, therapeutic boarding school is not the way to go. They will always recommend your child attend one, regardless of their progress. Although SN doesn't directly pay the schools, they aren't impartial. If they send somebody to therapeutic boarding school, when your child flip out at the school because those schools are nuts and create problems that weren't initially there, the school sends them back to SN. Its a symbiotic relationship, where you're child will get the shaft 10/10 times.

So in conclusion, the only thing that really resulted from this program was a superficial relationship with my parents and depression that I'm just now starting to get over. This program creates more problems than it solves. I hope if you're a parent reading my review, you will take into account what I've said. I think I've been rational, I'm not some delinquent that is blaming the program for my problems. I wish you the best of luck getting the help you need from an alternative source.

Sources:

• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Roxanne at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Roxanne

I highly doubt that anyone researching programs will look here.. on Yelp, but I would be remiss not to warn parents and families at every turn of this abusive program. Second Nature makes fantastical claims of it's success rates, safety, and the qualifications of its staff but a little intensive research yields the truth: Second Nature programs are no more effective, and absolutely no different than programs like Utah's now-closed North Star Expeditions/Challenger Foundation. In fact, wilderness programs and boot camp-style "tough love" treatments have zero peer-reviewed studies which show they are effective. I am 100% fo' serious (research it!).

I am a former camper, and I ended up swept through the system, and away from home for a bit more than two years. Second Nature refused me my inhaler while hiking despite the fact that I have had documented athsma my entire life (claiming that although I take asthma medication, that I was "lying" about my condition). 2N also espouses isolation as a successful form of therapy (most campers will spend 6-7 days on "Solo," not a single person in sight, completely alone with no idea where staff is located). Please read any literature related to the recent Kelief Browder tragedy if you're curious about whether or not isolation/solitary confinement is an effect form of treatment. 2N Counselors (who hold no degrees, certification, and are often 20-somethings with sleeves or tattoos and no career aspirations) were often incredibly cruel, telling a sick campmate of mine that she was "disgusting," or calling young girls brats, fools, manipulative liars if they were sick, "idiots" and more. Worst of all, the program is recklessly-run and thus, dangerous. Our group was lost one afternoon with no water and no food, and 1 of my fellow campers fainted from dehydration.

1. Any program that monitors, censors, or severely limits the contact you have with your child raises a big fat red flag. Your child should be able to have unmonitored contact with you, in the case that they are being mistreated or are in danger. 2N censors written letters written by campers, and phonecalls (which are a privilege granted before one leaves) are always in the presence of 1 or more staff member.
2. A program that deals with frightened, sick, or abused children and teens as "manipulative, liars, entitled brats," and more is also a red flag. "Being immature," is not a reason to send a child to treatment (a child or teen, by definition, is "immature").
3. Programs that do not require staffers to have advanced degrees, and years of experience in the field= red flag. Qualified individuals should be a first-priority of any program which conducts it's "treatment" in conditions as extreme as 2N's.
4. Programs which ask you to waive your power of attorney over to their staff and ask that you not sue in the case of severe illness, major injury, or death= red flag.

Essentially, there are far too many horror stories but the bottom line here is: do your research. Now do more. The troubled teen industry is just that- an industry (not-so-fun-fact: supported by Romney's venture capitalist firm, Bain), and their first and foremost priority is to make money for themselves and their friends at therapeutic boarding schools, "escort services," and "educational consultants." Profiting off a family's vulnerability, confusion, fear, or even worse abusive and dysfunctional dynamic is morally reprehensible. Torturing teens doesn't make anything or anyone better, it makes things worse. In the best case scenario, you will be exorbitantly wealthy and able to send your child to a "therapeutic boarding school," a program which I can only describe as abuse-lite. Parents- you have options! Please, please, please arm yourself with facts/peer-reviewed and unbiased statistics and studies regarding troubled teen programs, and not sales propaganda. Best of luck to you!

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Allie at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Allie

I had a horrible experience in this program. The reason I decided to go is that I had gone through a traumatic experience and I started seeing a therapist who recommended it.

I was expecting to feel supported and get to know the staff and other people in the program. Instead I was treated like a criminal even though I've never done drugs or broken the law.

The staff you interact with on a daily basis are not trained therapists. They were often emotionally abusive. I was told that if I left the program early my parents wouldn't want me back. I have a very close relationship with my family and knew that was bull****. At the time I was on disability at my first job out of college and had moved back home.

We were often bullied and treated with disrespect. We hiked in over 100 degree weather most days . I was on a lot of anti anxieties bc I would get panic attacks which made me extremely tired. Sometimes when I needed a break from hiking (which btw i love hiking and used to do that most weekends before I was mentally I'll) I was told I was lazy and that I could not take a break.

During most of the program I was not allowed to talk to my parents. The therapist kept telling them I needed to stay longer. Btw they charge something like $5,000 per week which isn't cheap so they have a strong incentive to make you stay longer.

Finally in order to leave the program I would just flat out lie to the staff and say everything they wanted to hear. When I finally was allowed to go home my parents were very upset and I was very depressed for months. When I was finally able to communicate with my parents during the program I was terrified to tell them about what the program was like. The therapist was on the phone line and told me what I needed to tell my parents if I wanted to leave any time soon.

I'm happy to say that now I'm doing very well . I'm a full time grad student and work 20 hours a week at a university. If anyone wants to talk to me about my experience I welcome it and am more than happy to answer questions.

Of course this is only my experience and I know there are ppl who benefit from it. If your kid has serious behavioral problems or addicted to drugs they might benefit. If your kid is feeling depressed or anxious I wouldn't recommend it. It could make their problems worse.

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Conner at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go to the original author Conner

Don't buy into the positive reviews, this place is terrible. You are a monster if you go through with sending a child there. What this place does to people is comparable to rape or molestation in the shame and how it outcasts you permanently from ever really feeling back at home again. When you are out there, the staff have no problem letting you know this is a business and that they are using the willingness and trust of confused and frustrated parents with money, and feeding you into an expensive system where therapists and professionals convince the parents that their child needs expensive boarding school, or other "after-care" programs.

I was there summer of 2010 Group4 and I wish this never happened to me. Never have your child kidnapped people. That's what mine did. That's what this program may have you do, many in my group did. They had two huge Richmond gangster African American men burst into my room at 4am and drag me out of my room, threatening to handcuff me if I resisted at all. Others in my group had been beaten bloody by their "escort service" for resisting. Do not listen to the positive reviews. Maybe for a few this might work, but this has made my life hell in unimaginable ways. I'll never forgive my parents for what they put me through with this, and I wish I could organize a joint lawsuit and get together with former "clients" and sue the hell out of this place for the damage they have caused us. You are a monster if you send your kid here.

Don't buy into the recommendations of professionals. This is not how you should treat any sort of problem. You are sending your child to a marching internment camp where they could be eaten by a bear because someone else brought food in their pack to bed. Which there aren't tents here people. Just a boat tarp you string up with paracord, so rats run over you in the night, mosquitos swarm you in the hundreds, so loud their buzzing is what wakes you in the morning. Where if you don't make a fire with sticks successfully, you can't sit by the group fire or eat group food, forced to eat cold tuna envelopes while everyone else eats. Where they make you walk miles without water on "dehydration hikes". Where staff members taunt you that you aren't going home and that the therapist will convince your parents to send you to a boarding school.

I was just a kid with depression who smoked some weed. A psychologist and his recommended "educational consultant" convinced my parents to have me kidnapped the day after I finished my school year and spend my 16th birthday and the next 3 months in the custodial care of this abomination of a program. Please. I beg of you. For your child's sake don't go down this road if you care anything about having anywhat of a normal relationship with your child. I can answer more questions if you'd like.

Sources:

• (The original testimony on Yelp)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Open Sky Wilderness testimony

I attended Open Sky Wilderness Therapy for about 2 and a half months (or 10 and a half weeks) earlier this year. It has been a few months since I “graduated”. I did not go to an aftercare (or follow up program) and I am home now.

Before going, I had depression problems, drugs, being suicidal, all that good stuff. I was given the choice by my (new-ish) therapist after a serious drug incident to be hospitalized or to go to Open Sky. Going to a hospital did not seem great and I knew that he and my parents would get me over to Open Sky anyways. I reluctantly agreed to go with a sliver of faith that the program would help.

I arrived in the Durango airport, CO, and my father handed me to the program’s transporters (3 people in their mid-late 20s at most). I was driven to urgent care for a checkup, blood drawn, and a drug test. We went to a mexican place for lunch which was kinda nice. Then we went to “the ranch”: a dumpy shack they used for storage. There I handed over all my belongings and was handed my new set of belongings. It was standard stuff like rope, tarp, footwear, clothes, my weekly ration of unappetizing hippie food (the block of cheese was nice though), etc. We drove a long way over to the Utah desert in the middle of almost nowhere.

When I first arrived at the campsite and saw my group, I immediately knew I had made a mistake. Six boys, three guides, everyone covered in dust. Everything was dirty. The guides were young like the transporters, whereas I was hoping they’d be older and more experienced. I was on “gateway”, as all new patients are, where I sit separate from everyone with a guide and get a student mentor. I was placed on “high safety watch” because of being suicidal, which meant a guide was within arm’s reach at all times, and a bunch of other annoying safety precautions. At night, I had to sleep in the guides tent with a tarp over me and a guide at each side.

The next day we did a 6 mile day hike (no pack, just a small satchel of stuff) through the desert valley. The day went pretty standard, which I’ll outline in a bit. What was important about the second day was that I fully understood the program that day. One of the largest themes of the program was copious consequences and trivial rewards. Consequences were things like 20 minutes of silence for cursing, having the entire group walk to someone's shelter if they forgot something, or “drills” where if you didn’t do something in a slotted amount of time you’d have to do it over again until you made the time. Drills applied to things like washing cups, making shelters, putting on backpack, packing up, and other things. There wasn’t much reward other than you get to make a quesadilla (called cheesy torts. There was a weird vocabulary here) if you bow drill a fire (bust a fire), or bs like “sense of accomplishment” for things. This system is designed to basically shrink your world. I pledged myself that I would not become a dog to the consequence-reward system that day. It actually worked out that fire busting and hard skills came natural to me and I basically never got in trouble. That basically made it so I was immune to this part of the program.

There are essentially four steps to the program: the four “directions”. South>West>North>East. The South is learning hard skills like pointless knots and building construction packs (c-packs, a backpack from tarp and string). In the south you get your impact letter, usually a week or so into the program. That letter is your parents listing all the reasons for being sent to the program. You must read it out loud, in full, to the entire group. You then respond to the letter by mostly repeating it to your parents so they feel heard. The south lasted 5 weeks for me, which was within normal range.

The West you get a backpack. In the west you’re supposed to do deep self discovery. This is where most of your work gets done and it generally takes a similar or longer time than the south. One of the important things you do in the west is a letter of responsibility, or the impact letter response with more “i'm a screw up and I regret the past”. I spent the remainder up till the last few days in the west.

The north you get a headlamp, and it's all about leadership. Leadership, leadership, leadership. The east basically you are a master at the program and you are perfect woohoo. There's a book “the student pathway” where guides sign off various things like makes a fire or weekly things like was a positive influence. You’re supposed to get everything signed off to move. In practice, your guides or therapist just move you whenever and most people graduate in the north. I had about half the things signed before I moved to each direction. You graduate whenever your therapist and parents decide. 10-12 weeks is normal (weighted towards long stays).

The program actually moved to Colorado on my 3rd day, so I’m speaking from that point of view (setting only changes a few things anyways). The week looked as such: Wednesday is guide changes and food (and other needed items) distribution as well as “group meditation” (everyone comes together to do yoga and meditation and see the graduates leaving), thursday you leave for expedition, you get back to base camp monday, tuesday is chores, shower (pouring water from a watersack over you with pisspoor shampoo and conditioner), and meet with therapist. Tuesday you also send a letter in response to the letter you received from your parents the week before, and then you get a new letter from them. Therapist reads all letters (but not censors) by the way. About the food. Weekly personal food was 2 bags of peanuts with raisins (“gorp”), one bag of oats and raisins (“muesli”), one bag of straight oats for oatmeal (no sugar ever), a 1 lb block of cheese, and four pieces of any mix of oranges and apples. You get 1 hot meal per day, which is dinner. Dinner often came out to be a crappy tasting quinoa mush with vegetables or whatever. Students cooked the meals and sometimes the ingredients were good to make something like cheesy steak fries. My group had some good cooks but if you don’t have real creative people you’re out of luck for a not disgusting meal.

One week, I snuck a meal plan past a new guide which meant we had a meal of just mashed potatoes and other cooked tomatoes. On expedition you hike to a different random campsite each day. Usually there's a “layover day” where you stay at a campsite for 2 consecutive days which is actually really helpful. You hike carrying all your stuff you need for the expedition and some group items. The shortest day of hiking I’ve had was around an hour, and the longest was eight. It’s pretty variable, and also the longer hikes were used as a tool to draw out difficult emotions. It was nothing excessive, but there was one time during an 8 hour day where the last hour and a half a guy had run out of water, and since Open Sky has a strict no sharing of consumables policy for “health reasons” (you wear the same clothes a week straight so I’m calling bs), he just had to go on until we reached camp (I give this example not because I think of it as abusive, but to highlight another one of the stupid program rules).

The one of the main goals of the program is dealing with hard emotions and being vulnerable. You’re expected to be willing to share basically everything with everyone. They treat it like everyone in the group (and program, parents, therapist) has the right to know everything about you. Because you’re not willing to share past trauma or deep things you are ingenuine. For me personally, I am selective of who I share things with. It does not mean I can’t open up; I just choose not to. I also do not wear my emotions on my sleeve.

At Open Sky, god forbid you’re an introvert. They try to funnel you into this narrow definition of a good, functioning person: extroverted, super vulnerable, positive, and open. There’s this thing called “busting and ‘I feel’” where you call the entire group to stop everything and listen to you say “I feel ____ when __. I believe I feel this way because _. My request [goal] for myself is _. My request for the group is __.” You can do this for any emotion, and you can imagine the really trivial ones that are called sometimes. I hated doing it. Didn’t do anything for me and I hate being the center of attention. Basically my therapist’s entire treatment plan for me was around “busting I feels”. It held me back a great deal the fact that I hated doing it. I’d tell my therapist that it was pointless and not helping (because I actually did give it some effort). To this she’d only have my weekly goals to do more of them.

Another main goal of the program was relationship building with parents. It was evident a few weeks in that you’re not there for you; you’re there for your parents. Your parentals decide how long you stay. They decide where you go next. This power dynamic of non-adult patients basically having their legal rights in the hands of their parents ends up being the child conforms to the parents’ demands. Now to talk about the guides as a whole. I actually really liked the guides. They can be characterized generally as young, not wealthy hippies, who truly believe that they are making a positive change in the world through working for this program. They were of really strong character, which also meant they enforced the stupidly strict rules of the program. Their only qualifications really are that they are good people and can hike.

By each kid’s end of Open Sky journey, they generally appear to be very much improved and have high hopes going out, which affirms the guides work. The guides generally don’t contact people after they leave. I don’t hold anything against the guides, because I built some decent relationships with them and they are just trying to make ends meet and do meaningful work. Bonus: they mostly live out of their cars.

My therapist is another story however. As outlined earlier, she was mostly ineffective in helping me. In regards to the aforementioned safety watch, she moved me to medium safety watch (guide gotta be within 10 feet, but no other restrictions really) after a week and a half and kept me there for another 2 weeks. She used it less as a safety precaution and more of leverage to get people to be vulnerable. The only thing she knew of how each week went was what the guides told her. I’d get 1 hour long session with her a week. That's it. So essentially I only got one hour of actual professional therapy per week. In session we’d talk about how my week was, I’d say some emotions I felt about things that might aswell be drawn from hat, and I’d get my weekly goals (the sharing I feels goals).

After I left the program, my parents told me that she had been pressing my parents to keep me in longer and to send me to “aftercare”. The therapists relentlessly pressure parents to do this to milk as much money as possible. I never got to like her throughout the program, just hate her slightly less. My therapist was probably like other therapists: second rate therapists who went to low tier colleges for their degrees (one I knew of didn’t even have one). I also got 2 phone calls during my time there, one in the middle and one at the end. The one at the end was just about going home logistics so it hardly counted. You sit with your therapist during those calls, which is how they keep you from asking to be taken home.

Few people ever get to go home after the program. I actually went home (after a trip to China hehe) because I was a) turning 18 a week after I left and I sure as hell not going to aftercare and b) because my parents wanted me home and I had very little history with any sort of therapy. I only knew 2 other people who went home, and that was because their families simply did not have the money. Towards the end of the stay you meet an educational consultant, and they tell your parents where to send you based on probably an hour long meeting. Everyone thinks they’re going home right up until it’s decided where they’re going. Everyone thinks they’re special and their parents are not like the other ones who send their kids away. I was the only one for whom that belief was true.

A few months later, I find myself worse off than before. I have to maintain a fake relationship with mother. My therapist (who sent me to open sky) is a proxy therapist just to keep school happy. I have no support, no friends, nothing. If you’re a parent thinking of sending your child there, don’t. You’ll end up paying $50k to make your kid fit your ideals. It won’t make them better. If you’re someone who’s parents want to send you to somewhere like Open Sky or even any therapeutic institution, your parents can have you snatched from your room whenever they want. I can’t give any other advice than to do everything you can in order to stay out of this system. I was really lucky to only spend 2 and a half months in the troubled teen industry. I can almost guarantee you won’t be as lucky as me.

Source:

• Open Sky Full Testimony (Reddit Troubled Teen meesage board)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 78. Open Sky Wilderness Therapy (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Phoenix Outdoor wilderness program testimony

This testimony was found on Yelp.com. All rights go to the original author

I was sent here about 10 years ago and i absolutely fucking HATED it!!!

I dont understand how these places are still open and how parents still send there children there. My best friend died in a wilderness program just like this in CO and his parents couldnt sue cause of the waivers these places have you sign incase your child dies and it was 1000% the programs fault that he ended up dead.

At Phoenix they did not care about the safety of the adolescence in this program. I ended up getting hypothermia multiple times the first time i was sent there due to lack of staff awareness and saw several other instances where peers in my group were injured with differed levels of severity including broken legs and other body parts. honestly most of the staff were just awful and i dont understand for the life of me how these places are still running.

IF YOU SEND YOUR CHILD TO THESE PLACES GOOD LUCK IF THEY EVER FULLY FORGIVE YOU.

Sources:

• The original testimony (Yelp.com)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• Entry about the program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Joel at Ascent Wilderness program

This testimony about a now defunct program was found as a comment to another blog. All rights goes to the original author known as Joel

I was sent to Ascent at age 17 in 2000 and it was the worst 6 weeks of my life. Personal belongings including clothes were confiscated during the initial strip search. They give you two sets of clothes, a sleeping bag, and some boots that you are to carry in a large bag everywhere you go. We slept in crowded teepees using our bag as pillows and every morning they would blow a whistle signaling its time to get up. We had 5 minutes to get dressed (we were forced to strip down to underwear to sleep in) roll up your sleeping bag and belongings and be outside in line at attention. If one person didn’t make it, everyone had to unpack everything in the teepee, strip back down to your underwear and get in your sleeping bag, and start over. This would sometimes go on until lunch time.

Daily activities included hauling logs in the forest, chopping and stacking wood, boot camp style physical training sessions, getting yelled at, and “group therapy” they called raps. I’ve been to therapy and this was NOT therapy. 2 weeks of the program was spent “on course” hiking an camping in the mountains with a small group and a couple counselors. I had a medical issue come up (likely from the stress) that kept me from participating in course (Doctor ordered). Their solution… return me to base camp and put me in a private tent secluded a few hundred yards back in the woods where I was NOT to emerge. Meals were brought to me and I literally didn’t leave the tent (except to use the bathroom) until my group was done with the 2 week hike.

Letters written home were screened and thrown in the trash if the staff didn’t like them. If you wanted a letter to be sent, you would have to leave out the part about the abusive practices of the staff and pretend like everything was peachy.

When you finish the program, they recommend you to attend the company’s boarding school if they don’t see you to be fit to return home. I always hustled, stayed focused, said yes sir / yes ma’am, and did what I was told to the best of my ability. Surprise surprise, they recommended I go to the CEDU (company that runs the place) boarding school that helps fund this god awful teen prison. I was one of the few lucky ones and my parents decided to bring me home. I am so glad to hear that CEDU was shut down in 2005. No kid should be subjected to that kind of place.

Sources:

• The blog-entry with the original testimony in the comments (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)
• Factsheet about the wilderness program (Fornits Wiki)

Wilderness therapy and the impact on parent / child relationship

This testimony was found on Reddit and tell how the relationship between parents and child change after a stay in a wilderness program.

When I was seventeen I my parents had me kidnapped and sent off to a rehabilitation center in Utah until I turned 18. (All for smoking pot but that is besides the point).

It was at that point I truly learned that life is not fair and it never will be. Shit happens for no reason and sometimes there is nothing you can do and sometimes things don't get better. The only thing you can do is deal with it and try to continue with your life.

I think it is an important lesson for people to learn. So many people seem concerned with "one day, things will be better and change". Well guess what, a lot of things don't change and some things just flat out suck so get used to it welcome to adult hood!

I mean, I wouldn't say it ruined my life. It sure didn't help in any ways that I think my parents intended... And to this day I definitely am confused and a little resentful and distrustful of my parents. But I can say I think they believed they were doing the right thing, or at least did. Also, this happened about 10 years ago and in retrospect I can at least appreciate it in the way that why else would I ever hang out in the high deserts of Utah. I can say there was some cool natural beauty there.

The biggest irony is I think my parents did it because they thought I was going to drop out of high school. The fact was I was on track to graduate early, but when I went to Utah they had a different curriculum and I ended up being there / in high school longer than I would have been had I been at home.

Source:
Thread where the testimony was found (Reddit - AskReddit)

Considering wilderness for your child (Video)

This video was found on youtube. A lot of advice from a former participant in several wilderness programs.

An uncles testimony about his nieces stay at Redcliff Ascent

This testimony was found on Reddit. All rights goes to the original author

During a nightmare divorce, my former brother and sister-in-law, signed off on having their basically well behaved, good student 13 and 15 year old daughters 'escorted' to Redcliff Ascent, a Wilderness Boot Camp in Utah. They had their virginity tested, were given 35 pound backpacks and set to walk in the Utah desert with a bunch of other kids, shoes taken away at night so they couldn't run away, peeing or pooping behind a bush and yelling out a number during the process, so they wouldn't run away, only unsweetened oatmeal for a week with a spoon of sugar as a treat on Sunday. Left alone in the desert to start a fire etc by themselves as part of achieving points.

It was because my fundie brother couldn't handle his daughters wearing short dresses, smoking cigarettes, being overweight and talking back to him on occasion (after he abandoned them for years with their drug addicted mother).

There were kids there who were anorexic, bulimic, overweight, depressed, bi-polar, mixed with some who were serious drug addicts, drug dealers, young sociopaths/rapists, kids dealing with a destructive personality disorders.

72 days they walked in the desert, my 13 year old niece losing 70 pounds.

On that 72nd day, a man turned up in the desert and told the kids that if they wanted a lovely hot shower, 3 meals a day, all they had to do was to agree to go to Hyde School. So the kids agreed.

Hyde was basically a mental institution and the kids were self-committing, giving permission to be committed without their knowing this. The law is that a person has to self commit to go to one of these mental institution 'schools', unless proven to be a danger to the community, when the committing can be done by the police. In the boot camp, if the kid did not say yes, they were left in the boot camp in the desert.

The fees were $3000 for Friendly Hands Escort Service to take them in handcuffs to the plane, $30, 000 per child, per month. Hyde School cost $25, 000 a year.

I visited my niece, both were put in two separate Hyde Schools, one in Maine and one in Connecticut. There were all kinds of abuses going on in the schools, teachers sleeping with students, teachers smoking pot with the students. Mostly it was the parents who were the mess and the kids trying to survive dysfunctional parents, as my nieces were.

Anyway, it basically ruined both their lives in terrible ways. I don't think they have recovered from that experience yet.

Redcliff Ascent was also the center of the first version of the reality show Brat Camp. In year 1999 there was a riot.

Sources:

• Excellent documentary about judges being paid to sentence kids to incarceration, entitled Kids for Cash, now on Netflix. The original testimony on Reddit
• Factsheet about the wilderness program (Fornits Wiki)
• Truth or Consequences (Outside Magazine Online - about the riot)

patchespal at SUWS

Our google alert setup prompted us to find this testimony on another blog. All rights goes to the original author known as Patchespal

I was there in 84. It was hell. I was determined to survive and keep my sense of self intact. I was called a freak and was treated with disrespect and disdain. And here’s a funny thing I have yet to read about SUWS Idaho anywhere: My counselors were all Mormons, and from what little I can remember about them I remember having their religion and politics pushed on me. Luckily for me I decided early on that they were of limited intelligence and insignificant, which benefited me as they had no influence on me personally. After arguing and rebelling initially, I was told they could keep me there as long as they wanted and what do you know- by morning I was a whole new girl. Angelic, loved Jesus, feminine, etc. So fortunate I happened to be blessed with natural acting ability.

They wrote gushing letters home to my parents about my big turnaround. I was a whole new child! I would no longer be the embarrassment. All my cool clothes were thrown out. All my old punk rock flyers (collector’s items now, I’m sure) were tossed. They couldn’t wait to meet their new daughter. Unfortunately for them I came back with a stronger sense of self, yet even more determination to stand my ground, and angry resentment that they were willing to trade me in for a less eccentric model.

In the meantime, we were given no water, hiked up to 17 miles in a single day due lack of suitable water which we weren’t’ allowed to carry – I threw up blood from my throat drying out, we drank water green and chunky with cow feces (with an iodine tablet mixed in,) had to strain water through filthy bandanas to avoid tiny poisonous leeches, etc. I remember sitting in a stream for hours after witnessing one of my co-hikers innocently napping while clusters of horse-flies congregated in her buttcrack. I remember our last stretch- a 3 day solo – being so weak I could only lay by a stream wrapped in a blanket, hearing one of my co-hikers screaming “We’re all gonna die!!!” in the far distance. Poor kid, he was the only one gung-ho in the beginning, but was a little meek and nerdly, and was scapegoated and ridiculed by everyone – even more so than myself. I still worry about that guy – he really cracked. His name was Greg and I didn’t realize that was the kid’s name that passed. I truly hope his parents didn’t send him back. :(


Sources:

• The original testimony
• SUWS on the Fornits Wiki database

April month focus: Escaping a wilderness program

Here are some advises based on an article in the magazine Cracked for teenagers who face a difficult time at home which could land them in a wilderness program:

Rule 1: Plan ahead

If you are at danger of being banished to a wilderness program, read this months version of Cracked. You need to do the first part of the job yourself. You have to make it to a populated area. Then you have to relate on friends to send you money so you can go home.

Rule 2: Keep cool

When you arrive home, keep cool. Remain calm in all situations. Avoid discussions which can make the authorities spot you. Millions of immigrants live in your country avoiding the authorities every day. They do this by remaining calm. If the boss at your work is unfair bend your head down and continue to work. If someone tries to provoke you, walk away.

Rule 3: Be safe in your bed

The people who sells the wilderness programs know that a shock will break you down faster. That is why they recommend a transport firm to collect you in your bed. So in order to avoid being trown in handcuffs and shackles with a bag over your head you need to think if your bedroom is safe enough for you. You could hide a weapon in your room but if has to be under your pillow because the transporters will problerly force you to remain in your bed while you dress the clothes your parents and the transport firm has selected for you so you cannot go to a drawer and get a knife. Please notice that a violent defense could sent you to a juvenile detention but a juvenile detention will not starve you and put you close to death. Secondly it will secure you access to the social services and a lawyer.

Another method could be to smuggle a piece of wood in which you could use to block the door allowing you time to get out of the window and phone friends asking them to call the social services and the police telling them that there are armed men trying to force their way into your house, secondly that you are afraid of being victim of sexual assault. Being placed in foster care or in a group home to protect you from invented accusations is better than a wilderness program and a later boarding school.

Rule 4: Rebel planned!

If you are so unlucky that you land in a wilderness program, then watch and observe before you make your escape. Learn just enough to survive. Do not escape within the first week because then the escape attempt could be shortlived. You need to recognise landmarks. You need to know how to find water. You need to know if there are something you can live off in the wilderness if the escape has to last several days before you come to a populated area, but it is important that you try to escape once you are in the wilderness program if you want to avoid losing your entire childhood to a boarding school where you will learn nothing but being a robot graduating with a piece of paper no college or university will give you credits for.




Sources:

• 5 Realities Of The Rehab Camp My Parents Paid To Kidnap Me (Cracked)
• Cracked has done it again! (Reddit)

A Manual for Fire and Stories by Hannah Straton (HIPPOCAMPUS MAGAZINE)

This testimony was found in the HIPPOCAMPUS MAGAZINE. All rights belongs to the author Hannah Straton and the HIPPOCAMPUS MAGAZINE

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WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?
Flames rejoice around the kindling, their elegantly dangerous silhouettes leaping from stick to log and back to stick again, bright against the dark of the night.



GETTING STARTED
On the first day, they give me the wilderness therapy packet. The packet says “Fire Phase.” It holds the secrets of the program–it is the way out. To build fire is to succeed.

Bow drilling: traditional Native American technique to begin a fire



First, find the tools to make the bow drilling set. You may find them only in nature. In the Appalachian Mountains there are trees and rocks and streams, all at your fingertips. You may use all of them. You have to use all of them.

Second, practice. Hours every day. The callouses on your hands should ache for the feel of the bow, your fingernails dirty with black punk- the stage before embers appear, your mind dull from the monotony.

Third, make fire.

Gather tools, follow directions, practice diligently, and achieve the goals they set for you.

Fire is light. Fire is warmth. Fire is the way home.



TOOL: TOP ROCK
The top rock is typically found in a stream. It is a smooth, round, black rock that fits nicely in a palm. But the rock is hard, it is stubborn; it is not ready for use.

Quartz is a hard crystal, used to carve a depression on the underside of the top rock, so the spindle can be held in place, so that the bow can twist it and create friction on the fireboard to make an ember.

The top rock still fits in a palm, it looks the same on the outside, but the underside has been changed. Now the top rock is useful.



TOOL: SPINDLE
The spindle is initiator of movement- it twists in the string to rub against the fireboard, making the black punk. These small, angry circles of the spindle can be the beginnings of huge fires.

The whorl of Bipolar descended on me, leaving me twisting in place against the friction. The auditory hallucination named Gordie lives inside my head, always commanding self-harm and always demanding to be heard.

By now Gordie is a familiar voice. I started to hear him months ago. He is a man who wears a white suit with a white top hat; he lives in my head and tells me what to do.



Run into the road, Hannah.

Jump out the window, Hannah.

Take those pills, Hannah.



Sometimes I can ignore him. Sometimes I can’t.

In the end of August, just weeks before school was supposed to start, it became apparent that I couldn’t go back—I had episodes daily. As the days before school trickled slowly by, my parents realized I was even too sick to live at home. It wasn’t safe. They didn’t know what to do, so they turned to the advice of the people who were supposed to know better: the “experts.”



PLACE: Wilderness Program
Wilderness Programs, like the one I went to, claim to help parents take their troubled teen from “bad kid” to “productive member of society.”

But I got there by mistake.

My psychiatrist didn’t believe the negative drug tests. He hadn’t ruled out “attention-seeking behavior.” I saw dancing spiders with bowties on my desk in English class. I hurtled through manic jumping jacks and sobs shook my body as I rocked back and forth on the floor of the guidance office.

My symptoms did not have boxes to check on the bipolar differential diagnosis sheet. He told my parents this wilderness program would help me. They believed him.

Here, there are no papers to diagnosis me based on the boxes I checked. There are only packets about the program– packets that tell me what I did wrong, what I did to get myself here. And packets that tell me how to make fire.



TOOL: BOW
A bow consists a piece of wood and a string. You must make both the string and the bow from products found in nature. The wood for the bow is usually taken from a branch of pine. It must be carved carefully into a curve and stripped of its bark. You must then tie a string to either end and pull it taut in order to trap the spindle. The spindle will resist, the spinning will test the string. Your string must be strong and tight. Make it from the nearby vines, but they are thin so you must combine them with slowly, and with precision. You may begin on the fourth day.

The first three days are an observation period. I am to be separated from the other girls, to watch and learn, but most importantly; I am to stay within eyesight at all times.

The fourth day, I walk into the forest to search for wood to make a bow. Distanced from the camp, I call my name every three to five seconds to prove I have not run away. I take my bow from a branch of a drooping tree. Near the fire, the staffers oversee as I whittle down the bow to its naked arc.

Upon admission, we are given silver and brown tarps. When we arrive at a campsite, we put it up. When we leave, we take it down. We carry it on our backs when we walk. For six weeks, this tarp is our home. However, once we no longer need our home– after we have moved to “transition”– the tarp is reused; the next girl to enter the program gets that tarp.

I found my string in the tarp, expertly twined string attached to the metal holes on the ends of the tarp. The girl before me had left her string for the next person to use. She knew the difficulty of creating and the frustration of failing. This act of kindness is strictly against the rules. I smile up at the sky and tie the string to my bow.

At sunset, for the last moments of light, we line up for medication and mouth checks (to ensure we have not cheeked our pills) so that by the time darkness sets in, we lie in sedated sleep under our tarps. My bow drilling set is not finished, not yet ready for use. I will start again tomorrow: a new day, the same task.

Bow drilling is a monotonous chore. The bow must go back and forth hundreds of times before anything happens. A talented bow-driller can “bust” (create an ember) in the time it takes to sing the alphabet twice; no one here is a talented bow-driller. We move the bow back and forth for hours, never creating an ember. Sometimes the spindle falls out of place, sometimes a foot slips and the bow falls, sometimes it just doesn’t go fast enough or hard enough to make enough black punk to make an ember. The push and pull is exhausting. We’re too tired to fight.



TOOL: FIREBOARD
The friction between the spindle and the fireboard make black punk and enough black punk makes an ember. But in order for this to happen, the fireboard has to be soft enough for the spindle to dig deep, to make that black punk. It is best to make the fireboard out of a popular tree. Popular trees are the most yielding of the woods and the most abundant in the southeastern mountains. Take the little knowledge they give you, it won’t happen often. Accept it when it does. Use the popular board.

My fireboard has many black holes in it. When one hole gets too deep, the spindle can no longer spin; I move over, start a new hole, and start accumulating new black punk. My black holes are impressive. They give me status– I’ve been here a long time.



TOOL: NEST
The nest is an essential part of the bow-drilling process. Once you have a small ember, you must tilt the fireboard downward so that the ember falls out and lands gently in the nest of entangled twigs and grass. Carefully, hold the nest above your head and blow gently until it catches. You have to wait until the fire has engulfed enough of the nest so it can survive in the wood pile, but must drop it before it burns you.

By my eighth week, I know the fastest way to build shelters and the best locations for latrines. I had completed all the therapy assignments; I wrote about my faults, how my parents treated me, what I wanted out of life. I finally gathered the courage to ask the therapist when I would go to my emotional-growth boarding school.



“Hannah, we both know you want attention. You won’t leave until you admit you’re making it up.”

Gordie screams. I cry. She nods.



Tears drip down my face as I realize all that is being taken from me. This program was supposed to be a temporary situation on my way to a boarding school. The brochure said six weeks. On the glossy front page, there were smiling kids around campfires. But really, nothing has been taken away from me because it was never going to be a six-week program on my way to an emotional-growth boarding school. I find out later that the emotional-growth boarding school doesn’t take kids on medication.

Nothing has been taken away, just been illuminated. Now I know what they really think, what they really want. No more worksheets or therapy sessions. I know– I can deny who I am and they will let me leave. Or I can be who I am and they will keep me here indefinitely. Gordie tells me he knew this would happen, that I deserve it. For once, I don’t believe him. I know what I did to get here and I know I am not the one who needs to take accountability for this placement.

The therapist smiles down at me as she stands up. She tells me that today’s session is over. She tells me that she’ll see where I am next week and re-evaluate then. I watch her walk away, leaving me sitting under the looming trees. Her car sputters and starts, driving on the nearby dirt road, leaving a cloud of dust in its place.

I run away that night after the fire dies down. The dying embers and charred sticks wait for morning, when someone else will blacken their hands picking up the remains of my decision.

In the darkness, I make my escape.

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If your child suffers from illness please consult hospitals and doctors. Make a real evaluation instead of paying an educational consultant which lives of money paid by parents AND referral fees from wilderness programs and boarding schools.

Source:
A Manual for Fire and Stories by Hannah Straton