Wilderness Therapy Programs for Troubled Teenage Girls from the Bellingham, WA Area

Wilderness therapy programs for troubled girls have quickly become among the most popularly rising treatment being used by parents from Bellingham, WA. 

Wilderness therapy, as its title suggests, is a residential treatment program that exclusively operates outdoors. Most wilderness programs are completely isolated from civilization and often located tens, if not hundreds of miles from the nearest city or town.  

Wilderness Therapy is Often Used When Other Treatments Fail 

Wilderness therapy is unique, not only in its environment but also in its ability to treat troubled teens from Bellingham, WA. In addition, outdoor-based programs have proven to be especially effective in treating troubled teens who have undergone previous treatment programs that failed to rehabilitate their mental and behavioral issues.  In other words, wilderness therapy succeeds where other programs fail. 

As to why the wilderness is so effective in rehabilitating out-of-control teenage girls from Bellingham, WA, its environment and process are unique qualities that make it dynamic.

Outdoor-based behavioral modification uses the natural environment to remove teens from their comfort zone its innate negative attachments. 

What’s more, despite being removed from anything resembling familiarity, teenage campers from Bellingham, WA and elsewhere can maintain a sense of freedom that the vast wild landscape provides them. This simultaneous removal of negative influences and relocation to a beautifully freeing and wildly vast environment provides teens with a naturally healing therapeutic setting that traditional lock-down facilities cannot. 

Thanks to Negligent Programs in The Past, The Industry Has Been Viewed As Dangerous and Harmful by Critics

Since its emergence in the field of residential therapy for troubled teens in the 1980’s, wilderness-oriented programs have proven that, if poorly ran and understaffed, it can be hazardous. In some cases, even fatally so.

In fact, thanks to a few poorly staffed and criminally mismanaged programs in the late '90s and early '00s, three teens have died due to mistreatment, negligence, and abuse.

The parents of the deceased teens subsequently sued the guilty wilderness programs, claiming they had been “duped and swindled” by the program’s owners. Unfortunately, due to their litigation, several programs lost their state licenses or decided to shut down before they could be litigated.

That said, thanks to congressional oversight, systemic change, and a rise of new, well-funded, and properly staffed wilderness programs, the industry is still back stronger than ever.