Despite the lawsuits and viral horror stories, wilderness therapy is still a booming industry in the U.S. today. Have you or a family member ever experienced it?
‘I was so desperate’ Most parents don't send their kids off to wilderness therapy at the first sign of a problem. Rather, kids wind up there after their parents feel they've exhausted all other options.
Katelyn's mother, Tessie Schmisseur, learned about wilderness therapy through a friend-recommended educational consultant, whom she describes as a"very demanding, pushy ... high-pressure salesperson." "I was just an anxious mom. I loved to death," she says."I was so desperate and desperately wanting to save my child from herself." Katelyn had begun drinking and sneaking out, and that coupled with her bulimia had her parents panicked. They'd tried every punishment they could think of, including removing her door and boarding up her windows. The final option? A wilderness therapy program called Evoke Entrada that the consultant highly recommended.COURTESY OF KATELYN HARUKO SCHMISSEUR Tessie was resistant. The consultant often rubbed her the wrong way, but she convinced the Schmisseurs the program was for the best. And in three days, Katelyn was shipped off to Utah, clueless about where she was going. "We had to pretend that everything was OK," Tessie says, choking up. "The education consultant all along was like, 'It's fine, I've worked with . You need to listen to me' ... And so we did. We did what we were told because we wanted the best for her. And in hindsight, it was the very wrong decision." Hyde, the former staffer from a different program, says he remembers a 16-year-old girl who was at the top of her class and even held a manager position at her job."The mom had died and the dad sent her away, because he found out that she ," he recalls. "The kid got sent away as this form of punishment. ... That's not therapeutic, right? You can't help people out while you're punishing them.""My experience is that the mass majority of everybody is having wonderful experiences," the spokesperson said,"but those who have wonderful experiences and speak out about it get bullied and shut down.”Courtesy of Kyra FrankowskiWith a plastic tarp for shelter, Kyra and her fellow campers battled freezing temperatures in Utah in January 2014, layering their few items of clothing to keep warm.This was one of several"consequences," or punishments, campers experienced if someone disobeyed a rule, she says. Unnecessary physical exertion was another, such as pack drills, where they were given under a minute to unpack and repack their bags. And it had to be done correctly, with the proper organization, or it would be repeated until it could be done within the time limit.COURTESY OF KYRA FRANKOWSKI One night, her shoes were taken from her and she was forcibly wrapped in her tarp, she says. A staff member held down one side to prevent her from escaping, leaving an opening near her head to allow her to breathe. She says she stayed like that all night, unable to move. As a sexual assault survivor, Kyra was particularly distressed that a male staffer was sleeping next to her, holding her in place. "They'd wrap it so tight I could barely move my hands."Every other week, Kyra and her peers would take makeshift sponge baths, dipping a bandana into a bucket of water and dabbing it with a bit of soap. "At the end you would just rinse yourself off with whatever water was left over. It was very difficult to get properly cleaned." During the coldest months, she says, campers would forgo these baths altogether in favor of staying warm.Tessie cried every day while her daughter was away, but Katelyn never knew. "They would tell us ... 'You may not tell her that you love her. You may not tell her that you miss her; you may not give her any hope of coming home." And, Tessie says, the staff would dismiss and discredit anything negative about the program that was conveyed in Katelyn's letters, telling her family:"She is going to say whatever because, of course, she wants to come home.""We weren't aware of all this," Tessie says through tears."I would not wish this on anybody, knowing what I know now. I always tell her she's the most courageous person I know.""You couldn't complain. It really broke me down to the smallest I've ever been in my life. It was terrifying. ... I remember just feeling like I had no voice. I had nothing." A spokesperson for Evoke said students' letters are not monitored, but parents may send letters to the therapist for feedback. Evoke is committed to the"emotional and physical safety" of participants, the spokesperson said, adding the program encourages anyone with complaints of abuse or mistreatment to report their concerns."We support healing and growth and that can only happen in the context of emotional safety." The spokesperson added,"Anybody who experiences abuse from any program should have their voice heard. Any program that practices punitive, shameful, controlling, coercive, intimidating behavior should be reprimanded, if not shut down."A nature enthusiast, Hyde, 35, had years of experience with recreational outdoor activities. So when the pandemic left him unemployed, he got a job as a"wilderness field instructor" at Trails Carolina.while running away from the same program. But Hyde assumed the claims of mistreatment he had heard whispers about had improved., the program's groups are led by"experienced, licensed therapists who specialize in working with youth who fit their group’s profile." "There was a couple of weeks there where the licensed therapist wouldn't even show up to that group, and it was her assistant who didn't even have credentials," he says. "If you're paying that much money, I would think you'd be getting therapy multiple times a week."23¢ per week.
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