I went here back in 2021 and let me just say, more trauma than before. If you want your child to come out with more trauma and emotional distress, go for it. But first, let me tell you, I came out with more scars then when I went in. A lot of the girls in OR4 were neglected and abused mentally. Including me. I fractured one of my hips before wilderness. Once you do it, you will never forget the pain and will know when it happens again. We were hiking and I got that exact pain on the side of the hip that I had NOT fractured. The shoot of pain down the leg and resonating in the hip. I told them and they refused to take me to the urgent care. I came out with worse hip and knee pain when I am known to have issues with those things. I was underweight as well. I have preexisting heart issues and they didn't take that into account. All of my joints are very loose so it did not go well for me. I gained more back issues and need to get my back adjusted regularly. In my residential after wilderness, my parents had to spend hundreds of dollars for PT, the hospital for x-rays and doctors office visits alone. They did not care for us when they should have. That was the point of them being there. But, they were only there for the MONEY. Do NOT send your child here. You will strongly regret it. It's a horrible place. I liked living in the woods and camping but this program made everything horrible. read more

The program was the most amazing experience of my life! My therapist was an incredible. Staff were super nice and I was able to cultivate a safe circle of trust with everybody there. Only downside was the staff made us drink Lorax milk. It was after I went to the bathroom, I ended up coming back with a glass of Lorax milk. read more

Please do NOT send your child here!!! While wilderness therapy has the potential to help people who need to be removed from harmful environments (ex substance abuse), the cons of a program like this outweigh the pros. While at deschutes, I developed abandonment issues and a deeper mistrust of adults; all the while sustaining/worsening my depression. This leads me to one of my biggest problems with the program: the staff. During my stay, I was constantly told to "check in" with staff about my mental health issues. They were encouraged to ask questions and even give us advice, which is absurd considering that most of them have absolutely no qualification to discuss my mental health issues with me. The ONLY person who should give me advice is a trained mental health professional. As far as i know, the only baseline requirements to be a staff at deschutes are to have a therapeutic background or an interest in the outdoors/backpacking. What gives a random person who likes to camp the right to share their opinions about my trauma? At my other residential, the staff were explicitly told not to give us advice, as it was inappropriate. While this is just my personal experience, a large portion of the staff spoke condescendingly to my peers and i. they mistreated us in other ways as well. One time, someone didn't get out of their tent in the morning, so the staff took out the poles and collapsed it on them (,which they were not supposed to do). The inherent power dynamic made me feel weak and less than human, as the staff could essentially say/do whatever they wanted to us without consequence. Therapy-wise, students meet with a therapist for about one or two hours a week, and engage in family therapy when seen fit. I have been to multiple programs and years of therapy, and I can say that from my experience, the therapy was okay. For me, I focused on diving into my past and dissecting events that were traumatizing for me. While this was helpful, I would have liked to focus on ways I can move on and cope with triggers in my daily life. This brings me to my next point - this in no way resembles real life. Please take a moment to think about the environment you are putting your kid into: they are in the woods, secluded from all of society, out of touch with any events that are not "relevant to their process", and are asked to continue to do heavy therapeutic work in extreme temperatures. I was in this program during the winter, and I sustained "cold injuries" and nerve damage on several parts of my body. We were not provided with real winter coats, and instead had a puffer jacket and raincoat to layer over top of our base layers. When we complained about not having adequate clothing, we were told that "we have what we need to survive". First of all, I never signed up for this. Secondly, how do you expect me to give my all during therapy and thoroughly complete my therapeutic assignments while being in such a high level of physical and emotional distress? I was uncomfortable everyday, and even if it were summer, I believe it is cruel to put a literal CHILD in such an extreme situation. I could go on and on about why you should not send someone here if they have not done their research and consented to go, but that would take up too much of my time, and I've already wasted so much of it spent in this program. DWT has only served to traumatize me further. This program was the worst experience of my life. No child should ever be put in a situation like this. Can this program be effective for some people? yes. can this program traumatize others? also yes. The risk of not knowing whether or not wilderness therapy will help or hurt your child is NOT worth it. your child can achieve the same/better results at another treatment center while in an environment that seeks to keep normality and treats their students with respect. read more

New Vision Wilderness saved my son's life. Prior to New Vision Wilderness, my son went from being a bright, happy and engaged child to a young man who was failing in school, creating chaos in our home, and isolating himself from people who he cared about and who care about him. His depressed and angry behavior was impacting our whole family and I was so scared about his future and at a loss about how I could help him. When he began to harm himself, I knew that it was time that I act assertively to find him the help he clearly needed. I did not wait. I called New Vision Wilderness and enrolled him immediately. This was the best, the most important, and the hardest decision I have ever made as a parent. But, it was absolutely the right one for my son. The quality of the therapists and guides at New Vision Wilderness is excellent and my son went from being in serious crisis to being able to participate in a healthy, productive, and happy life. I received significant training so that I could support him in sustaining his progress once he returned home. I am filled with gratitude for New Vision Wilderness, and recommend them wholeheartedly. read more

Caring and highly skilled therapists and staff. Completely transformative for my son and our entire family. We are all so grateful for New Vision. read more

Amazing program that makes a serious positive difference in lives! This is a very professional program that gives its participants great insight and tools to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. read more

Do NOT send your child here if you care about them at all!!!!!!!! I went here myself in 2021 and experienced a horrible spreading wildfire while living outside. They left us in the wildfire all night to inhale the smoke and only gave us a KN95 mask (which made me feel like I was going to suffocate even more) and made us pack up all of camp to jam 10-12 girls into a tiny studio apartment!!! The staff do not help or care about the kids. We couldn't even see our hands in front of us from the smoke and I'm sure I have lung damage. Under qualified doesn't even begin to describe the staff , they are all college kids who have no idea what they're doing !!! Frankly, I think all wilderness therapy programs are unethical and horrible in and of itself but this one was one of the worst i've seen or heard of. You are not allowed to touch anyone and when I finally got a hug from my family I felt weird and have never been the same with physical touch since. When we did touch they put us on isolation for quite literally two weeks. I did not have a conversation with anyone besides staff giving me a cup of nasty food for 2 weeks. They will have you literally hiking 10-15 miles a day in the forest. I had gashes all over myself from being forced to hike up mountains through trees you couldn't fit through and had to squeeze yourself through. Branches would cut up my arms, legs, and face. They keep the water in a nasty bin that probably holds diseases and use a tube to transfer it. All of the girls are living filthy in the dirt and they stick their hands in the only water supply. You will probably get very sick in your time there due to the unsanitary conditions. I was there when covid first hit and they let a girl come into our group and expose us all to covid which led to another week long isolation. If you think this place is good or you've left a positive review as a parent , go experience it yourself!!!!!!! They give you one pack of baby wipes to handle the disgusting amount of dirt that you can never escape. My hands, face, and body were caked w dirt the whole time I was there and the baby wipes would turn black when we used them- due to the limited supply everyone would get mad at you if you used more than one wipe. The one shower we were allowed per week was the smallest stream of lukewarm water i've ever seen in a dirty tent shower. They give you 5 min total to shower dry off and get dressed. I would have shampoo in my hair for weeks because there was never enough time or water to wash it out. I met many girls who I will never forget in my time there including girls as young as 11. If you have a history of self harm and do not want to do a full strip body check , they literally drag you out of your sleeping bag and into the woods. It's like an actual nightmare. One girl got dragged screaming and we could hear her screams for almost 15 min and never found out what happened. It is very sad to watch and we were forced to carry 70 pound bags on our back to hike however far they have planned. They refuse to tell you the time or how long you're hiking. It's like a sick joke, all they will do is sing "woahhh we're halfway there" when you're halfway and by that point you're ready to drop dead on the ground. If you care about your will to live do not come here. The best day of my life was the day I got out. They will speak in a condescending way to students and treat them less than. Every time they need to speak about anything no matter what's going on (even if there's a fire and everyone's cold) they will make you spread out and face the woods until they are finished. All they know how to say in response to any problem you are having is "that must've been hard for you" like no shit?!?!? I hate this place!!!!!!!!!!! STOP TAKING ADVANTAGE OF KIDS AND PARENTS WHO WANT TO HELP THEIR KIDS!!!!!!! YOU WILL GET SHUT DOWN!!! read more

Our daughter was referred to New Vision when she stopped making progress in her therapeutic boarding school. We were concerned about the referral due to the exorbitant cost, but we moved forward because we desired her to return to her therapeutic boarding school. Unfortunately, nothing about our experience was positive. While New Vision markets that they are a good fit for children with complex trauma and adoption related issues, the program is ill-equipped to handle the complexities of Reactive Attachment Disorder. They wasted time by not collaborating with her previous therapist quickly, and therefore, were easily manipulated by her. Even the structure of the program (rotating staff in the field regularly) is a recipe for disaster for RAD. After her unsuccessful treatment there, we were left with a bill of over $60,000. We had already met our out-of-pocket maximum for insurance, so we knew we could recoup money from our insurance plan. New Vision, of course, was no help at all in this endeavor. They stated that they are not apart of any insurance appeal process, and referred us to outside services. After working over a year and paying for support from a mental health advocacy group to appeal our claims, New Vision was reimbursed directly by the insurance company (they set up the billing this way). At which point, New Vision gladly profited off of the reimbursement we fought for, and then stated they would hold onto our refund for another 90 days just in case of insurance issues. It took more time and advocacy on our end to get the reimbursement issued to us in a timely fashion, and then they fumbled the accounting of the receipt and now claim they overpaid us. Nearly two years later, they are now requesting $2300 that they say they should not have sent us. They just now noticed they are "owed more money", nevermind it cost nearly that much to even fight for the insurance appeal that they did not want to be a part of but profited from anyway. Our daughter's mental health needs are significant, and she has received all different types of treatment. Some mediocre and some great, but none that we are as dissatisfied with as New Vision. Consider other treatment options before spending the money on this program! read more

They claim to have a special needs track. My husband and son took a day of travel and very expensive to get to Oregon. They have no sensitivity or understanding of "special needs" this place is not safe at all. Never ever say anything you have a special needs track. Misleading Heartache for all of us Had to fly home next day They offered no help at all read more

Everyone on the team at NVW Bend is superior - from the member of the Administrative Team who called me the first day to reassure me our son ( 17 years old) was doing fine - the highly skilled, experienced and compassionate therapists who worked with our son and guided us in our parallel process - to the entire Field Team that lived with our son day in and day out. The experience our son and our family had at NVW was transformative - and likely saved us all. Our son arrived at NVW totally disconnected from our family, struggling with poor self-esteem, anger and identity issues, and he'd basically given up on himself and his future. When he graduated from NVW, our son was a new person - clear-headed, strong, optimistic and committed to achieving a successful and healthy future for himself, devoted to reconnecting with our family, and having the start of the tools he needed to deal with real world challenges and achieve his goals. This was an excellent program for our adopted child, and probably the best decision we've ever made for our son and our family. And believe it or not, this is an opinion shared not only by my husband and me, but also by our son! read more