My son was at a Therapeutic Boarding School for twenty months. They opened a Wilderness program during his stay. He was sent for a 28-day stay on, what I'm convinced, were inaccurate claims. The whole charade was generated to bring more funds into the corporation.
He endured abuse and neglect at Wilderness but preferred it over the TBS. Why? There was one older, experienced, rational, and reasonable counselor at the Wilderness program. She treated him with genuine respect. He knew the difference. She didn't try to twist his thoughts and allowed him to express freely. That little bit of respect made a huge difference for him and made the abuse, interaction with ex-military, irrational physical demands, and austere environment more tolerable than the pretentious environment of the TBS.
The "counseling" at the TBS was actually manipulation administered under the guise of therapy. Ironically, the primary reason teens were placed on restriction (limited calories, extra work, no free time, no interaction with peers) was for so-called "manipulation". What they taught him was how to say what they wanted to hear. How to give the appearance of compliance. In effect, how to master the art of "manipulation". Period. He got very good at this. He did endure months of fear, grief, and confusion before he figured out the game.
This $5K month TBS advertised as a College Prep facility. My son returned 5 credits behind his peers.
I wish parents would wake up to this reality. It all sounds great when you are desperate, but there are far better ways to assist your teen.
Hire a full-time big brother or therapist to be with your teen when you can't be. Five Thousand a month goes a long way and there are so many other creative options!!!
There is much to be learned from Nature. It can be the most wonderful teacher. I believe all the benefits of such a potentially vital experience are lost when the teen is subjected to military-types or young adults, not much older than the teens, fresh out of college, who have one agenda...teach lessons the hard way. Unfortunately I think this often has the negative effect of setting up an aversion to nature. That is so unfortunate and has not place in any form of useful therapy.