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[quote=Anonymous]PP, the OP specifically said that the wilderness therapeutic program she sent her daughter to was staffed by licensed therapists.  It was not a "boot camp."  You are making assumptions here that aren't born out by the OP's experience.  Anyone considering this step must vet the program carefully, of course.

Wilderness programs are short-term interventions, helpful, as my daughter's psychiatrist pointed out, when you have a kid who is refusing therapy.  Given that, it's not terrifically surprising that a high percentage of kids in wilderness go on to either a therapeutic boarding school or an RTC.  It's not the cure, it's a step in recovery, and for some kids, a very useful and productive one.  For my kid, wilderness was the step that finally led her to work with a therapist, after 2+ years of resistance to therapy.  Part of the shift came from the switch in therapeutic modality: behaviorist approaches just did not get at the multiple levels of trauma and attachment problems that factor into my kid's behavior.  But part was due to the wilderness experience itself: how expeditions challenge kids and build competence.

As for the abandonment issues question, kids can have problems in attachment for a wide variety of reasons: trauma, adverse childhood experiences in school or with siblings, and many, many other things.  [/quote]

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