BlueFire Wilderness was a God send to our family. We had completely lost control of our 13 year old son and we were in desperate need of help. Through our educational consultant, Ruby Laufer, we were introduced to BlueFire. It was the best thing that ever happened to our family. My son’s primary therapist, Mark Ellis, is an angel. Someone who invests 100% of himself into helping troubled kids. We will be forever grateful to BlueFire, and to Mark Ellis, for helping us get help for our son.

My daughter attending WT with BlueFire last summer and it was an exceptional experience. Her therapist Paul is one of my favorite people and he provided my daughter with the support and nurturing that she needed. BlueFire is very professional and attentive when your child is there and I highly recommend them. WT is a difficult decision to make but my daughter reflects that it was hard but good experience for her.

Bluefire was nothing short of a miracle for our son. Our experience was just like the many other eloquent 5 star reviews. Our son was in a very dark and dangerous place. We had exhausted every effort to help him. His Bluefire therapists and the staff were wonderful, compassionate, dedicated, insightful and extremely talented. My son saw what his life was, what it could be and made the choice to live a life of passion, joy and love. He was a new person when he left. He is now alive, emotionally very healthy, constantly improving and my son and his parents are enjoying each other more than we ever have. It is not possible to thank Bluefire enough for what they did for my son.

My 16yr old son was retreating and isolating from family and friends. We suspected it was anxiety or depression. We also knew we don’t have the right tools to help him. It was in the middle of COVID and online learning was the platform…two components that would amplify his issues. We removed him from his environment and felt putting him with experts in beautiful nature would be effective. Sure enough, he was blessed to have Charles as his therapist and guide. They sure knew how to peel the layers. My son gained the necessary tools for awareness, regulation, accountability coupled with honing in on grit and resilience. Instead of coming home after 3 months there, we thought it would be best for him to put all what he learned into practice. Therefore, he went to a transitional boarding school for 9 months. It was a smooth way to transition back home and to his high school. He’s not perfect but much better. He’s in his senior year and determined to do well and graduate. Sending him to Bluefire was one of the hardest and best decision we made for him. Its an amazing and fulfilling program. Life skills are learned and memories are made here. We invested in the man he would become and not allow the kid to spiral, or worse, implode.

My son had a transformative experience at blueFire.

The connection between therapist and client is probably the most important aspect of treatment, and our son’s therapist was great. He was able to see things from Aaron’s perspective and to share some of his own experiences from his young adulthood. Most important, our son really came to trust his therapist, which is important out in the wilderness. Equine therapy with Johnny U. was also excellent. Finally, the week we spent with our son in wilderness therapy was great, as we were able to explore our family’s issues in a safe places with good feedback.

Sending our child to the Wilderness Program was one of the hardest decisions we had to make. The main reason for the success was Lindsay the therapist, she would call out the kids BS. If you can’t you’re child, you won’t regret sending your child!

Thanks to BlueFire my daughter was able to find her way into adulthood and create a new meaning for her life. She is now maintaining a job, living independently and having control of her own life.

The Family Spark experience was AMAZING and almost worth the cost of the entire program. The program is wonderful and the staff are fantastic. Parent trainings are good, but I wish they had the parents do more. We were given a Parent Handbook in the beginning, but then it was never incorporated into our work with our son. Other than that, the program is very well-organized and intentional, and they get through to these kids in new ways. My son felt the experience was hard, but also very valuable. Aspects of it, he even really enjoyed. We all feel that the program accomplished what it was designed to do. However, know going in (which we didn’t) that a wilderness program is usually a precursor to a therapeutic boarding school — and you will be encouraged to go that route afterwards. Ultimately, we thought of it like this: If your kid has cancer, and the doctor says “radiation is good, and chemo therapy is good, but if you do them both, your child will have the best likelihood of success,” you’d do both, right? So, now we are doing both wilderness and TBS.

The bluefire wilderness program was a fantastic program for our son and is proving to be the catalyst that has helped him turn his life in a completely different direction. He has become responsible, accountable, reliable, and ambitious, and even he attributes these changes to the tools and self awareness he got at bluefire.