Kolob Canyon Residential Treatment Center

As a parent I would highly recommend this program. Outstanding, caring staff who truly change lives for the better. The small program size means the girls all really work together as a team to help each other. The love and support they have for each other and for their staff is truly awe inspiring. I suspect the few negative reviews are mostly from girls who either quit the program prematurely, were not interested in getting help (and thus would have criticized any similar program), or thought this was a horse camp rather than a therapeutic program that uses horses to help the girls learn about themselves.

I lived at kolob canyon rtc when i was 14 years old and I am writing this review at age 18. Four years later I am still traumatized, i have nightmares multiple times a week because of this place.At the time I lived there I suffered with panic attacks, and when i had one at kolob it was handled horribly. My second week i had a panic attack and none of the staff knew what to do, they made all the girls stare at me while i sobbed on the floor. No one attempted to help they just told me i needed to stop. after about five minutes they continued like nothing happened (i was still hyperventilating on the floor) a girl and one of the staff members began to laugh above of me as I lay on the floor.Once i managed to get myself out of a panic state, I was punished and put on "no talk". "No talk" is exactly what it sounds like. You were not allowed to speak for up to 48 hours, if you did you had time added to your "no talk" time. I could go on and on about how this is extremely ineffective and stripping me of my basic human rights but I have other important things i'd like to mention.When we weren't in school or eating we were doing chores. Chores can be very effective because kids need to learn discipline. But its all we did. The second we woke up we did chores and before we went to sleep we did chores. There were no staff who did maintenance, if there was an issue we had to do it. We didnt have weekends or down time. On the weekends we had deep clean which lasted for 10am-4pm which consisted of us cleaning the house,school,campus and cars. There are copious amounts of studies that have proven that positive reinforcement is way more effective than just punishment. Every thing wrong we did even down to not getting specks of water off the mirror from the backlash of the sink was punish. Every movement was criticized.To add to this, Kolob Canyon completely ignores kids physically illnesses. The only day out of the 13 months I was there that I got a break was when I was vomiting profusely and had an 103 fever.A girl contracted merca ( a staff infection that can be deadly) while i was there. She was not separated from us in any way, she even cleaned the dishes that we ate off. This is absolutely violating so many policies. When an outside doctor had to come in and tell the staff this is dangerous all of the other girls in the house were forced to bathe in bleach because the staff told us to.While some a few staff genuinely did care, I never felt safe or able to express myself and my feelings. Individuality was completely stripped away from us. Girls were shamed based on their religious practices, while many staff would talk about their mormon beliefs. I was more suicidal in there than I ever was before I went, the reason I pushed through the program was because I knew i needed to get out. Kolob puts a bandaid over the scars but never really heals them. They fill your time with chores and punishments to distract you from whatever issue you came in with, but once that's gone it's so easy to go back to the old behaviors. Over the 13 months I was there I met a bunch of girls, today I only know 3 girls who are doing well from the program and I'm extremely proud of them.Please consider another program if you are looking to send your daughter here.