Wilderness Treatment Center is a family owned, 60 day, inpatient chemical dependency treatment program for teens and young men between the ages of 14 and 24.

Widely known as one of the first and finest wilderness based addiction therapy programs in the world, Wilderness Treatment Center has been successfully treating adolescent and young men with substance abuse disorder for more than 30 years. 

Our facility is located on a 4,000 acre working cattle ranch in Northwest Montana. In 1983, the M-Lazy-V ranch was converted from a working dude ranch to a treatment facility and now provides the perfect setting free of distractions, enabling our patients to focus on recovery.

Wilderness Treatment Center’s philosophy is based on taking young men with a history of substance abuse disorder on a journey from hopelessness to discovery. We then provide patients with the tools to address their addiction and a path toward recovery. We combine a conventional 30 day inpatient stay leveraging the principles embodied in the 12 Steps with a 16 to 21 day therapeutic expedition.

When a typical 30 day program is discharging their patients, Wilderness Treatment Center is sending our young men on a wilderness therapy expedition.  Our 16 to 21 day wilderness trips provide our patients opportunities to put the past 30 days of treatment to work. The backcountry enables patients to address “real-world” relapse prevention in a natural, drug free environment. 

Wilderness therapy provides opportunities for these young men to confront physical, emotional and spiritual stress and address these feelings and situations using the tools they have learned throughout treatment.  Each trip is guided by a licensed addiction counselor and instructor certified as a Wilderness First Responder.

During the expeditions we also focus on self-esteem, teamwork and sober fun creating a rite of passage for our patients.  These important life skills are accomplished through peak climbs, backcountry skiing, flying fishing, cooking as well as leadership and navigation responsibilities throughout the trip.  Our patients often return from trip in the best physical shape they have been in the past several years, and even more importantly, the best emotional and spiritual shape they have been in their lives.