Wingate was founded by a team of experienced wilderness therapists and treatment- industry leaders who were dissatisfied with the wilderness therapy options available to teens and young adults. They are unified in their conviction that all people must feel respected, valued, safe, and in control of the changes they make for those changes to last. They must transform from the inside out, not the outside in.
Unlike most wilderness-based treatment programs, Wingate does not use level systems, group consequences, or any other behavior-modification techniques. That’s because these techniques do not create lasting change. Instead, Wingate seeks the kind of internally motivated change that relies upon a profound therapeutic alliance between the client and the therapeutic team. This kind of alliance requires a staff that is creative, caring, authentically engaged, and exhaustively trained. Most importantly, though, it requires a deep and genuine respect for our clients.
