Wilderness Therapy in Utah

Find Healing in Nature With Legacy Outdoor Adventures

Experience the Transformative Power of Outdoor Therapy

At Legacy Outdoor Adventures, we believe in the healing power of nature. Our wilderness therapy in Utah uses evidence-based, clinical treatment complemented by intentional outdoor experiences.

Being connected to nature offers many mental health benefits, including:
  • Reduced anxiety
  • Improved focus
  • Reduced depression
  • Increased physical activity
  • Ability to practice mindfulness
  • Decreased stress
Our clients are taught to take advantage of all of these benefits. With the help of our trained staff and clinical team, clients at Legacy practice mindfulness techniques, embrace the beauty of the natural terrain, and engage safely with the landscapes around them.

Clinically Sophisticated Wilderness Therapy in Utah

Evidence-Based Treatment Meets Nature-Integrated Healing

Legacy Outdoor Adventures offers a hybrid approach to addiction and mental health treatment that combines evidence-based clinical and holistic modalities. This allows our clients to receive whole-person healing that encourages personal growth and change. Our adventure therapy program combines the healing power of nature and clinical therapies to help clients regain the confidence they need to seize success.

Licensed Clinicians and Accredited Mental Health Professionals

Our team has decades of combined experience in helping clients recover from a wide range of addictions, substance use disorders, and other mental health conditions. We are dedicated to providing a safe, encouraging, and therapeutic environment for adults seeking care. 
Two young women have a supportive one-on-one conversation in a natural setting, highlighting the importance of building trusting relationships and open communication for healing and personal growth.

Designed for Young Adults Seeking Real, Measurable Growth

Each treatment option at Legacy Outdoor Adventures is designed to inspire clients to regain their confidence. They then use this confidence to reclaim their lives from addiction and other mental health disorders. To best help our clients, we integrate weekly progress monitoring for clients and routine check-ins to ensure progress is being made. Backed by over a decade of data-driven research, we can help adults ready to make a change achieve tangible results. 

Why Nature Heals

The Mental Health Benefits of Time Outdoors

A typical wilderness therapy program works by exposing clients to an outdoor experience that promotes therapeutic growth. Legacy Outdoor Adventures takes it a step further by challenging clients with experiences such as biking, climbing, and canyoneering. This recovery in motion approach promotes several mental benefits to clients, such as:
  • Building self-confidence and courage
  • Promoting self-discovery and expression
  • Learning teamwork and communication skills 
  • Natural stress relief 
  • Reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression
  • Improving cognition and creativity 
  • Boosting a positive mood

Mindfulness, Movement, and Reconnection With the Natural World

Many clients come from cities with very little greenery. Our location places us between 5 national parks in Utah, offering clients a unique opportunity to reconnect with the natural world. Moving your body, practicing mindfulness, and realizing how you are never truly alone in your struggles are important aspects of adventure therapy. Eventually, the skills learned in adventure therapy become second nature and can be easily called upon, even in the absence of nature. 

Escaping Overstimulation to Focus Fully on Recovery

While out in the field, our clients are free from the overstimulation of the modern world, including technology, social media, work, school, and social stressors. This gives clients the space and time to engage more fully in treatment and enjoy themselves without distractions. 

Adventure Therapy in Practice

Safe, Structured Outdoor Experiences

Our field staff are highly trained in safety and are prepared to act in an emergency. In fact, Legacy Outdoor Adventures meets and exceeds industry standards of safety for wilderness programs. Each outdoor activity is planned and conducted by industry professionals, allowing for an exciting, but ultimately safe, experience.

Skill-Building Through Hiking, Backpacking, and Group Therapy

Part of adventure therapy is learning new skills in an exciting therapeutic setting. Although it may look like our clients are simply playing outside or exercising, it’s actually teaching important skills for recovery. Some skills our clients learn through our therapeutic activities and group therapy include:
  • Teamwork and communication skills
  • Basic survival skills
  • Teamwork
  • Problem-solving 
  • Emotional resilience 
  • Social skills 
  • Self-awareness

Developing Confidence, Resilience, and Emotional Regulation

Participating in therapeutic outdoor activities can be life-changing for many people. Nature teaches us that anyone, no matter who they are, is capable of growth and change. For clients struggling with their mental health, this reassurance can inspire and foster healthy decisions that lead to personal growth. 

Mental resilience can be developed through our adventure challenges, and emotional regulation comes with time spent interacting with peers. The more our clients accomplish, the more confident they become, which leads to better mental health outcomes. 

What Makes Legacy Different

Accredited and Evidence-Based Wilderness Therapy in Utah

Located in the Utah wilderness, Legacy Outdoor Adventures is a premier destination for adults seeking adventure and therapeutic experiences in nature. Proud to be Joint Commission Certified and highly respected by the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Council (OBH), we strive to exceed industry standards by providing quality, safe, and compassionate evidence-based therapy for adults in need. 
A group stands arm-in-arm on a mountain peak, celebrating their shared accomplishment and symbolizing the empowerment, confidence, and resilience gained by overcoming challenges in wilderness therapy.

A Licensed Residential Treatment Program Led by Clinical Experts

Legacy Outdoor Adventures is a licensed residential treatment center (RTC) certified to provide addiction, behavioral, and mental health care by the state of Utah. Our licensed therapists and treatment providers have decades of combined experience and training in treating substance abuse, co-occurring mental health conditions, and trauma. We work to incorporate the latest research-based techniques and are committed to providing an individualized experience for each of our clients. 

Ethical, Trauma-Informed Care — Not a “Boot Camp” Approach

We at Legacy Outdoor Adventures work to create an environment that is wholly unique and encouraging for our clients. Clients have access to sensitive, trauma-informed care designed to heal, not re-traumatize. Though our clients work and play hard, it’s designed to be safe, fun, and therapeutic. 

We are not like the troubled teen industry that only further traumatizes struggling teens, or like one-size-fits-all therapeutic boarding schools. Instead, we provide a small, personalized experience that draws on both holistic and clinical therapies for comprehensive treatment. We are a treatment facility, not a boot camp. 

Who We Help

Young Adults and Adolescents Seeking Meaningful Change

Legacy Outdoor Adventures is designed to help adults and adolescents ages 18 to 40 who are facing mental health challenges such as trauma, addiction, anxiety, and depression. We help young people not just recover from mental health challenges, but to figure out who they are, regain confidence, and find the strength within themselves to make lasting, personal changes. 

Legacy Outdoor Adventures helps men and women alike with our gender-specific treatment programs, which include Juniper Canyon Recovery for women and Legacy Treatment Center for men. 

Individuals Struggling With Substance Use, Anxiety, or Depression

Legacy Outdoor Adventures is equipped to treat a wide range of substance abuse, addiction, mental health disorders, and other mental health challenges. This can include:
  • Substance abuse and addictions, such as alcohol addiction, opioid addiction, and more
  • Process addictions, such as gambling, shopping, and more
  • Unresolved trauma, such as past child abuse or neglect
  • Mental health disorders, such as anxiety and depression
  • Disordered eating 
  • Lack of motivation 
  • Self-sabotage 
  • Paralyzing fears of failure, trust, forming connections with others, and more
  • Lack of self-confidence or sense of purpose
Wilderness therapy programs don’t just help clients heal from mental health disorders. They help clients regain their confidence, find their purpose in life, and reclaim their lives from harmful behaviors that hold them back from success. 

Families Looking for Safe, Compassionate Treatment Options

Wilderness and adventure therapy provide a different approach to treatment compared to typical clinical settings. Everyone is different, and not all treatment approaches may work for them. People who work best through their problems by moving and doing get more value from a therapeutic approach that allows them to do just that. As such, wilderness and adventure therapy provide a different approach to treatment. One of which is that it helps those who may have given up on therapy altogether due to bad experiences. 

Families who are struggling to find treatment for their loved ones can find success with wilderness therapy programs. They are not only effective in assisting clients with unique needs but also carry high standards of safety. Combined with field guides, treatment providers, and clinicians who care deeply about helping others heal and succeed, you find a treatment program that promotes whole-person healing. 

The Lasting Impact of the Wilderness Experience

How Nature Supports Long-Term Mental Health and Well-Being

Human beings will always be a part of nature, even with our technological advances. Returning to nature, even for a short amount of time, can promote long-term benefits to our mental and physical health. Our 90-day residential treatment program utilizes nature to promote lasting change in our clients. 

Nature can significantly enhance mental health by:
  • Reducing stress, anxiety, and depression
  • Improving overall mood and well-being
  • Promoting relaxation 
  • Boosting creativity 
  • Fostering social connections
  • Unlocking our true selves through self-discovery and expression
  • And more!
Utilizing nature also becomes a healthy coping skill to promote lasting recovery. Clients may use hobbies discovered in adventure therapy, such as a sport or an activity, as a means to stay sober and prevent relapse.
Juniper Canyon

Alumni Who Continue Their Connection to the Outdoors

We have seen many of our alumni choose to maintain a connection with the wilderness and the outdoors after graduating from Legacy, some even returning to work as field guides themselves. It is in our experience that the skills and the ability to thrive in the outdoors that they develop at Legacy will enable our clients to continue to enhance their lives with the healing power of the wilderness for many years to come.

Our Commitment to Integrity in the Wilderness Therapy Industry

Setting a Higher Standard for Safety and Clinical Excellence

Our wilderness camp has the licensing and accreditation to show how committed we are to providing a high-quality and safe experience for our clients. We don’t just meet standards, we exceed them, with accreditations from the Joint Commission, Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Council (OBH), and more. 

Legacy Outdoor Adventures is licensed by the State of Utah to provide mental health and addiction treatment services. As such, you can trust that you or a loved one is in for not just a safe experience, but a life-changing one. 

Advocating for Transparency and Accountability in Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare

Legacy Outdoor Adventures’ outdoor programs are designed to be challenging within a safe container. This allows clients to experience perceived risk, which helps them develop essential skills such as distress tolerance and emotional regulation. Although we do our best to reduce risk, it’s always present. As such, we take steps to remain transparent, such as:
  • Having our highly trained and certified guides utilize the American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Best Practices and the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) Accreditation Standards
  • Committing to stringent incident monitoring and reporting required of OBH Council programs by the licensing and accrediting bodies
Although injuries are rare, we use every experience to help us enhance our safety and treatment standards. A medical team is on-site in case of emergencies. 

Partnering With Families and Referring Clinicians for Sustainable Outcomes

Treatment is not a one-way street. It’s a collaborative effort between support from families and the specialized care clinicians can provide. As such, we help families prepare to best support their loved ones while in recovery as well as establish continued care. 

Legacy Outdoor Adventures is only one step in the recovery journey, and clients may need continued care. To help our clients along their journey, we will work with referring clinicians to establish a continued care plan. This continued support allows our clients to continue receiving the support and care they need for lasting recovery.   
A young man stands proudly with his parents, a portrait of a reconnected family and a positive outcome of a family program focused on healing, communication, and mutual support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can benefit from wilderness therapy in Utah?

Anyone can benefit from wilderness therapy, especially those who are committed to making personal changes. 

However, clients at Legacy must be able to meet physical and cognitive ability criteria to participate in wilderness and adventure activities. This is to ensure safety for each of our clients. 

Begin Your Journey

Learn More About Our Adventure Therapy Program

Though Legacy Outdoor Adventures is located in Utah, we can also help potential clients in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and other states. We are proud to offer a strength-based approach to adventure therapy, which helps clients discover their individual agency and improve self-esteem. If you’d like to learn more about how Legacy can help you or a loved one, click here.

Contact Legacy Outdoor Adventures in Utah

To contact Legacy Outdoor Adventures, call us at (866) 436-4458.

Start Healing in Nature With Evidence-Based, Compassionate Care

We offer comprehensive and evidence-based treatment plans for those struggling with addiction, substance abuse, and co-occurring mental health disorders. If you are interested in recovery through nature-based healing, start here.
Nature can inspire healing in those struggling with mental health challenges. To learn how Legacy Outdoor Adventures uses the power of nature through our experiential therapies, call (866) 436-4458 today.