Kolob Canyon, a premier Residential Treatment program, provides an intimate, homelike environment with warmth and individual attention for teens ages 14-17. We are purposely small, with just 16 students. Our primary goals are personal healing through intensive therapy, adventure, equine therapy, and support academics. In addition, experienced therapists provide individual, family, group, DBT, EMDR, equine, adventure, and other creative therapies.
Academics include a traditional school day with certified teachers and small class sizes. Our year-round schedule allows students to easily make up school credits. Individualized academics can help a student prepare for college or provide the extra support needed to accommodate IEP recommendations.
We specialize in individualized treatment. So come experience the peace and change at Kolob!
Many students who enroll at Kolob have persistent feelings of loss of interest or sadness that characterize major depression. This can lead to a range of behavioral and physical symptoms, including changes in appetite, energy level, sleep, concentration, daily behavior, and self-motivation. Depression can also be connected to thoughts of suicide
Worry, concern, nervousness, and apprehension are completely normal in most stressful situations, such as taking a test or public speaking. Anxiety is an indicator of underlying disease when feelings become excessive, all-consuming, and interfere with daily living. Many students who enroll at Kolob Canyon have experienced ongoing anxiety symptoms that have led them to withdraw from favorite activities, have trouble concentrating, or develop an avoidance of difficult or new situations.
Trauma is an emotional response from the body and mind to a difficult event. Immediately after the event, denial and shock are common to feel. Long-term reactions may likely include a range of unpredictable flashbacks, emotions, challenges to relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. In teens, trauma can lead to overwhelming feelings of shame and guilt, uncontrollable fear and trepidation, or a withdrawal from favorite activities.
Gender dysphoria is a sense of unease that a person may have due to a difference between their biological gender and their authentic gender identity. This sense of non-alignment or dissatisfaction with how they are perceived may be so intense it can lead to stress, anxiety, or even depression and can have a deeply challenging impact on daily life
Many of our students at Kolob Canyon have a history of self-harm. Self-harm is when you hurt yourself to deal with challenging feelings, painful memories, or overwhelming situations and experiences. After self-harming, a student may feel a short-term release, but the cause of their distress is very unlikely to have gone away. Most often, students have self-harmed by cutting themselves.
A teen who is struggling with suicidal ideation might be preoccupied with the idea of suicide. They may regularly think about how they would commit suicide or what life would be like if they weren't around. They may also replay the suicidal act out in their mind.
Students who enroll at Kolob Canyon might be struggling with addictive behaviors. This can include someone becoming extremely fixated and focused on something and developing an obsession regarding it. Addictive behaviors can include the use of substances, technology, social media, and even self-harm. Kolob Canyon is not a drug rehabilitation program, but some students have often used substances for self-medication, leading to addictive substance use.
When a teen faces depression and anxiety challenges, they might feel too overwhelmed to attend school. A teen enrolling at Kolob Canyon is often missing school credits due to excessive absences.
While Kolob Canyon is not an eating disorder program, many students who enroll have a history of disordered eating. Some students might be restricting what they eat or binge eating, while others might have a history of purging.
These are conditions that can develop in teens who have issues establishing a deep emotional connection. Since the quality of the attachment and bond profoundly impacts your adolescent's development, experiencing issues related to attachment can affect their ability to express emotions, develop trust and security, and build meaningful relationships later in life. Attachment challenges can occur in both adopted teens and those who are not.
Many students at Kolob Canyon have struggled with developing and maintaining good peer relationships. Some have difficulty understanding the nuances of the give-and-take needed in social interactions. Others might have social anxiety, which keeps them from reaching out to peers, or they might not feel like they deserve close relationships.
Students who come to Kolob Canyon have been struggling with complex emotional challenges and some behavioral issues. However, our team knows that a student's struggles are not who they are.
Students at Kolob want to create genuine relationships with peers and their families. They are seeking to learn skills to create a life worth living. While all of the students at Kolob Canyon were assigned female at birth, some might now identify as male or non-binary. Kolob Canyon is tailored to meet the needs of adolescents ages 14-17.
"Some of my happiest and most pivotal experiences at Kolob were spent hiking, rock climbing and rafting. Hiking, specifically, has always been a passion of mine. The more unfamilar like climbing and rafting provided me with an increased sense of physical and mental strength and a greater understanding of my own resilience. I am very grateful for these activities that fed my insatiable hunger for outdoor adventure and provided so much opportunity for self-growth!"
-Lenie
"Outdoor Adventure was an important part of our daughter's treatment program at Kolob. At home, she was all too often caught up in television, the Internet or her phone. She would spend hours by herself sitting and interacting with technology. At Kolob she was immersed in the real world with real people-living life out loud in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Hiking, camping and riding horses got her moving outside in the fresh air and sunshine and widened her experience of the world. Games, outings and other experiential activities taught her important lessons about how to communicate, resolve conflicts and be effective in relationships with others. Above all, these activities helped her learn to play again-to let down defenses she had built up, just laugh, have fun and be a kid again. With each parent seminar weekend, we could see her lighting up just a little bit more-genuine smiles, real hugs, authentic engagement. Our girl was coming back to us."
"Equine Therapy and time with the horses was the part of Kolob that changed my life the most. Before coming to Kolob, I hadn't had much experience with horses. Honestly, they just seemed like big scary animals at first. Once I started helping with barn chores and participating in horsemanship classes, I started to feel differently. Group Equine Therapy helped me feel so connected to the horses. Being with the horses became calming for me. Learning to ride English was hard at first and then it was so much fun! When I hit my diagonal, I felt like I had accomplished so much."
"When I knew I was going to a treatment program, I was upset. Then I learned that there were horses. I already loved horses and had spent a lot of time with horses. I even worked at a barn. To me, the horses at Kolob made all the difference. I grew closer to my peers working with the horses. I also learned more about myself and my family relationships through Equine Therapy."
"The teachers and academics at Kolob were exceptional for our daughter. She had so much school refusal and school failure before enrolling at Kolob. We now know this was from her extreme anxiety. The small class sizes and one-on-one teacher involvement made all of the difference for her. She was successful in school for the first time in a long time. She regained her love of learning. When she came home and transitioned to a bigger high school, she was able to maintain the skills she learned at Kolob. She is finally successful in school!"