ABOUT KOLOB CANYON
Kolob Canyon is a member of CERTS (Certified Educational, Recreational, and Therapeutic Schools and Programs), a family of five schools and programs for adolescent girls, including the nearby Moonridge Academy. Located in the desert in southwest Utah, the facility is a residential treatment center and therapeutic boarding school for troubled teenage girls aged 14 to 17.
The center treats low-level substance abuse alongside trauma, depression, anxiety, adoption and attachment issues, self-harm, emotional dysregulation, and family problems.
TREATMENT & ASSESSMENT
The typical length of treatment is nine to 12 months, and the program is built around individualized clinical services, experiential learning, and family support and education.
Residents participate in individual therapy two or three times per week, as well as daily group therapy and weekly family therapy. The center is equipped to provide dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Recreational therapy is a big part of treatment: clients participate in two hours per week of equine therapy or ropes course work, and spend one day a week entirely outdoors. There are also monthly three-day excursions, regular yoga classes, and daily aerobic exercise, and clients work individually with staff on wellness plans.
Parents participate in their own parallel program, which includes online coaching and quarterly seminars.
There’s an on-site school with traditional classrooms and an average class size of three to six students. Schooling includes the core curriculum, foreign language instruction, special ed tutoring, ACT/SAT prep and testing, and college planning.
STAFF CREDENTIALS
Staff includes a psychiatrist, a nurse, a licensed marriage and family therapist, two social workers, and certified teachers.
ACCOMMODATIONS & AMENITIES
In order to keep treatment intimate, the facility accommodates just 12 residents at a time. The facility is homey and rustic, with a full kitchen and shared bedrooms. The two individuals polled by Best-rehabs.com to date on the center’s meals and accommodations gave the facility one- and two-star ratings in both categories.
WHAT ALUMNI SAY
The single alum polled by Best-rehabs.com to date, Q.W., gave very negative feedback. “I am a previous girl from Kolob and i will say i had the worst time ever.I did not like the medication administered. Don’t like how you feel on them, too bad… The girls there have no say in anything and will never be listened too,” Q.W. wrote, also complaining about the food and inappropriate punishments.
At the time of this writing, secondary review sites yielded mixed but mostly positive feedback: two five-star ratings and a one-star rating spread between Google and Yelp.Two additional one-star ratings — one each on Yelp and Google — were cross-posted by a reviewer who had also posted on Best-rehabs.com. The positive reviewers described the center as life-changing: “I didn’t always get along with everyone but I definitely believe and KNOW it changed my life for the better… I have been to multiple centers but this was the last and best one,” L.D. wrote in a representative review on Google. However, Yelp reviewer J.L. described excessively harsh punishments, a lack of the promised equine therapy, and unqualified staff. “When I did not ‘conform to their program’ I was perceived as a ‘safety risk’ and a leash was tied around my waist when walking around,” J.L. added.
WHAT FRIENDS & FAMILY SAY
Both of the parents polled by Best-rehabs.com to date gave very negative feedback, both writing that treatment had been ineffective. “They treated her horribly, according to her claims..In her own words, she came out after two years in far worse shape than she went in,” A.R. wrote. “The teaching was completely nil. The equestrian facilities provided just one or two hours per week of therapy,” fellow parent Randy wrote, also describing staff as “completely incompetent.”
FINANCING
There is currently no information provided on the facility’s website regarding its costs, however, other facilities in the CERTS network accept health insurance and private pay, indicating that Kolob Canyon might too. One parent polled by Best-rehabs.com indicated that they had paid $6,500 per month for their child’s treatment.
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