Our son’s experience at Bluefire Pulsar saved his life. We wanted to thank everyone at the program for their role and contributions to our son’s success. We thank you all so very much for what you’ve done for our family.

BlueFire PulsaR was an amazing experience. We are so glad that we found it for our child, who was anxious and overly dependent on electronics. BlueFire worked with us from the beginning, helping in the critical step of getting our child on board with the need for wilderness therapy, and continued to help with logistical support throughout. The young adult lead therapist, John Cohen, is an immensely talented and caring person who really worked wonders. All the other personnel were great, but John is uniquely gifted in dealing with a variety of emotional issues. The program is extremely well organized and has many layers of thoughtful support and challenge for the clients. Safety is paramount and adventure is a cornerstone of the experience. Intentionally small groups of clients work together as a team and learn to interact with respect, insight, and maturity. This made a huge difference to our child and our family. BlueFire was also extremely helpful in navigating the steps to a transitional program (where our child is currently expanding on the knowledge and skills gained at BlueFire). We are immensely grateful to have had our child undergo this skillful and flexible treatment, in a beautiful wilderness setting.

We were warned that initially, when students leave Bluefire and are returned home, they go through an adjustment period and Steven certainly did. He desperately missed his Bluefire family, the structure, the fellow students, living in the outdoors and initially talked about taking training to become a Bluefire councilor. Little by little he started adjusting to being at home, school, chores, friends etc. We were impressed at how much better he advocated for himself, asked for what he wanted and felt he needed to be happy and unfortunately for us, that meant moving away from home. At first, we were appalled by the idea, he’s only just 18years old! We continued to talk about it and decided that it was probably the best decision for him. He moved out 3 months later and has done very well. He has a roommate, a full-time job and other than solving problems that we all deal with daily; he is living his life. We talk on the phone at least every other day, spend time together as his job allows and he just seems a happier, more content young man. Steven continues to attend therapy classes every other week and still takes antidepressants but, I must say he’s a much more confident, self-aware young man.

I really don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t found you folks. Thank you, for everything you did for Steven and for our whole family. We have told many friends about you and hope that someday, those recommendations will lead to another successful young man or woman graduating your program.