Addicted to recovery: Wilderness Treatment Center has transformed lives for 30 years

Take a headstrong, entitled young man grappling with his own demons and the looming specter of addiction, and for most parents, the situation can get out of hand fast.

At the Wilderness Treatment Center for 30 years, John Brekke has been taking these young men on the edge and turning their lives around.

The center combines the 12-step process of groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and the outdoor leadership journeys of Outward Bound.

“I guess the most unique thing about us is we’re the first of our kind,” Brekke said. “These are boys that don’t want to sit in groups for seven days a week. They have lots of energy.”

The young men at the center, ranging in age from 14 to 24, with an average age of 19, put their energy, anger and personal battles to use at the facility. It is tucked off U.S. 2 in a chilly little valley near Marion.

Brekke started the center with his wife, Nancy, in 1983. He had spent the last seven years working at the Swan River Youth Camp, a juvenile correctional facility. He felt chained.

“The state government has the ability to stifle, to restrict you,” Brekke said. “That’s what I felt happened.”

The Wilderness Treatment Center is a private, for-profit facility, but is also a working cattle ranch. With 27 employees, more than 100 head of cattle and 25 at-risk young men, one would expect the place to be bustling.

That’s not quite the case. The cattle are free to roam wherever there is grass, employees come and go, and about half the “patients” are in the wilderness at any given time.

Brekke said the 60-day program was revolutionary when it began and remains unique to this day.

“You take a 16-year-old that has never been good at anything in his life and then ask him to deal with an adult problem like addiction?” Brekke said. “That’s just not realistic.

“Most traditional treatment is 28 or 30 days,” Brekke added. “Ours is double.”

The first 30 days at the Wilderness Treatment Center are spent much like they would be at any treatment center. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., time is spent either in therapy or meals. It can be intense.

But the payoff is the recreation and challenges the young men get in the second 30-day stretch.

“Other programs use the wilderness as an intervention,” Brekke said.

“We intervene for 30 days, then they are excited to get into the woods. It’s not a survival class. They pack good supplies and good food.”

On these excursions, food runs out at around 10 or 15 days. That’s when Larry Anderson comes in.

A total throwback to Montana’s frontier past, Anderson packs in food on horses and meets the boys.

“They’re excited to see me by then,” he said.

All wilderness excursions go “beyond the trailhead,” in Brekke’s words.

They bring along a therapist and outdoors expert along with large packs. The Bob Marshall Wilderness and Yellowstone National Park (during hunting season) during hunting season are some of the locations the young men pack into.

Jeremy McKeen, one of four outdoors experts at the center, said there is more benefit to his job than just getting to camp all year.

“It’s inspiring seeing these kids change like that,” he said. “The solo experience is pretty intense, too.”

Each young man, after working to kick whatever chemical dependency he was carrying before he came to Marion, has a three-day solo experience in the wilderness.

It’s not quite a vision quest, but it certainly isn’t easy for the young men, most of whom come from large cities and were born in well-to-do families.

“Three days entirely by yourself is a long time,” said Ben Dorrington, the center’s director of referral relations. “You really grapple with your inner demons.”

Some of these demons come from kids smoking a little too much weed and drinking a little too much alcohol. Others battle prescription medication or synthetic drug addictions. Still others have bigger problems to tackle.

“The heroin addicts are the hardest to deal with,” Brekke said.

“They come here in a lot of pain. Withdrawal is such an ugly thing. After about two weeks, they feel so much better they think they are done and want to leave.”

With young men from as far away as California, Florida, New York and Kansas, Brekke said his facility has been pinpointed as the best in its field at dealing with these troubled youths.

“We follow up with them at six months, one year and two years,” he said. “We are at a 65 to 70 percent success rate after two years.”

Brekke admits this is far from perfect, but when the dragon of addiction rears its ugly head, not everyone can slay it. Some of those sober after two years relapsed temporarily but got back on the right path.

The facility isn’t cheap. The 60-day stay will cost families (or insurance companies, as the center does take health insurance) $25,500.

For this reason, many of the men and boys come from upper-middle to upper-class families. But Dorrington said there isn’t coddling at the Wilderness Treatment Center.

“These are entitled kids that are driving Mom and Dad’s BMW,” Brekke said. “We teach them carpentry, wood working, masonry ... a lot of skills get picked up here.”

The patients craft wooden benches, picnic tables, do maintenance around the ranch and other things to keep their hands busy. Television and cellphones are not allowed.

“They are distractions,” Brekke said. “Other facilities will have kids watch TV for six hours a day. That’s not helpful.”

Free time can be spent playing basketball, ping pong, fly fishing in the ranch’s small fishing hole, socializing and cross-country skiing in winter.

It’s not a prison camp, and none of the young men are forced to stay there. Some of the more headstrong youths tell Brekke they are leaving — and he doesn’t stop them.

“They’ll walk down the road looking for a phone to call their parents,” he said. “We tell Mom and Dad not to cave.

“Almost no one ever leaves for good.”

The completion rate is high at the Wilderness Treatment Center, and former patients returning to the facility or writing Brekke to thank him happens quite often.

Brekke, at 63, has no plans to retire.

“I started this program for Montana kids,” he said. “I naively thought if I could help 200 kids a year, I’d be doing something.”

And he has. With more than 180 young men staying at the center for the last 30 years, Brekke has helped nearly 4,000 kick their habits for good. Patients from Puerto Rico, Canada, Russia, Iceland and Thailand have made the trek to Marion for help.

“Yeah, I’m not going to retire,” he said. “You can almost be addicted to recovery.”

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.