- Programs
- Philosophy
Philosophy
The Anasazi Way is a way of “walking” in the wilderness and in life. Commencing in 1968, Larry D. Olsen and Ezekiel C. Sanchez gleaned and developed the Anasazi Way from years of trial, error, and experience walking in nature with thousands of young people. They attribute their learning and awakenings to the Creator, their families, perceptive YoungWalkers, discerning parents, and their associates at Anasazi.
- Clinical Treatment
Clinical Treatment
Anasazi is not a boot camp. There is no force, manipulation or confrontation. Caring staff walk the trail with the same food and gear as the YoungWalkers and patiently wait for opportunities to teach. When the time is right they will teach skills and the principles of unconditional love, agency, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution.
- Help for Parents
- Admissions
Admissions
Anasazi Foundation offers programs for adolescents (ages 12-17) and adults 18+. New admissions are accepted continually, year round, and scheduled by appointment. Before an applicant can be accepted for admission, the enrollment packet must be submitted and approved, and financial arrangements must be finalized.
- Programs
- Philosophy
Philosophy
The Anasazi Way is a way of “walking” in the wilderness and in life. Commencing in 1968, Larry D. Olsen and Ezekiel C. Sanchez gleaned and developed the Anasazi Way from years of trial, error, and experience walking in nature with thousands of young people. They attribute their learning and awakenings to the Creator, their families, perceptive YoungWalkers, discerning parents, and their associates at Anasazi.
- Clinical Treatment
Clinical Treatment
Anasazi is not a boot camp. There is no force, manipulation or confrontation. Caring staff walk the trail with the same food and gear as the YoungWalkers and patiently wait for opportunities to teach. When the time is right they will teach skills and the principles of unconditional love, agency, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution.
- Help for Parents
- Admissions
Admissions
Anasazi Foundation offers programs for adolescents (ages 12-17) and adults 18+. New admissions are accepted continually, year round, and scheduled by appointment. Before an applicant can be accepted for admission, the enrollment packet must be submitted and approved, and financial arrangements must be finalized.
Free Consultation
Call (480) 892-7403
Change starts with connection… not correction.
We help young people discover their greatness and parents earn their trust.
Change starts with connection… not correction.
We help young people discover their greatness and parents earn their trust.
Anasazi Foundation Behavioral
Health Programs
- Programs
- Philosophy
Philosophy
The Anasazi Way is a way of “walking” in the wilderness and in life. Commencing in 1968, Larry D. Olsen and Ezekiel C. Sanchez gleaned and developed the Anasazi Way from years of trial, error, and experience walking in nature with thousands of young people. They attribute their learning and awakenings to the Creator, their families, perceptive YoungWalkers, discerning parents, and their associates at Anasazi.
- Clinical Treatment
Clinical Treatment
Anasazi is not a boot camp. There is no force, manipulation or confrontation. Caring staff walk the trail with the same food and gear as the YoungWalkers and patiently wait for opportunities to teach. When the time is right they will teach skills and the principles of unconditional love, agency, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution.
- Help for Parents
- Admissions
Admissions
Anasazi Foundation offers programs for adolescents (ages 12-17) and adults 18+. New admissions are accepted continually, year round, and scheduled by appointment. Before an applicant can be accepted for admission, the enrollment packet must be submitted and approved, and financial arrangements must be finalized.
- Programs
- Philosophy
Philosophy
The Anasazi Way is a way of “walking” in the wilderness and in life. Commencing in 1968, Larry D. Olsen and Ezekiel C. Sanchez gleaned and developed the Anasazi Way from years of trial, error, and experience walking in nature with thousands of young people. They attribute their learning and awakenings to the Creator, their families, perceptive YoungWalkers, discerning parents, and their associates at Anasazi.
- Clinical Treatment
Clinical Treatment
Anasazi is not a boot camp. There is no force, manipulation or confrontation. Caring staff walk the trail with the same food and gear as the YoungWalkers and patiently wait for opportunities to teach. When the time is right they will teach skills and the principles of unconditional love, agency, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution.
- Help for Parents
- Admissions
Admissions
Anasazi Foundation offers programs for adolescents (ages 12-17) and adults 18+. New admissions are accepted continually, year round, and scheduled by appointment. Before an applicant can be accepted for admission, the enrollment packet must be submitted and approved, and financial arrangements must be finalized.
Free Consultation
Call (480) 892-7403
Anasazi Foundation Behavioral
Health Programs
- Programs
- Philosophy
Philosophy
The Anasazi Way is a way of “walking” in the wilderness and in life. Commencing in 1968, Larry D. Olsen and Ezekiel C. Sanchez gleaned and developed the Anasazi Way from years of trial, error, and experience walking in nature with thousands of young people. They attribute their learning and awakenings to the Creator, their families, perceptive YoungWalkers, discerning parents, and their associates at Anasazi.
- Clinical Treatment
Clinical Treatment
Anasazi is not a boot camp. There is no force, manipulation or confrontation. Caring staff walk the trail with the same food and gear as the YoungWalkers and patiently wait for opportunities to teach. When the time is right they will teach skills and the principles of unconditional love, agency, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution.
- Help for Parents
- Admissions
Admissions
Anasazi Foundation offers programs for adolescents (ages 12-17) and adults 18+. New admissions are accepted continually, year round, and scheduled by appointment. Before an applicant can be accepted for admission, the enrollment packet must be submitted and approved, and financial arrangements must be finalized.
- Programs
- Philosophy
Philosophy
The Anasazi Way is a way of “walking” in the wilderness and in life. Commencing in 1968, Larry D. Olsen and Ezekiel C. Sanchez gleaned and developed the Anasazi Way from years of trial, error, and experience walking in nature with thousands of young people. They attribute their learning and awakenings to the Creator, their families, perceptive YoungWalkers, discerning parents, and their associates at Anasazi.
- Clinical Treatment
Clinical Treatment
Anasazi is not a boot camp. There is no force, manipulation or confrontation. Caring staff walk the trail with the same food and gear as the YoungWalkers and patiently wait for opportunities to teach. When the time is right they will teach skills and the principles of unconditional love, agency, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution.
- Help for Parents
- Admissions
Admissions
Anasazi Foundation offers programs for adolescents (ages 12-17) and adults 18+. New admissions are accepted continually, year round, and scheduled by appointment. Before an applicant can be accepted for admission, the enrollment packet must be submitted and approved, and financial arrangements must be finalized.
Free Consultation
Call (480) 892-7403
Anasazi Foundation Behavioral
Health Programs
Healing hearts and rebuilding trust via the world's most nurturing outdoor behavioral healthcare program
Anasazi’s world-renowned, licensed, and Joint Commission-accredited outdoor behavioral healthcare programs are ideal for adolescents 12-17 struggling with depression, anxiety, self-image, defiance, family conflict, mental health, lack of motivation, mild mood disorders, drug and alcohol experimentation, internet addiction, entitlement issues, and other self-defeating behaviors.
Anasazi’s world-renowned, licensed, and Joint Commission-accredited outdoor behavioral healthcare programs are ideal for adolescents 12-17 struggling with depression, anxiety, self-image, defiance, family conflict, mental health, lack of motivation, mild mood disorders, drug and alcohol experimentation, internet addiction, entitlement issues, and other self-defeating behaviors.
Anasazi Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare is a licensed and accredited 501(c)(3) non-profit
Creating an Environment that Invites Change
Anasazi’s therapeutic wilderness program for teens provides an opportunity, through a primitive living experience and a philosophy that invites healing at the hands of nature, to effect a change of heart – a change in one’s whole way of walking in the world.
This wilderness camp for teens offers a unique therapeutic environment. Our outdoor therapy treatment program for teens provides a novel and somewhat foreign environment that requires adaptation and the learning of new skills. It challenges the existing norms, rules, and methods to which teens and parents have become accustomed. It also provides an environment free of the over-stimulation and distractions common to adolescent life and invites peaceful introspection.
Anasazi utilizes the best of this change-promoting environment, without using the wilderness as a tool of manipulation or punishment. The combination of our unique and engaging experiential wilderness curriculum with top-quality clinical methods and trained therapists provides a powerful, synergistic intervention that motivates lasting change.
Our Unique Therapeutic Approach
Anasazi endorses a positive psychology approach to intervention and adolescent treatment, instilling confidence and hope, believing that youth are capable of insight, and voluntarily deciding to make needed changes that will improve the quality of their lives. Our outdoor behavioral treatment programs employ a therapeutic, bio-psychosocial-spiritual approach to treatment. This approach recognizes the influence of mind, body, heart, and spirit in the growth and development of individuals and families. Our goal is to help:
- A. Give participants the right to be responsible for themselves;
- B. Develop self-reliance to build confidence and resilience;
- C. Strengthen familiar relationships through shared experience;
- D. Give participants independence to think and act for themselves.
We are dedicated to helping at-risk-youth and their families get the assistance they need. Therefore, we aid families with counseling, insurance coverage options, scholarships, and a comprehensive plan for each family, providing continued monthly support to all alumni and parent coaching.
Anasazi is a therapeutic outdoor behavioral treatment healthcare program and wilderness rehab for adolescents ages 12-17. Our residential treatment for teens takes a comprehensive approach that is designed to promote a change of heart which often results in a lasting change in behavior. New admissions are accepted continually, year round, and scheduled by appointment.
We also assist families with insurance coverage options and obtaining scholarships.
Adolescents
Participants spend their time hiking and camping in the wilderness of Arizona while working with trained therapists…
Therapeutic Approach
Anasazi Foundation programs employ a holistic, bio-psychosocial-spiritual approach to treatment that involves the development of individuals and families.
Alumni
We aim to help participants keep their trail experiences & awakenings alive in their hearts after leaving the program…
Join Our Thriving Community
Read Our Reviews!
I have had many awakenings during my walking at Anasazi. I have learned to respect others more, to be more tolerant of others and to treat them as I would like to be treated. But above all, I have learned that I can do anything that I want to do, whether it is getting good marks in school, stopping drugs or even getting along with everyone I meet.
Young Walker | Ontario, Canada 
“What brings about a change of heart is a realization that you can do good and that there is a better way. Also, it is realizing that you will be much happier and feel better inside by choosing the right way.”
Young Walker | Georgia
“The most meaningful thing I learned on the trail is to get closer to my family and my Creator and to stay away from drugs. I learned that not everything is given to you in life. You have to earn it and really work hard for it.”
Young Walker | Arizona
“A lesson that I have learned through my walking is that if we have a good attitude, people will get along with us better and obstacles and challenges will seem much easier.”
Young Walker | Canada
“Right now, my daughter is happy and playful and fun to be around. We talk all the time. She does her chores and always keeps her curfew. She is beginning to have a good life again. She is alive, and for this I am truly grateful. I will forever be grateful for Anasazi, for the Trail Walkers, for Ezekiel, for all the staff at Anasazi, for the anonymous and not-so-anonymous ones that donated time and money so that I could send my beautiful daughter to just the right place for our whole family to heal.”
Mother | California
Free Consultation
Our admissions team is available to answer your questions about our program and how we can help.
ENROLLMENT
Before an applicant can be accepted for admission, the enrollment packet must be submitted and approved.
DONATE
More than half of the families participating at Anasazi do so with the help of scholarships made possible by generous donations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Anasazi Foundation is situated in the city of Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona and uses the wilderness outdoor environment to facilitate the rehabilitation of juveniles, adolescents and young adults.
The accredited wilderness therapy program for young adults begins with a learning period during which clients participate in basic skills such as cooking, personal hygiene, first aid and taking care of equipment. In addition, they learn how to make their own trail gear, which includes a primitive backpack, fire set and rabbit stick. This wilderness therapy for teen treatment also teaches them to create fire using bow drill and build their own shelters, among other things.
After completing the therapeutic wilderness program, each family receives a comprehensive aftercare plan that includes monthly phone contact though our Alumni Services department and seven weeks of parent coaching calls, which review program intervention principles and allow parents to discuss their application in specific circumstances.
Anasazi is not a boot camp – it is a wilderness program for youth. Participation in an Anasazi program requires personal responsibility and accountability; however, no force, contrived experiences, manipulation, confrontation, point or level systems, or other behavioral modification techniques or models are employed. Caring staff walk the trail with the same food and gear as the YoungWalkers and patiently wait for opportunities to teach. Through this accredited wilderness therapy program, they will teach skills and the principles of unconditional love, agency, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution.
Anasazi Foundation recognizes the difficulty parents face when seeking help for son or daughter in trouble. When parents’ efforts to intervene have had little or no effect, and home or community-based interventions have been unsuccessful, behavioral healthcare adventure therapy programs such as Anasazi can help save a young life.
Anasazi Foundation is a wilderness therapy program for youth at risk. The mission of Anasazi Foundation is to prepare parents and children to turn their hearts to one another, begin anew, and walk in harmony of the wilderness of the world.
The Anasazi Foundation offers outdoor therapy programs and behavioral healthcare programs designed for youth 12-17 years old. In addition to these programs, Anasazi offers intervention training for parents.
The Anasazi Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Program is a wilderness treatment program designed for youth 12-17 years old who are struggling with depression, anxiety, family conflict, substance abuse, and/or other emotional or behavioral concerns.
