“Going to the woods is going home”~John Muir
For teens, the program begins with a 30-day backpacking trip in designated Wilderness Areas within Nez Perce and Bitterroot National Forests in Montana and Idaho. Each group contains three staff and a maximum of six youth. A licensed therapist develops individual treatment plans, works individually and in groups with the participants, and helps integrate the therapeutic progress of parent and child. The licensed therapist will spend 10 out of the 30 days in the field with the adolescents. During this segment, wilderness therapy becomes the principal foundation for intense personal growth.
A True Wilderness Experience
Three field staff live with the youth twenty-four hours a day for four weeks, experiencing the same environmental challenges, eating the same food, and walking the same miles. This builds an excellent therapeutic alliance between staff and child. A deep sense of trust, respect and support is created.
Participants engage in a variety of therapeutically aimed activities, including group and individual therapy, journal writing, group initiatives, as well as an
academic curriculum. Youth must endure the natural hardship of living in the outdoors, learn to work with others and build self confidence for themselves as well as support for their peers. Students learn how to take care of themselves without modern conveniences. This creates a sense of empowerment, responsibility, and an increase in problem solving and communication skills. They become students of life in its purest form.
The wilderness component ends with a solo experience. After weeks of being challenged and supported by close contact with staff and peers, the youth face a more individual and inwardly focused task. Each youth spends three days alone camped in one location. Motivation for reflection and self-care must now come from within. While staff are nearby to monitor the youth's basic needs, solitude creates an opportunity for deep reflection on the past and on plans for a new future. This is a powerful time, and the opportunity for growth is profound.
When solo ends, the youth walk out of the wilderness as their parents walk in from the trailhead, and the families spend the next two days engaged in family activities and therapy.