Effectiveness of Wilderness Therapy Programs
By changing the children’s environment alone, the wilderness setting moves children from their "emotional comfort zone" by shifting them to new and challenging opportunities. The demands of mastering their new setting stimulates students to engage in their natural behavioral habits, allowing our therapists and highly trained counselors to positively engage them using traditional therapeutic methods.
Our outdoor experience is designed to engage the deeply held passions and desire for purpose that characterize adolescence. Students are expertly guided through our experiential activities allowing them to discover for themselves their inner strengths while increasing self-awareness and self-esteem. We call this “Self Discovery in Nature”. The program uses a Medicine Wheel metaphor to teach students character development, as well as to assist in the identification of core values and guiding principles.
Students are personally challenged as they proceed to the course experience. And in the midst of giving of themselves, they find themselves. It is not our intent to train students in survival skills, but rather to allow them to discover their inner value and strengths by becoming essential, functioning members of a team. The individual reflection time also strengthens within to commit to the goals they have set for themselves.
Living this metaphor throughout the program facilitates the process of searching for one's true self, and illuminates how best to stay true to this self-discovery upon completion of the program.
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