Recovery in the Wild: Wilderness Therapy Programs Help Teens Break the Chains of Addiction
By Hugh C. McBride
Many teenagers who are struggling to overcome substance abuse disorders find that their efforts to stay clean are undermined by their inability to escape the influences of the environment in which they were first tempted to take drugs or drink alcohol. Friends, family members, and the pressures and stresses of daily life often overwhelm individuals during the early stages of their recovery, forcing them to return to their unhealthy former habits.
Removing an addicted individual from the environment that prompted or encouraged his addiction is an excellent first step on the road to recovery. And one of the most effective ways of ensuring that a teen can begin his rehabilitation in a positive, distraction-free environment is to enroll him in a wilderness recovery program.
ABOUT WILDERNESS RECOVERY
The concept of wilderness therapy is a turn-of-the-century idea that has evolved into an effective, specialized form of treatment for teenagers and young adults who are suffering from a wide range of conditions and disorders.
Following a short-lived experiment with outdoor therapy in 1901, the concept of wilderness education lay relatively dormant for the next four decades, until German educator Kurt Hahn and British businessman Sir Lawrence Holt founded the first Outward Bound school on the north coast of Wales in 1941. Hahn and Holt established the school to teach service, teamwork, and survival skills to young sailors – and according to the Outward Bound website, they named their program in honor of the nautical term that describes a ship’s departure from the relative safety of the harbor into the challenging unknowns of the open sea.
After Outward Bound teacher Josh Miner brought the concept to the United States in the early 1950s, the principles of wilderness therapy and education began to spread throughout the country. Today, hundreds of facilities offer wilderness programs targeted to specific groups, such as recovering alcoholics and drug abusers and troubled teens.
The Aspen Education Group, which is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading providers of outdoor therapy and wilderness education, offers a wealth of opportunities for adolescents and teens who are suffering from low self-esteem, poor school performance, defiance of authority, depression, and drug or alcohol abuse.
Aspen Education Group’s programs, which are designed to meet the specific needs of individuals between the ages of 9 and 28, are staffed by professionals with significant experience and expertise with issues including depression, substance abuse, high-functioning autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and a wide range of additional conditions and disorders.
WILDERNESS & TEENS
With features that include flexible lengths of stay, small student-to-staff ratios, and powerful experiences designed to encourage intense introspection, self-reliance, and positive personal reformation, wilderness education and outdoor therapy programs can literally be life-changing opportunities for struggling teenagers.
Rebecca Wildbear, a licensed professional counselor with more than a decade’s worth of experience as a wilderness therapist, says her work with clients at Passages to Recovery in Loa, Utah, emphasizes the ability of the outdoors to promote connections on both the personal and spiritual levels.
“In the wilderness there’s a great opportunity to connect with a higher power,” Wildbear said, adding that the serenity and challenges of the wilderness offer considerable opportunities for lasting growth and development for individuals who are ready to change their lives. “The person who gets the most from [the wilderness therapy experience] is the person who is the most open,” she said.
And though the initial effectiveness of wilderness therapy may be a byproduct of removing troubled teenagers from the environments in which they were struggling, researchers have documented that the programs’ successes are not limited to the time the teens spend in the wild. A five-year study conducted under the leadership of Dr. Keith Russell of the University of Idaho’s Wilderness Research Center indicated that most teens who participate in wilderness programs continue to improve, even one year after treatment.
To ensure that the progress students make during their wilderness experiences continues upon their return home, the most effective wilderness therapy programs make family education and communication integral components of their efforts.
For example, at Phoenix Outdoor, a licensed wilderness therapy program that provides comprehensive substance abuse intervention and assessment for teens ages 13 to 17, families of teen clients receive individual counseling on a weekly basis, participate in teleconference support groups, and are offered interactive psychological and educational seminars. The Phoenix Outdoor program, which incorporates instruction and therapy into guided adventures in the U.S. National Forest near Leicester, North Carolina, features a range of experiences that are designed to address personal and family issues in an environment that is both supportive and challenging.
GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
As Kurt Hahn and Lawrence Holt indicated with the nautical allusion that they chose for the name of their initial Outward Bound program, wilderness therapy and outdoor education efforts teach participants that lessons learned away from the safe harbors of home can be among the most valuable and long-lasting of one’s life. And as industry leaders such as Aspen Education Group continue to enhance the safety, standards, and effectiveness of therapeutic wilderness education programs, students are able to reap greater benefits and overcome more significant challenges in ever-safer environments under the care and guidance of qualified professional staff members.
In order to most effectively provide unique educational and therapeutic services to teenagers who might otherwise be unable to overcome personal challenges and environmental pressures, the most successful outdoor education and wilderness therapy programs are founded upon a bedrock of sound educational and therapeutic philosophies, and are dedicated to the recovery and rehabilitation of the teenagers they serve.
The purpose of these efforts – and the ideal result of any wilderness therapy or outdoor education program – is perhaps best expressed by this testimonial, which was written by a student who had completed a stay at the Aspen Achievement Academy: “I love my parents and myself more,” the student wrote. “I am drug-free, I started a new life and solved a lot of problems.”
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