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Bullets courtesy of
The Call of
the Wild
Wilderness Therapy Programs for Troubled Teens
BY JENNIFER NELSON
© 2000 by Parents' Press
SKJOLD
PHOTOGRAPHY
All rights reserved
In the spring of 1994, a 16-year-old boy named Aaron Bacon died a tragic death.
Bacon was enrolled in North Star, a detrimental wilderness therapy program for at-risk teens in the midst of the Utah wilds. Several weeks into the program he complained of severe stomach pains but the staff didn't take him seriously and he died as a result.
Since his tragic death and others wilderness therapy programs have had a bad rap.
In fact, several good programs along with the shoddy ones folded as a result of Bacon's death. But proponents of the good programs think that without this form of intervention, many at-risk teens wouldn't have a chance of making it.
Powerful Healing
Twenty years ago Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D., the past developer and
director of the Lane Ranch Children's Center Wilderness Experience
Program in Sebastopol, CA, pioneered a program that took severely
troubled teens into the wilderness for therapy without walls.
Based on his own experiences in nature, Kipnis and a group of youth shucked the four walls of ineffective residential treatment and embraced the wilds of nature.
They lived off the land, made fires and prepared meals, hiked, backpacked, and built shelters.
The teens gained respect for the environment, got to know themselves, and developed a sense of community. In the beauty of nature, these hard-core at risk teens began to respond.
"The urban bravado these kids harbored disintegrated as they heard bears shuffling in the woods," says Kipnis.
They began to form relationships with the environment and each other. Kids who were depressed and angry learned that there are consequences in nature that differed from the consequences in society.
"Rules are clear in nature," says Kipnis. In the wild if you can't make a fire, you're cold; if you can't prepare food, you're hungry; if you can't build a shelter, you are unprotected.
"Therapeutically, it's one of the most powerful methods for healing."
Therapy without Walls
"Kids can't BS their way out of nature," says Gary
Ferguson, author of
Shouting at the Sky: Troubled Teens and the Promise of the Wild
(St. Martin's Press, 1999).
Ferguson, the author of more than a dozen nature and science books, took an up-close, personal look at one good wilderness therapy program in Utah, Aspen Achievement Academy.
He spent over three months living in the wild with both staff and troubled youth, following two groups of teens through the terror of landing themselves there and the triumphs of setting themselves straight.
"Kids know how to play the game," says Ferguson. "They jump through the right hoops and tell their therapists what they want to hear."
A Different Game
But not in nature. In the wilderness there are no distractions.
Kids must learn survival skills, self-reliance and pioneer their
own self worth.
"Most of them have a litany of interventions under their belt," says Ferguson.
They've been to lock-down, drug therapy, suicide wards, psych wards, intensive individual or family counseling. They've flunked out of traditional programs and have been plunked down in the middle of the wilds in a last ditch effort to get healed.
Only one teen out of a hundred actually wants to come to the wilderness the rest are sent by Mom or Dad, desperately trying to find the answer to their kid's problems.
Helping the Parents
But a good wilderness therapy program doesn't just fix broken
kids. At Aspen, parents aren't held blameless.
"It's nearly always a family system breakdown," says Ferguson.
Good programs require parents back home to undergo therapy. They provide workbooks to learn better communication tools and they teach moms and dads better ways to deal with the buttons their teenagers push.
The Basics
Upon arrival at Aspen, teens receive a physical and psychological
evaluation and get assigned a therapist who will visit them twice
a week in the field.
Then it's time to ship out to a group already in progress. It's the instructors, the wilderness guides, who are in the field on a daily basis with teens, and it's this relationship that kids benefit from the most.
Teens live and work with a group of eight peers and two instructors who rotate in weekly shifts. Here kids gain a sense of personal empowerment. The success of themselves and their groups depend on them.
For most it's the first time in their lives to have such responsibility.
Therapists trudge out to the woodlands twice weekly for intense one on one therapy with teens. Often, sessions takes place during hikes, mountain climbs, dinner preparations, or in the afternoon shade of a cottonwood tree.
"There's a lot more motivation in nature," says Ferguson.
Therapists keep parents up to date with weekly reports, and they also carry the letters.
Letter writing is a big part of the program. Teens write impact letters to their families at home about issues that haunt them things that no one speaks about face to face. The letters provide a powerful form of communication that's usually been missing from the family equation.
Rites of Passage
"Rituals are also an incredibly important part of the program,"
says Ferguson.
Rites of passage are necessary for teens. If they don't have them, they usually create them.
"At the beginning of our trail we dug a hole to bury our histories," says Kipnis about his rituals in the wilderness. The kids got to bury their pasts even their names if they wanted and pick up new ones along the way.
Aspen incorporates solos, where each teen goes off to a solo spot for 24 hours to build his or her own fire and prepare his own food and shelter.
Some kids use the time wisely, to write poetry or draw, getting down and dirty with themselves; others are terrified of the solitude at first. Most say they have never been alone with themselves this way.
Then there are vision quests, where two carefully chosen staff members bring on an intensive one-on-one session with a kid who's close to a breakthrough or desperately in need of one. The quests typically entail a lot of hiking and exploration plus lots of soul searching.
Students also call "groups," which are rap sessions about any topic they choose to discuss.
And there are the animals
Every stage of wilderness therapy requires teens to earn their
rank. They come into the Aspen program as mice. A mouse can't
participate in group or even speak to other students for 48 hours.
Most graduate eight weeks later as eagles, having guided peers through tough times, healed some wounds, and learned to lead. Along the way, there are coyote and buffalo and plenty of pomp, ceremony, and circumstance at each stage.
"I got to my group two days before my seventeenth birthday," says Abbie. "Utah was in the middle of a blizzard, and I spent my birthday as a mouse."
Abbie's Story
Abbie, 19, a bright, articulate
sophomore at a state university, went to Aspen Achievement Academy
in Utah two years ago.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she suffered mood swings that took her from depression to joyous elation on any given day. Battling family issues, a break-up with a boyfriend, and other problems that year, she says her life was a mess.
"I'd probably been hospitalized in in-patient treatment centers six times," she recalls.
"I knew how to 'talk the talk' and be the model therapy patient, but in the wilderness you can't fake it. You have to give a hundred percent all the time." You can't manipulate nature.
Abbie credits the wilderness with her success. In particular she says the staff at Aspen was amazing her therapist incredible.
"I had a hard time with my dad before Aspen," she says. "In the wilderness I uncovered some of those issues and learned to deal with them."
Healthy Challenges
How physical is the eight-week jaunt in the wilderness?
"It offers a healthy challenge," says Ferguson, who hiked, backpacked, and climbed with the groups he followed.
Typically, it's not extremely difficult. Kids who have been abusing drugs and are out of shape physically may find it more so.
They hike five to ten miles daily, with five being the norm. They carry 25 to 50 pounds of backpack, climb mountains, put up shelters, establish camps, build fires, prepare and cook food.
Diet is purposefully crafted in wilderness therapy. It's low in sugar and fats and high in carbs and protein.
As a mouse, the entry stage into Aspen's program, kids eat something like peaches and granola washed down with plain water for 48 hours a menu believed to help cleanse the system of whatever trace drugs might still be circulating. Afterwards, students graduate to beans and rice, vegetables and fruit.
Caps and Gowns
Graduation from wilderness therapy is a big deal.
A lot of preparation goes into the reunion between teens and their parents.
At Aspen kids and their families go on a solo in the wilderness. The former troubled teen is now in complete control of building a shelter and preparing food for their family in the wild usually an enormous eye opener for mom and dad.
A therapist also visits the site for family therapy.
What Happens Afterwards?
Of the twelve kids Ferguson followed for a year after their wilderness
experience, eight are doing well. Several want to go back to
be instructors at Aspen. Others are studying to enter helping
professions.
"There's often an urge to give something back," says Kipnis.
Success rates for wilderness therapy are in the 65% range. "Three times the success rate for standard lock-down drug rehab," notes Ferguson.
Of course, not everyone makes it.
There must be changes at home. Most enter aftercare, follow-up therapy, family therapy, AA, or NA.
"It doesn't really matter where kids go afterwards as long as it's a supportive program that feeds and waters the seeds that were planted in the wilderness," says Ferguson.
These programs are not a cure-all, but offer meaningful and positive experiences for teens to gain strength and better understanding. "They crack open a door for kids to gain control, instead of flounder," he says.
Abbie's doing well at college and has not been on medication or in therapy for over a year.
"I have tools now," she says about her experience in wilderness therapy. "And now I have myself on my side."
The Costs
An eight-week jaunt at Aspen is in the $17,000 ballpark. Most health insurance cover the costs although some cover only after kids have flunked out of standard drug rehabs and other residential programs.
The Dark Side
The Aspen Achievement Academy appears
to have near-universal respect, as do some other well-run programs.
But there is a dark side to the business of "shaping up"
troubled teenagers.
For a well-researched look at the kind of programs that give
the whole field a bad reputation, read "Loving Them to Death,"
an article about abuses in wilderness programs that appeared
in the October, 1995 issue of Outside
Magazine.
Click HERE for link
How to Evaluate Wilderness Therapy Programs
Programs should be thoroughly accredited by the state or other agencies.
"Ask the credentials of the field staff," says Ferguson. Find out about their selection process.
Ask what happens if your child is a discipline problem. Wilderness therapy should not be a military style boot camp. Any answer along the lines of problems "not being tolerated" is a red flag.
Get references from parents and education consultants.
Ask about safety. Field instructors should always be in radio contact with base, and all should be EMT and CPR certified.
Therapists should be properly licensed.
For a comprehensive website on wilderness
therapy programs, log onto struggling
teens.com.
If you are considering a particular program, be sure to check the very frank comments from other parents and teens in the discussion board section.
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