Why Wilderness Therapy is a Better Option Than Juvenile Boot Camp

Wilderness therapy has long been regarded as both effective and therapeutically successful.

Written by: Wood Creek Academy

great-outdoors-wilderness-therapyWhen one thinks of youth and the outdoors, hiking and outdoor education often comes to mind. But, did you know that it’s also being used as an alternative for troubled teenagers programs. While this may sound fairly new to you, it’s actually not as wilderness therapy programs date all the way back to the early 1950s. Today, there are dozens of programs that offer therapeutic treatments for teenagers that suffer from substance abuse or behavioral disorders.

Nature’s “Natural” Healing Energy

Through a combination of outdoor activities and therapeutic one-on-one sessions, a teenager can experience profound changes to their behavior. As opposed to a boys boarding school or a juvenile boot camp, wilderness programs tend to model their therapeutic framework on cleansing, taking personal responsibility, and a follow-up transitional stage. By following these three steps, a teenager will face his or her “demons”, overcome them, and be well on their way to recovery.

How Wilderness Programs Benefit You

By taking a teenager out of their unhealthy environment, professionals can then work with essentially a blank slate. This also involves maintaining a healthy diet, physical exercise, and a class that teaches them basic survival. This then leads to personal responsibility as well as understanding the consequences of their actions – which is typically reinforced throughout the program.

For example, if a teenager refuses to make a fire will eat a cold dinner, or those that do not prepare for the upcoming rain will end up being soaked. The emphasis of an individual’s actions plays a therapeutic role in how they make choices back home as opposed to just being lectured in a boarding school for troubled boys. This ultimately has a substantial mental “cleansing” in which they conform to making the right decisions in order to achieve a positive outcome.