Therapeutic Wilderness Trips
The Challenge Adventure program is not a boot camp nor a traditional wilderness therapy program. Instead, we use the opportunities provided by a multi-day wilderness journey to help young people to assume appropriate responsibilities and to form the developmental tasks they require to move forward productively in life. These critical concepts are accomplishment, belonging, responsibility and leadership. The opportunities which are unique to this form of adventure therapy are the wilderness and the llamas. The journey itself serves as a metaphor for the journey of life. Therapeutic trips can be from two days to two weeks.
Adventure Therapy of this kind includes both Action and Reflection. Therefore, in addition to addressing the natural problems that occur along the journey, we conduct three processing / therapy groups each day, usually around meal times. There is time structured into each day for campers to write in a journal. On longer trips, we allow time for a solo experience, where the young person spends a few hours by themselves in silent reflection. On the last day of the journey, the campers write a letter to themselves about what they have learned, which is mailed to them two weeks later, along with group and individual photos taken during the trip. These are tangible reminders of their learning from the journey.
In therapeutic groups, each camper has an assigned responsibility during the trek and at the campsite. Some typical roles are the Scout, who helps lead the group with map and compass and the First Aid Assistant, who helps the guides if someone gets injured. Each camper also has to feed and care for their llama and help with camp chores.
The campers' relationship with the llamas is an integral part of the therapeutic process. The guides use "teachable moments" along the journey to help campers look at their own behaviors, take responsibility and improve teamwork. The cooperative example of the llama herd is used frequently to illustrate different behavioral lessons.
In the wilderness, participants cannot avoid responsibility to self or community without immediate, natural consequences. If you don't do your part in putting up the tent properly, you and your teammates get wet. If you don't do the cooking chores, no one eats. If you lose your spoon, you have to make do. In the wilderness, the individual's safety and welfare is dependent on the behavior of everyone in the group. Some of these behaviors require leading and some require following. Everyone gets a chance to do both. In the wilderness, hiking from one place to another and simple survival are an accomplishment, a real accomplishment which is obvious and hard bought.
Planning: Prior to a scheduled journey, Challenge Adventure staff and sponsoring organization staff communicate to make sure that the youth who may participate are appropriate and also to develop specific plans for each individual. Whenever possible, we like to meet with the youth for an orientation session before the journey.
Trips for therapeutic purposes require advanced planning, so please contact us as soon as you are considering making a reservation. Email to info@challengeadventures.com or call us at 803-254-7959, toll-free at 1-866-660-8090. We will be happy to work with you to further the therapeutic goals of your clients.
Adventure Therapy of this kind includes both Action and Reflection. Therefore, in addition to addressing the natural problems that occur along the journey, we conduct three processing / therapy groups each day, usually around meal times. There is time structured into each day for campers to write in a journal. On longer trips, we allow time for a solo experience, where the young person spends a few hours by themselves in silent reflection. On the last day of the journey, the campers write a letter to themselves about what they have learned, which is mailed to them two weeks later, along with group and individual photos taken during the trip. These are tangible reminders of their learning from the journey.
In therapeutic groups, each camper has an assigned responsibility during the trek and at the campsite. Some typical roles are the Scout, who helps lead the group with map and compass and the First Aid Assistant, who helps the guides if someone gets injured. Each camper also has to feed and care for their llama and help with camp chores.
The campers' relationship with the llamas is an integral part of the therapeutic process. The guides use "teachable moments" along the journey to help campers look at their own behaviors, take responsibility and improve teamwork. The cooperative example of the llama herd is used frequently to illustrate different behavioral lessons.
In the wilderness, participants cannot avoid responsibility to self or community without immediate, natural consequences. If you don't do your part in putting up the tent properly, you and your teammates get wet. If you don't do the cooking chores, no one eats. If you lose your spoon, you have to make do. In the wilderness, the individual's safety and welfare is dependent on the behavior of everyone in the group. Some of these behaviors require leading and some require following. Everyone gets a chance to do both. In the wilderness, hiking from one place to another and simple survival are an accomplishment, a real accomplishment which is obvious and hard bought.
Planning: Prior to a scheduled journey, Challenge Adventure staff and sponsoring organization staff communicate to make sure that the youth who may participate are appropriate and also to develop specific plans for each individual. Whenever possible, we like to meet with the youth for an orientation session before the journey.
Trips for therapeutic purposes require advanced planning, so please contact us as soon as you are considering making a reservation. Email to info@challengeadventures.com or call us at 803-254-7959, toll-free at 1-866-660-8090. We will be happy to work with you to further the therapeutic goals of your clients.