Wilderness Program
Wilderness programs such as SUWS of the Carolinas incorporate the majesty and transformative power of the natural world with a highly structured and closely supervised series of therapeutic activities. The result is that an effective therapeutic wilderness program can effect dramatic (and potentially long-lasting) changes in a relatively short period of time.
Residential boarding schools can necessitate an enrollment period of a year or longer. At a wilderness program, though, a student may spend as little as six weeks before returning home with an improved attitude and an enhanced capability to achieve to his or her greatest potential.
With the assistance of experienced professionals (including wilderness instructors, therapists, and counselors), students in wilderness programs have the guidance they need to make great strides. And with the isolated nature of a wilderness program – where cell phones, iPads, videogames, and other distractions are nowhere to be found – the students have the time and space to focus on the issues that have been preventing their continued healthy development.
The setting of a wilderness program serves as a catalyst that allows wilderness program professionals to connect with the students and turn their focus toward the problems and issues that led them to treatment. A wilderness program moves young people out of their “emotional comfort zone” and places them in a new and challenging (though also safe and supervised) environment.
The demands of mastering their new setting causes students to engage in their automatic behavioral habits, which allows our highly experienced therapists and counselors to positively engage them using effective therapeutic methods.
The SUWS of the Carolinas wilderness program is designed to engage the deeply held passions and desire for purpose that characterize adolescence. Students are guided through an experiential and hands-on curriculum, which allows them to discover their inner strengths while increasing their self-awareness and self-esteem.
A study of wilderness programs associated with Aspen Education Group revealed the following about students who completed a program:
• Mental health issues including stress, depression and anxiety are significantly improved.
• Substance abuse and dependence is significantly reduced, with results lasting through the 12-month follow-up.
• Social conflict and aggressive behaviors decrease.
In addition to providing them with the time, space, and guidance to make the positive changes documented above, an effective wilderness program also gives students the chance to experience true success and complete rites of passage akin to those that were once commonplace among young people.
Though always safe, secure, and supervised, an effective wilderness program presents students with real challenges, from making a bow drill and setting up a tent to completing a difficult hike and assuming a leadership position within a group of peers. When students master these and other challenges, they experience the satisfaction that accompanies true achievement, and hopefully feel the boost in self-image and self-esteem that will support their pursuit of further successes both in treatment and after returning home.
Also, successes that propel the student through the level systems that are commonplace among wilderness programs provide staff and peers with the opportunity to acknowledge the student’s efforts and celebrate his or her successes.
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