From the popular forest bathing in the 1980s in Japan to the growing body of research that says 2 hours a week in the wilderness – simply being outside – can improve your mental health and now, in Scotland, General Practitioners now regularly prescribe walks in the woods for their patients. Enter Wilderness Therapy, and the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Council. Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare has begun outcomes-based research.
Wilderness Therapy programs have been influenced directly, or indirectly, by Kurt Hahn’s Outward Bound program. According to Dr. Will White, author of Stories from the Field: A History of Wilderness Therapy shared that, “Outward Bound arrived in the United States in 1962 and many of the early Outward Bound instructors and students went on to start wilderness therapy programs in the later 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.” There are many different models to wilderness therapy and White explained, “One of those instructors included the originator of the primitive skills model of wilderness therapy, Larry Dean Olsen, who was inspired by his summer working at Outward Bound in Colorado. He took what he learned at Outward Bound and added primitive skills to help struggling students at Brigham Young University in 1968. This would spark the movement of wilderness therapy programs in the west. Most wilderness therapy programs still include segments that were first seen at Outward Bound including solos (time on one’s own in the wilderness) as well as an endurance challenge. It has had a tremendous influence on wilderness therapy.
Outward Bound Intercept program was specifically designed for struggling teens. Although Wilderness Therapy programs have similar roots to Outward Bound, they evolved into very different models, with one foundational distinction being licensed clinicians as part of each treatment team and how programs are state-regulated for struggling teens (if offered) and that most are nationally accredited by Association of Experiential Education. Wilderness therapy programs work with the whole family system from enrollment through discharge.
The goal of this blog is to point out the key areas of difference between the two different populations of “troubled teens” or young adults who are struggling.
- The Client: Struggling Teen | Young Adult
Wilderness Therapy programs are accredited by a state or national organization and enroll students who could be struggling with a particular diagnosis (or diagnoses), acting out behaviorally and have not found success at home, school and/or with friends. Wilderness Therapy programs rarely are the first intervention in a teen or young adult’s life. The child may have been to therapy, struggled in school, been hospitalized, expelled from school, arrested, is struggling or failing in school or is a puzzle in terms of the clinical piece or behavior.Outward Bound Intercept program students have a level of insight and it is the students’ choice to enroll.
- Enrollment | Length of Stay
Wilderness Therapy accepts new students on a rolling admissions basis, and the length of stay varies up to 3 months. They have an extensive application that includes a psychosocial assessment. The enrollment fee to a wilderness therapy program pays for all the outdoor gear that is required for the treatment program. Families do not have to shop for gear for their child, this allows a client to enroll in an emergency. Some wilderness therapy programs will allow a client to enroll with a teen transport; others will focus on assisted transport and yet many clients enroll willingly.Outward Bound Intercept Program is either 28 days or 50 days and has a particular start date and end date; in other words, the group starts and finishes as one group expedition.
image courtesy of Outback Therapeutic Programs Staffing
Wilderness therapy programs hire college graduates who go through 40 plus hours of training before going out with students in the field. The title of the staff vary wilderness program to wilderness program but the intense training requirements weeds out those who are not capable in terms of the outdoor wilderness survival or adventure skills (“hard skills”) and their emotional intelligence/communication (and sometimes, de-escalation). Field Staff are a vital component of a teen’s treatment at a wilderness therapy program. Field staff shifts vary, working 8 days on and then 6 days off to 15 days on to 13 days off. All of the wilderness therapy programs start pay at $120+/day. After a certain period, there are healthcare benefits and more. Therapeutic staff develop soft skills, along with expedition leadership; their job includes being an extension of the clinical team, assessing and intervening with their assigned “caseload” of students.
Outward Bound staff do help participants recognize and modify their behaviors but almost entirely in relation to a group-orientation, and group goals.- Clinical Goals
Wilderness Therapy Nationally accredited or state-accredited wilderness therapy programs have licensed masters or Ph.D. level clinicians creating and supervising the treatment plan for the student. In simple terms, the goals for the struggling teen or young adult treatment and strategies to achieve them are in this document, and it is updated consistently during enrollment in the program. A licensed therapist will do individual and group therapy sessions during their field time. Another regular aspect of the course includes daily group and individualized counseling by the field instructors, who are a critical part of the treatment team.Outward Bound Intercept does not have treatment plans or clinical oversight during the student’s enrollment. Struggling Teens who enroll in the Outward Bound program are not there to receive individual treatment; instead, all of their therapeutic experience is from group processing that is not run by a clinician.
- Clinical Assessment vs. Experiential Education
Wilderness Therapy programs have deep-rooted clinical underpinnings, where the goal, according to Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare accreditation, is “ the prescriptive use of wilderness experiences by licensed mental health professionals to meet the therapeutic needs of clients’ The nuance of how a particular company implements this is part of the nuance of how they differ. There are different wilderness therapy models that focus on stabilization, assessment and varying types of treatment. Wilderness Therapy programs use small group dynamics, backcountry simplified living, community interaction and intensive observation and psychotherapy to engage clients in healthier interdependence.Outward Bound, founded by the British military in 1930 with the mission of developing group loyalty and team orientation, uses expedition, physical hardship, skills development and group success over gradually more difficult goals to create pride and confidence in each contributor. While individuals develop self-efficacy and initiative, the focus is not on individual “issues” or personal triumphs.
- Family
Wilderness Therapy programs work with families before their teen or young adult’s enrollment and during their enrollment. Generally, it begins with admissions helping the family detach from unhealthy excuses or co-dependence, and in treatment, becomes letter writing, weekly phone calls with the clinician updating on the assessment and treatment goals and possibly phone and field visits with the son or daughter (except during COVID restrictions) . Many programs have a family workshop during or at the end of a teen’s programming, or a dedicated clinician for that family, sometimes a parent coach, regardless the entire family has some of their own therapeutic work while their family member is enrolled.
Outward Bound reveals on their website that they serve families and students who are ready to change. They have partnered with an aftercare provider to assist with family work after the student completes the course.
