Wilderness Therapy in the News

By Staff Writer

Wilderness therapy used to be a little-known way to treat adolescents with emotional and behavioral issues. Now, success stories about troubled teens in therapeutic wilderness programs are popping up all over the news.

A recent article in The News-Sentinel, a local newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana, told the story of Carol and Kevin Laughlin and their 13-year-old son, Matt, who had a long history of suicide attempts and trouble with the law. On the recommendation of his therapist, Matt was enrolled in SUWS of the Carolinas, a renowned wilderness therapy program in North Carolina.

"They work with these kids to help them make better choices," Kevin Laughlin told writer Ashley Smith. "It's an amazing, amazing thing. We never knew places like this existed."

According to the Laughlins, Matt was making dramatic improvements at SUWS. The family knew that Matt would need more long-term treatment, and on the advice of their doctors, enrolled him at Stone Mountain School, a therapeutic boarding school for boys in North Carolina.

In an environment that provided plenty of individualized attention and small class sizes, Matt was able to work at his own pace to improve his academic performance and receive rewards for good behavior to help him improve his relationship skills and social performance.

The Laughlins are currently battling the public school district to get help paying for Matt's therapeutic programs. Carol Laughlin told the News-Sentinel, "[R]egardless of the outcome, we have no regrets. They cannot accommodate everyone's needs in a public school. In my opinion, Matt slipped through the cracks. We need to not let that happen to other kids."

Another wilderness success story appeared in a Nov. 14, 2009 article in the L.A. Times. Writer Deborah Netburn shared the story of a 17-year-old Northern California girl whose parents enrolled her in a wilderness program. Although it was a scary and humbling decision, her mother told the Times that she "would do it all over again in a heartbeat."

Scientific studies have shown that wilderness therapy is effective with adolescents, more so than traditional "talk therapy." In the wilderness, teens hike and camp under 24-hour supervision from trained field instructors. Campers participate in daily therapy and learn self-care, confidence, trust and empathy through the relationships they form with staff and their peers and experiential activities like making a bow drill.

In the wilderness, teens have to learn to talk through problems, deal with the natural consequences of their actions and cope in healthy ways. Rather than simply talking about issues, the teens at wilderness camp learn through hands-on experiences. They then bring back the lessons they learned and apply them to life at home and in school.