Health and Education

As my training in EMDR was coming to a close, I had an interesting conversation with one of the primary facilitators, Frank. He described his efforts to bring EMDR treatment into public schools. He spoke with conviction about the need for and potential benefits of this treatment for children, and he lamented the opposition he’d encountered. Some of the students were very resistant, and this paled in comparison to parents who thought the protocol looked a lot like hypnosis. Though frustrated by this, Frank smiled as he described the solution he’d devised. Proudly, Frank displayed a toy ball that flashed when he slammed it against the table. “It’s the same thing!”, he exclaimed. “They can stare at this and get the same benefits!” Intrigued, I thought of my upcoming work at Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness. “What’s the difference in that and staring into a campfire?”, I asked Frank. “Nothing!”, he said. I explained my future work environment, and Frank encouraged me to explore my ...

I discovered this incredible work by chance while searching through a listing of outdoor jobs on an online database in the summer of 2011. As a recent college graduate, I was neck deep in the angst of entering the job force. I had never heard of Wilderness Therapy before, and honestly, I remember feeling unsure if I wanted to do it or not. I pictured a boot camp where students just cried all day and yelled at each other as field instructors ran around saying things like, “take accountability for your actions!” or, “let the tears flow!” Nonetheless, something about it captivated my imagination. So I applied for a job as a Field Instructor and read every book about it I could get my hands on. As I read  Shouting At The Sky , a book describing a writer’s personal wilderness therapy experience, I started to understand that this wasn’t like anything else I had ever heard of; it sounded compassionate, powerful, raw, even sacred. Two months later I was asked to join a training group ...

This post originally appeared in All Kinds of Therapy, written by Emily Miranda. You can find that post  here . Any seasoned wilderness therapy staff knows the importance of students remaining well-hydrated. Being that our bodies are comprised of so much water, drinking plenty of it every day helps keep students’ bodies functioning properly; it helps with regulation of body temperature, aids in removing toxins, helps acclimatize the body to new altitudes, prevents headaches and even irritability (both can be signs of dehydration) and helps the skin and hair maintain moisture and deliver essential nutrients to the cells. So, when I was working in a wilderness therapy program in Utah, and one of my students was refusing to drink water, suffice it to say I was concerned. As the staff and I were processing how to support this student being safely hydrated, while still meeting her need for a sense of choice, one of the staff mentioned, “well, she’s not drinking enough water, but...