Health and Education

What a valuable, purposeful and honorable position you are in! Whether you’re a parent, family member, teacher, therapist, or friend,  you have the opportunity to change a teen’s life!  Perhaps you’re raising a pre-teen that has a wild side. Maybe you’re a teacher who wants to impact the students that spend most of their time with you. You might be a caring relative or family friend who understands the influence of positive relationships.  You can change a teen’s fuature! What are the risky behaviors that teens engage in?  The most common are sexual activity, substance use, illegal behaviors and dangerous driving . You can view a more comprehensive and detailed list from the CDC  here , which includes things like suicide and abuse. If you’re concerned about your teen’s future, here are a handful of practical, applicable ways to prevent risky behaviors. Be relational. Adolescents who live with and get along well with their parents are less likely to ...

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 ...

David and I both knew that the end was near. It's raining in the Chattahoochee National Forest, the kind of cold rain that sings like a siren, seducing and inviting one to withdraw from the light, airy, cathedral of the mind, to descend into the sweet, watery depths of the soul. He and I were sitting under a tarp, shelter from the rain, huddling around the small, smoky fire that served to dissolve the boundary between us. It was David's 100th day in our wilderness therapy program, each of the previous days stretching through time, falling through space until they collected into a large pool, which seemed to be the totality of his young life. Each of these days, in recollection, seemed to be a journey of sorts through all the kingdoms of possible human experience: the outer darkness of parental betrayal, the scented oasis of joy, the citadel of teenage power and the open road of freedom. Yet, on this 100th day, here we were in the most unexpected of domains, the grave...

Blue Ridge first opened our Footsteps group for pre-teens in 2006, as one of the first wilderness therapy programs to work with this younger adolescent age group. It has always been developmentally focused to fit the needs of 10-14 year-olds, with an emphasis on nurturing these kids through every interaction. Our field staff balance supporting students through tasks while not rescuing them from what needs to be done. In this way, our students develop new skills while having the “safety net” of caring adults. We are a co-ed group led by co-ed field staff. This mirrors the traditional school setting where students develop their communication skills and build healthy relationships with peers and staff of different genders. These young students spend most days backpacking, but every ten days, they get to regroup and spend time at our hybrid base camp, called The Fort. In the Footsteps program, we work with our students to increase their understanding of the role they have played in...

“ It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit ” —Robert Louis Stevenson   The majority of teenagers that come to wilderness therapy enter the woods in a state of almost chronic stress and exhaustion. They are over-aroused and over-stressed. Many are carrying a  laundry list of diagnoses , specifically anxiety-related disorders, that are treated through a complex diet of psychotropic medications. When you hear their stories and get a sense of their lifestyle choices, you realize that many kids are constantly stimulated and stressed: by electronics, caffeine, drugs, social media, academic pressures, parental demands and the ever-mystifying challenge of growing up into adulthood. On a physiological level, these stressors trigger their sympathetic nervous systems, which governs fight-or-flight behavio...