Troubled teenagers struggling with issues like drugs/alcohol, defiant conduct and the like may significantly benefit from direct experience with the environment. It can supply them with the groundwork for personal principles such as dependability and self-respect. Abrupt and efficient treatment may be provided by a short-term outdoor program with focus on a teen’s emotional growth. Defiant teenagers dealing with personal issues may respond to the emotional and physical trials they must face as an opportune way to face emotional restraints which have hindered further growth. The setting in a therapeutic wilderness program is not only encouraging, but provides an area for a child’s views to be aired without heavy apprehensions. Differing points of views are not discouraged but each given due import in order to value an individual’s emotions.

In these specific types of wilderness programs, an adolescent’s emotional issues are properly addressed as the environment is utilized as a productive atmosphere for positively affecting a self-destructive mindset. These types of programs not only provide mental and physical challenges but they offer a chance for an inward-focused examination of the self-destructive behavior that has been characteristic of the child. In a non-threatening atmosphere such as nature, a troubled teen may be able to open up in the wild and in turn rely on it to encourage further examination, hopefully leading to a firm change in the adolescent’s actions. This atmosphere which is packed with potential for day-to-day success stories, can provide a different take on a child’s issues and shed some positive light on his/her existing negativity.

The benefit of a therapeutic environment lies in its counselors, who may work closely with your children to open their eyes to the significance of their encounters in the wild. But these lessons learned in the wild are not to be left there, for application strategies are also taught to ensure your child takes his lessons with him and puts them to use in real life.

One-on-one and group counseling is a prime component of the daily schedule therapeutic programs like these may offer. At most of these types of wilderness programs, psychological examinations are given to find out your son/daughter’s individual needs and assist in his/her emotional progress.

Wilderness programs can last from about 30-60 days. With an intense focus on a teenager’s behavior, these short-term programs can act as a good intermediary point for adolescents going on to long-term therapeutic solutions. Your child may get to go out camping in the forest or mountains. There he may learn basic survival techniques which encourage the development of positive relations among other students as an effect of the teamwork required to survive in the wild.

Refer to our Teen Wilderness Program Directory for more information.