Wilderness Therapy for Youth-at-Risk - Helping troubled teenagers

Parks & Recreation, Sept, 2000 by Magdalena Rosol

Wilderness Therapy is an emerging field that utilizes aspects of the outdoors to promote change in adolescents with behavioral problems. Although this is not the only group that can benefit from the outdoors, wilderness therapy is most often used with youth-at-risk (Davis-Berman & Berman, 1993; Tippet, 1993; Miles, 1987). Staff in the field come from different backgrounds and schools of thought. Thus far, there is not a degree that prepares individuals to work specifically in this field and more and more, outdoor leaders find themselves in the position of a therapist dealing with emotionally and behaviorally troubled teenagers (Berman & Davis-Berman, 1993).

Recently, researchers have started to look at the competencies and skills required of wilderness therapists, since these individuals work with high-risk populations and are confronted with high-risk situations and challenges (Nadler, 1993; Gray & Yerkes, 1995). The purpose of this research update paper is to identify those skills and competencies that have been deemed important by researchers and wilderness therapy professionals who work with youth-at-risk.

Wilderness programs stem from Outward Bound programs formed by German educator Kurt Hahn during World War II (Kimball & Bacon, 1993). Hahn's original purpose was to prepare British seamen to survive the rigors of war. After the war, Outward Bound came to the United States, where it became very popular and expanded rapidly. It was soon discovered that such programs greatly benefitted youths with various kinds of emotional, psychological, and behavioral problems (Davis-Berman & Berman, 1994). According to Kimball and Bacon (1993), Outward Bound's curriculum and philosophy are based on the assumption that people learn best while doing. The program is thus experience-centered, and usually takes place in the wilderness as opposed to indoor centers and hospitals. The main philosophy is that wilderness provides the best learning environment, because it is unfamiliar to the students, and total immersion in the wilderness milieu is necessary to achieve maximum impact.

At this point it is important to point out that the origins of the therapeutic component stems from early `tent therapy' programs. Davis-Berman and Berman (1994) explain that these programs originated in hospitals at the beginning of the century with tuberculosis patients. It became necessary to separate sick patients from the healthier ones, by placing them in tents set up outside on hospital grounds. The improvement in their health was detected immediately, both physically and psychologically. The same was tried with other patients with similar results. The therapeutic benefits of having patients spend time in the outdoors was noted, and today, is the basis of wilderness therapy programs for youth-at-risk (Davis-Berman & Berman, 1994).

The need for outdoor programs for youths became more apparent after World War II. Kimball and Bacon (1993) elaborate on this point in more detail. One hundred years ago youths were important to the economic survival of the family unit. They worked up to 10 hours a day, and thus contributed a significant role in the family, but that all changed with urbanization. In the urban setting children were not required to ensure the everyday functioning of the family, and thus spent most of their time in passive situations. School became compulsory and took most of their day. However, school taught passive learning, since information flowed one way: from the teacher to the student. Today teens "... find themselves at the onset of puberty facing a vast array of challenges and opportunities; however, they are frequently deficient in many of the basic life skills, such as self-confidence, self-discipline, judgment, and responsibility, which are necessary to prosocially manipulate the world around them" (p.17).

Teenagers today face many problems. Our western culture lacks significant roles for teens, and they often find themselves confused and lost in this world, trying to fit somewhere between adulthood and childhood (Kimball & Bacon, 1993). To add to the confusion, television has become a major influencing factor, and "children as watchers of TV may become hyperactive, have a reduced attention span, be weak in verbal ability, and perform poorly in reading. Their values, too, may become corrupted because they see so much violence and immorality" (LaRossa & Mulligan-LaRossa, 1981, P.57).

Wilderness therapy approaches adolescents as individuals who have not had the opportunity to develop, to be challenged, and to develop pro-social values (Gass, 1993). Wilderness programs are designed to attack helplessness, passivity, and feelings of low worth (Miles, 1993; Kimball & Bacon, 1993). Their purpose is to leave the student with feelings of empowerment, perseverance, and confidence. Wilderness trips with youth at risk last anywhere from one day to a year. Groups consist of 6-14 individuals and the number of wilderness leaders/therapists varies between 3-5.