Wilderness Therapy & The Role of Educational Consultants
Wilderness therapy is an increasingly popular option for struggling youth who require more intensive treatment beyond outpatient counseling. As part of the continuum of care, wilderness provides a unique setting to facilitate clinical breakthroughs when traditional talk therapy alone has not been effective. While more research is still needed, initial studies on wilderness therapy show promising results for improving mental health and behaviors.
Should you consider wilderness therapy?
Overview of Wilderness Therapy
Wilderness therapy, also called outdoor behavioral healthcare, involves immersive treatment in natural settings. Under the supervision of licensed mental health professionals, small groups of youths with issues like addiction, conduct disorder, trauma, depression, or anxiety spend weeks or months completing wilderness expeditions and therapeutic curriculum. The wilderness environment provides physical and mental challenges, which, when processed in psychotherapy, build insight, coping skills, and personal responsibility.
Wilderness therapy typically includes:
Backpacking trips, hiking, canoeing, and climbing under the care of experienced wilderness guides.
Individual and group therapy sessions.
Psychoeducational curricula focus on communication, emotions, coping strategies, and relationships.
It is a simple lifestyle with few modern distractions or chemicals.
Sensory engagement with nature.
Meeting daily and social goals through teamwork and habit development.
Programs serve adolescents 10-18 years old for 9-12 weeks on average.
Goals and Theory of Wilderness Therapy
Wilderness therapy addresses dysfunctional behaviors, thought patterns, family dynamics, and emotional struggles through immersion in nature, physical challenges, and clinical interventions. The principal goals are to:
Develop self-efficacy, resilience, and coping skills to manage emotions and stressors.
Improve family communication, attachment, and restore healthy dynamics.
Expand identity beyond unhealthy social roles, labels, or actions.
Reduce substance abuse, technology addiction, and impulsive and criminal behaviors.
Build self-confidence by mastering wilderness skill goals.
Practice teamwork, leadership, and conflict resolution.
Promote attention, mindfulness, and appreciation of nature.
Theoretical foundations of wilderness therapy blend psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, family systems, and experiential/challenge models. Removing modern distractions and inserting therapeutic processing around wilderness experiences produces clinical breakthroughs that are difficult to achieve in traditional settings.
Efficacy Research
Research across the last 15 years broadly supports the efficacy of wilderness therapy programs:
Multiple studies found statistically significant reductions in mental health symptoms, including depression, anxiety, adjustment issues, and emotional and behavioral problems. These improvements exceeded the control groups.
Research shows decreased substance use and legal problems after wilderness therapy compared to family therapy alone.
One study showed a 79% decrease in suicidal ideation after wilderness treatment.
After students completed the programs, there were significant improvements in family functioning, communication, roles, closeness, and ability to handle difficulties.
Lasting change in problem behaviors, including aggression, conduct issues, defiance, and risky behaviors, has been shown from 6 months to 7 years post-wilderness therapy.
Many studies revealed positive growth in confidence, self-efficacy, independence, motivation, coping ability, mindfulness traits, leadership skills, teamwork, and a sense of personal responsibility.
Researchers found over 90% of client satisfaction rates plus perceptions of lasting positive impact on identity, skills, and behaviors.
While promising, existing research has some limitations, including small sample sizes, lack of randomization, and selection bias of more motivated families. More rigorous randomized control trials are still needed to establish efficacy further. However, initial studies suggest solid potential for wilderness therapy to impact behaviors and mental health issues that have not responded sufficiently to outpatient counseling alone.
Benefits of Wilderness Settings
The wilderness environment removes distractions and chemicals, enabling emotional issues to surface and be processed effectively in therapy. Positive risk-taking challenges build self-efficacy, understanding failure, and moving to positions of personal resiliency. Limited natural consequences prompt responsibility and engagement from students as they are no longer pushing back against their parent's rules and expectations. Wilderness therapy facilitates treatment breakthroughs by leveraging nature's benefits and clinically-guided processing.
How Can Educational Consultants Help?
Choosing a wilderness therapy program can feel overwhelming for parents in crisis with a struggling child. Educational consultants who guide therapeutic placements can help families research and select the best wilderness option personalized to the child's needs. Consultants provide invaluable assistance with:
Screening which students are appropriate candidates for wilderness therapy based on symptoms, history, risk factors, and failed treatments.
Researching accredited wilderness programs, treatment models, and outcomes.
Comparing philosophies, clinical approaches, credentials, safety policies, and family services.
Guiding families through intake assessments, paperwork, and insurance questions.
Coordinating with the current treatment team - therapists, psychiatrists, schools.
Helping parents anticipate and prepare for wilderness transitions.
Arranging family therapy and parent education around the wilderness stay.
Planning continuity of care after wilderness into step-down programs, school, and home transition.
With an objective, expertise-driven perspective, educational consultants save families time, stress, and avoid missteps that lower overall anxiety of navigating the process. Their guidance helps parents make the most informed wilderness program selection tailored to their child's needs and family context.
While not a fit for every child, wilderness therapy fills an important niche when conventional counseling and other home-based options fail. For youth needing intensive assessment and intervention, wilderness provides a supervised, clinical environment to redirect dysfunctional trajectories into healthy, sustainable change.
