Things are Warming Up for Adventure Therapy

Things are finally warming up! In a few weeks, Wendigo Lake’s canoes will again be carrying youth working to overcome their inner demons of substance abuse, trauma and emotional regulation through some of the most beautiful wilderness areas on the planet in search of their better selves.

The world of evidence-based practice is also warming up to adventure therapy. A recent flood of peer-reviewed research is confirming what adventure therapy staff and students have long known through personal experience. The American Psychological Association (APA) recently featured adventure therapy as the cover story for their magazine and this year’s APA conference in Washington D.C. will see seven presentations on research related to adventure therapy.

Just this month, a journal article by seven doctoral researchers entitled “Adventure Therapy With Youth” addresses the question ‘does it work’:

“Research on wilderness programs has shown it to be effective in improving overall functioning of adolescent clients, as well as specifically reducing symptoms of distress related to interpersonal and mental health challenges.”

The second most frequently asked question, “is it safe” also now has an answer. Definitive published evidence reports that participants in quality wilderness therapy programs are at substantially reduced risk of illness and injury compared to their community-based peers.

Adventure therapy draws upon the benefits of intensive cognitive behavioural programming guided and supported by clinically trained staff. It also leverages the proven benefits of high levels of physical activity, solving challenges that build self-efficacy and resilience, and harnesses the restorative power of soft-fascination within nature. Above all, the strong relationships and therapeutic alliance formed with adventure program staff forms the physically and emotionally safe context for treatment-resistant youth to take the first tentative steps from pre-contemplation into action towards positive change.

Opportunity Knocks for Three Youth in need of Residential Treatment

By the end of June, three more teenage boys who arrived at Wendigo Lake as a result of their lives being out of control – driven by rebellion and hopelessness, rejecting adult guidance and abandoning school in favour of anti-social peers and substance abuse – will be going home to their families. These youth have grown into much more stable and mature young men during six to nine months of participation in Wendigo Lake’s residential adventure therapy program.

 

Late June is an ideal time for three new youth to begin their journey to wellness. The summer is a time of adventurous wilderness canoeing expeditions and pleasant days at the Wendigo Lake campus enjoying the waterfront, adventure activities and some classroom time. Students are all the while engaged in therapeutic programming supported by Masters-level therapists and well-trained staff, designed to develop the skills, hope and resilience required to return to their home communities better equipped to realize hopes they had previously not dared to hold.

  

For more information about our REACH adventure therapy residential program or to make a referral – call Russell at (705) 386-2376 x201 or email admissions@wendigolake.com   

Research on Wendigo Lake Staff Will Lead to Better Outcomes For Clients

Wendigo Lake Instructors are currently serving as subjects in two separate independent research studies. One study coming out of the University of Edinburgh is exploring the relationship between the work life and personal life of front line staff. The second multi-site study is being conducted by researchers out of Brigham Young University. This study is gathering information from Instructors about their education/training, personality type, attitudes towards their work, etc., and correlating this data against performance evaluations completed by supervisors, peer staff and students – hoping to identify predictors of high performance therapeutic staff.

The findings from these studies will lead to increased understanding of the attributes therapeutic programs should look for in order to create an optimal treatment team and further illuminate those aspects of the work experience most important to maintaining a healthy, happy, motivated workforce. Research has already definitively determined that the quality of the therapeutic alliance and relationship between staff and client is by far the most powerful determinant of client outcomes.

Wendigo Lake is well-known for the quality of its staff and their capacity to quickly form strong therapeutic alliances with behaviorally challenging youth. I believe it is the powerful synergy of amazingly skilled and caring staff, combined with our unique adventure therapy program design and integrated on-site classrooms which has lead many residential placement professionals to believe Wendigo Lake provides one of the best therapeutic placement options available in Ontario.    

Reflections on a piece of coral: 'The Stick Project'

Last week during the Therapeutic Adventure Professionals Group pre-conference, Tony Alvarez facilitated a session where we explored “who are you?”. The closing element of the session was an invitation from Tony to participate in an activity he called ‘The Stick Project’ that would extend this reflective activity into the weeks after the conference. The steps to the activity were as follows:

1.    Go for a solo walk and choose a ‘stick’ or any other natural object that we think might hold within it features that we could use to explore who we are and spend time thinking about what the ‘stick’s’ purpose might be.

2.    Spend time weekly with the selected object. (E.g., take it for a walk, introduce it to others, invite others to comment on it, etc.).

3.    Maintain a journal of your journey with the object. (Talk about how you decided to transform it, take photos of the process of transformation, write a story/poem about the object, etc.).

I went for a walk on the Florida beach where we were meeting, and found an object that a friend advised me was a piece of coral. It immediately came to mind that coral might be a perfect metaphor for something that has long been a frequent object of reflection for me - what I perceive to be my role as the CEO of Wendigo Lake and its adventure therapy residential programs. And so I have chosen to take this piece of coral as the object of my ongoing reflection on my vocation as a senior manager/leader. I envision writing a series of reflections over the course of the next year as I grapple with the question of ‘who am I’ in my role as organizational leader/senior manager.

Here is my first take on the leader as coral:

For me, coral represents the structure within which the life of the coral reef thrives. The coral provides a home and environment within which a thriving ecology develops. Similarly, as leader of the Wendigo Lake therapeutic community, I do not engage in clinical treatment of our students, teach school credits, cook food, form the critical therapeutic relationships, or many of the other crucial elements that go into sustaining our students on their journey to wholeness and maturity. Hopefully, what I do serves to create some of the conditions within which this therapeutic ecology is enabled to grow and thrive. Over the weeks and months ahead, I hope to explore this role and organizational ecology in more depth. I invite you to share your reflections so that together we might deepen our understanding and appreciation of how leaders and managers contribute to sustaining a vibrant therapeutic community.

Written by: Stephen Glass - CEO Wendigo Lake Expeditions

Wendigo Lake Welcomes Nicholas Magle-Haberek to Clinical Team

I am very pleased to announce that Nicholas Magle-Haberek has accepted our offer of a full-time permanent position as a therapist with Wendigo Lake. Nick is the first graduate of the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) dual Masters program (M.S.W. and M.S. in Outdoor Education) and will be coming to us with field and clinical experience gained from a number of work experiences, including Second Nature, Eagle Rock School in Estes Park, Odyssey Adolescent Treatment Center, Summit Achievement and Soltreks. Nick’s extensive and diverse experience as a front line therapeutic instructor and facilitator and his advanced clinical skills can only serve to further enrich our service. Nick has been involved in working with the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) and Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Research Cooperative (OBHRC) research database at UNH and will be a great asset to Wendigo Lake’s research program. Nick has presented at several Association for Experiential Education conferences. It is worth noting that Nick will be the second MSW that Wendigo Lake has hired upon graduation from UNH while two of our field Instructors have left us in order to participate in UNH’s dual Masters program. This web of interconnection between organizations committed to continuous improvement and service excellence is tangible evidence of the sentiment that through collaboration we are stronger and ‘a rising tide floats all boats’.

Affirmations of a Mother, Student and Past Instructor of Wendigo Lake

Over the past five weeks, I received three separate unsolicited emails/notes. One is from the mother of a student who graduated from Wendigo Lake a while ago, another from a student who graduated from Wendigo Lake several years ago, and a third from a past employee of Wendigo Lake who hopes to return when personal circumstances permit. Their words epitomize the professional and therapeutic environment we seek to create every day for staff and students alike.

Their affirmations of Wendigo Lake are more eloquent than anything I could write, and so they will speak for themselves (I have inserted program clarifications in brackets.):

“This program (Wendigo Lake) saved his life. I cannot stress how great this program was for him – it gave him his life back – his self-esteem, belief in himself and his morals are strong once again. It put him back on the right path again – I am very grateful to the wonderful staff and to him for buying into it and working hard – Thank you.”
Tracey S. May 5th , 2011 written note

“I am extremely grateful for the time and dedication from the Osprey (REACH) team through my stay at Project DARE (Wendigo Lake). I have grown into a responsible, respectful and productive member of society. I owe a great thanks to dare (Wendigo Lake) for believing in me through even the toughest times.”
Chris S. – April 1st , 2011 note via website

“It is the constant change and surprise of Wendigo Lake that makes me love the job. As someone who has been shaped a great deal by my intern/work experiences at Wendigo Lake, I wish for nothing more than to be able to work there in a therapist position one day. As I tell everyone I meet this is my dream job, and then carry on about how wonderful the program is. People often tell me that I glow when speaking of your program….I believe that Wendigo Lake will remain my dream job….I know for certain that the professional benefits at Wendigo Lake far out weight most every job out there, and the reputation of Wendigo Lake has already helped me to get a number of jobs…”
Nicole L. – May 4th, 2011 email (edited for length and personal content)

These words from a mother, a student, and one of our past Instructors, capture the reasons why Wendigo Lake and its REACH and Project DARE programs are so well respected by those who have had the privilege to be part of this professional and therapeutic community over the past forty years. These words are also why we work so hard at continuous improvement, seeking to be just a little bit better with every passing year - because we owe our staff and students nothing less.

- written by Stephen Glass - CEO

The Clock and Wendigo Lake Spring Forward

Today, we move our clocks ahead in one of the first rituals of spring. The streams and rivers are beginning to surge with the melting snow and tree buds are readying themselves to burst out in new growth. In similar fashion Wendigo Lake’s staff is springing into action for one of the most exciting years in our forty year history.

Our admissions team is busy preparing to respond to the annual surge of referrals to our REACH, Project DARE and ACHIEVE programs. We’re excited about our new approach to managing referrals which draws on our expanded leadership team to ensure we provide a timely response to every referral.

Speaking of expansion, we are particularly excited about adding eight new spaces to our residential adventure therapy REACH program on June 1st. This new capacity will improve our ability to welcome new students while allowing us to reduce the maximum size of each student group from ten down to nine as one more way to improve the quality of care.

Each group of REACH and Project DARE students will continue to be served by a direct service staff team that exceeds a 1:1 ratio to students – a program supervisor, masters level therapist, teacher, and at least eight Instructors. Supporting the direct service teams are more than twenty additional management and support staff whose task is to ensure our clients receive the consistent high quality service on which our forty year reputation is built.

Speaking of reputation, we are excited that 2011 marks the year we are up for our third term of accreditation by the Association for Experiential Education, which is complementary to the two annual licensing reviews conducted by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

Our ACHIEVE program unit is looking forward to a busy year with bookings already in place for a number of new and returning groups from secondary schools, colleges, universities, and community agencies. We are also excited to be offering some therapeutic wilderness canoeing adventure experiences for both male and female groups of youth.

In August we will be hosting the return of scores of past staff and students as they join us in celebrating the 40th anniversary of our Project DARE program – making us one of the oldest continuously operating wilderness therapy programs in the world. In October, we will be co-hosting the 3rd Canadian Adventure Therapy Symposium.

So, we have an exciting year ahead of us, and I hope you’ll be part of it!

- written by Stephen Glass - CEO