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.    

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