March 30th, 2011 
Hiker A lot of parents struggle with teens more than what’s normally expected. The adolescent period of one’s life is something that could be challenging for both parents and their children alike, but living with a troubled teen is a different story. Many parents who live with troubled teens turn towards alternative solutions such as wilderness experience programs.
Wilderness experience programs are not the same with adventure therapy and boot camps, contrary to what other people may think. While wilderness camps have an element of behavior modification as part of their goal, it isn’t the driving factor of the program.
Adventure therapy is largely responsible for influencing other types of therapeutic methods. However, unlike wilderness experience programs, many people see adventure therapy as a manipulative form of therapy which results to producing contrived results from contrived psychological exercises. Boot camps, on the other hand, uses negative experience, punishment, confrontation, and the likes to force behavior modification. Wilderness experience programs are nothing like that.
Wilderness camps have programs that are more group-oriented and puts much store on learning assertiveness and communicating openly. These days, modern models of wilderness programs took the best parts and evolved from an older model of wilderness programs where children are put in extreme environments where they encounter challenging situations. In such situations, communicating and working well with others is important in attaining a common goal. During these exercises, children become more contemplative and develop a sense of self-discipline and responsibility. The impact of the program is not diminished for participants because wilderness programs do not use contrived psychological activities.
Studies show that children who went through wilderness experience programs come out of it with a more self-assured and independent attitude. Because they live without their families and the comforts of their home, they also become more appreciative of their own families and friends. In many cases, though, people think that the positive effects of going to wilderness camps will be short-lived unless followed through with other alternative education options such as therapeautic boarding school. For teens who are encountering more challenges to their life, this could be very useful. To make the experience a truly life-altering one, either continue with a similar program or focus greatly on aftercare. Of course, there are some teens that do not need as much structure and help as others. It’s really a case to case basis which could be best determined by consulting a therapist.
If you’ve researched about wilderness camps, it’s inevitable that you would come across some bad reviews. This is mainly because some teen boot camps actually advertise their program as wilderness therapy just because they are in a wilderness setting. They self-identify their program as “therapy” without using clinical models of therapy on their students. In such programs, there have been reports of injury, abuse, and even accidental deaths because they push the children too hard.
There are also programs located outside the US, which means that they are not licensed nor regulated by the same laws that regulate wilderness programs within the country. It’s best to inspect their permits and licenses before signing your child up for their programs.
If you’re looking for a wilderness program for your teen? Check out Wilderness Programs For Teens website. Provides free tips and advice about wilderness programs and in selecting the right wilderness therapy programs.
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