why wilderness

Living in wilderness, free of a roof and walls, provides a person with both a sense of space and a feeling of exposure. Both of these psychological responses provide access to areas within a person that have become a source of disease due to suppression or repression. This inherently powerful aspect of the wilderness becomes a foundation for a uniquely spiritual, life-altering experience.

Taking Responsibility

Chemically dependent persons often use substances to avoid emotional discomfort that results from daily stressors. In addition to using drugs in an attempt to manage their feelings, they also employ addictive behaviors to manipulate those around them in order to protect their relationship with the drug. This may lead a person to perceive they have things "under control" when in reality their life is becoming unmanageable. In the wilderness, the consequences of a person's choices and actions become readily apparent – resulting in the inescapable conclusion that all people are responsible for the results of their actions.

As this experience sinks in, a confidence develops, leading to competency, self-advocacy and a greater deliberateness of thought and action. In other words, healing begins.

‘The Great Equalizer’

When this process occurs within the social context of a small interdependent group, the potential for developing true intimacy with others is extraordinary. This experience can alter a person's understanding of the potential of human relatedness, and can form the basis of an optimistic and socially responsible adulthood.

Living in small nomadic groups within a wilderness setting requires you to cooperate to solve challenges presented by the environment. Overcoming these challenges offers you a chance to practice assertive communication, to express your needs and your feelings and to value what others have to say. You build self-confidence by being resourceful and using primitive living skills to solve problems. Friendships formed in wilderness are not based on drug use or maladaptive behaviors. Wilderness is a great equalizer.

Healing & Meaning

Generations of humans have ventured into the wilderness to search for healing and meaning in their lives. In returning to the natural world, you regain a sense of humility and awe. The environment seems to have a way of making a person "right sized."

Most people who are struggling with an addiction are usually engaged in emotionally and physically unhealthy behaviors. In the wilderness setting, we see how we generate most of the misery and upset in our lives by constantly seeking some form of diversion, some way to manipulate our experience to alter our thoughts and feelings. The natural world has an innate ability to heal people and this has profound effects on a person's mood and physical health.

Simply being in the wilderness is both therapeutic and inspirational. It is in identifying with nature, the power and the beauty both beyond and within simultaneously, that a person develops the capacity to withstand his own experience.

Basic activities and routines like hiking, regulating sleep, and following a balanced nutritious diet plan help chemically dependent people begin their recovery process. The simplicity of life in the wilderness brings rich meaning to acts that can be taken for granted in our "modern world." The spiritual journey, our clinical interventions, and more than 1,200 square miles of land in our course area combine to shape a powerful treatment experience.