By Hugh C. McBride

As the weather warms and schools dismiss their students for the summer, thoughts often turn to the great outdoors.

Many families fill their summers with weekends at the shore, camping excursions in the mountains, or evenings at the ballpark. Closer to home, other families take advantage of community parks and pools, and sign their children up for summer sports programs.

But in your home, the start of summer vacation is accompanied by anxiety and frustration, as you and your partner prepare for three months of daily conflicts with your defiant, out-of-control teen. The beauty of the natural world doesn't hold any promise for your family, does it?

Actually, it does.

If your child has been descending into defiance, depression, substance abuse, or a host of other unhealthy behaviors that have you fearing for his safety (and your sanity), summer vacation may be the ideal time to get him out of the house, into the fresh air, and back on a constructive path.

From therapeutic summer camps to wilderness programs for troubled teens, the summer offers a wide range of innovative opportunities that are designed to help your child identify, address, and ultimately overcome the obstacles that are preventing him from being the person you know he can be.

In addition to benefiting from the close supervision of highly trained and dedicated staff members, young people who participate in wilderness programs for troubled teens are also exposed to one of the world's most therapeutic and motivational experiences: living in the wilderness.

Getting 'Right-Sized'

Lucy Taylor is the clinical director at Passages to Recovery, a wilderness-based addiction recovery program for young men. She is also an unabashed advocate for the healing potential of the wilderness.

From defiant teens to young people who are struggling with addictions, participants in wilderness programs get away from the chaos of everyday life and have the opportunity to focus on their problems, their limitations, and their relationship with the world.

"The wilderness helps you get right-sized," Ms. Taylor said. "It makes you realize that the world is such an enormous place, and we're such a small part of the world, and that the only real control we have is over ourselves. That's how to get right-sized."

As young adults work with their counselors and therapists to complete an effective wilderness program, they learn that understanding and appreciating their strengths and weaknesses is one of the essential aspects of growing into healthy adulthood.

"The reason that their lives became unmanageable is that they were trying to control the whole world, instead of just focusing on themselves," Ms. Taylor said. "The wilderness teaches them about self-efficacy. They realize that they are capable to doing so much more than they ever thought they could.”

Problem-Solving Skills and Self-Confidence

Most wilderness programs for troubled teens begin with a brief assessment period (usually about a week) that takes place at the program's "home base" facility. After this assessment period, the teen heads into the wilderness to join a group of his peers.

Some programs integrate the newcomer into the group immediately, while others take things a bit slower – for example, the new participant will camp near the group, but will not join the group campsite until she has mastered certain skills or met certain requirements.

During both the assessment period and the first days in the wilderness, the newcomer will be learning and mastering skills that will allow her to thrive without modern conveniences such as electricity and ready-made meals.

From learning to make a fire to mastering the science of orienteering to becoming adept at setting up and taking down a campsite, teens who are just weeks removed from a fast-food and computer-saturated society discover that they are capable of solving problems that they didn't even know existed a short time ago.

Responsibility and Accountability

As teens progress through the phases of a wilderness program, they will take more active roles within the group – roles that require both personal responsibility and accountability. Assigned responsibilities include ensuring that the group is up and moving on time in the morning, plotting the course for the day's hike, and supervising camp construction at the end of the day.

Wilderness program participants soon learn that personal failures have group-wide repercussions, and that taking one's responsibilities seriously is an essential part of being a contributing member to a family, group, or community.

This sense of accountability to others is developed in concert with a sense of personal responsibility and a willingness to assume ownership for previous bad decisions and inappropriate behaviors. The confidence that comes from using these new attitudes to benefit both the group and themselves provides positive motivation for continued responsible behaviors.

Self-Reliance and Self-Respect

Young people who participate in a wilderness program for troubled teens or an addiction recovery wilderness program develop senses of self-reliance and self-respect that would be difficult to achieve in such a relatively short time in any other environment.

In addition to demonstrating that they are capable of taking care of themselves, participants in a wilderness program for teens also prove that they are worthy of the trust and respect of others. As they master individual skills such as orienteering, they also fulfill significant leadership and support roles that are essential for the continued healthy functioning of their group.

At SUWS Adolescent and Youth Programs in Shoshone, Idaho, the young people who complete the adolescent wilderness program often end their wilderness experience with a community service project such as improving a fish/wildlife habitat or cleaning up an area for the Bureau of Land Management.

These service opportunities, said SUWS Program Director Cliff Stockton, are designed to help the wilderness program participants transfer their newly acquired skills as they transition out of the wilderness and back into their communities.

“The service phase is about improving and cleaning up, but it’s really about the future,” Stockton said. “It’s about preparing yourself for what comes next.”

Jerrie Dee Harvey, a wilderness therapist with SUWS, said that completing a wilderness program for teens gives young people an opportunity to develop both the skills and the attitude that will allow them to achieve more than they ever imagined.

“Eventually, they realize, ‘I’m not here for punishment -- I’m here for opportunity,’” Harvey said. “They have learned to be with themselves, and to believe in themselves.”