By Jess Clarke
As program supervisor and recruiter of the field staff at SUWS of the Carolinas, a therapeutic wilderness program for teens outside Old Fort, N.C., Taylor Woods works with employees who spend all of their time with students in the woods to help the kids achieve their therapeutic goals.
The field staff helps “create a supportive and challenging environment in the woods,” Woods says, “trying to implement therapeutic outcomes and making sure their group and their students are emotionally and physically safe.”
It’s important to find staffers well-suited for the position. Woods may be more suited than many – he’s a graduate of SUWS of Idaho, a wilderness program in Shoshone.
Woods’ path to SUWS of Idaho was rough. As a teen, he “rebelled at home and used a lot of drugs,” he says. In 10th grade, he attended a boarding school where he continued to use drugs and had “a lot of behavioral issues,” he recalls. Woods was arrested and charged with stealing money from the school before he left for the wilderness therapy program. SUWS of Idaho was an opportunity for Woods to change his life. “It was my parents’ last attempt to find something that would really shift my behavior,” he says.
It worked. Woods, now 27, benefited so much from SUWS that on graduation day in 1998, he told the field supervisor he would return to give back to other struggling teens. “It was the first time I ever felt like I had achieved something,” he says.
In the 21-day program at SUWS of Idaho, learning how to strike fires with flint and steel and how to make traps from sticks and a rock, hiking all day, preparing rice and lentils for himself nightly over a fire he made, making sure his food supply lasted every week, Woods learned to rely on himself. And that led to his biggest achievement: a new sense of self-confidence that inspired him to pursue challenges he otherwise might not have pursued.
“The most effective thing, and this continues in retrospect for me, is the sense of empowerment that I felt. I’d never felt like I’d actually succeeded or had much value in my relationships or my abilities. The first time I was feeding myself, the crutches I’d learned to use for a long time weren’t working. I had to figure out new ways to be successful. The success was actually due to my accomplishing something rather than sliding by,” Woods says.
It wasn’t long before Woods returned to SUWS of Idaho. The first two summers after he graduated, he worked as a mentor in SUWS’ program for kids younger than 14. “My perspective was really effective in working with the younger kids. I built a really easy relationship with pretty clear boundaries, and I think they took to that well,” Woods recalls. “Working with them and having gone through a very similar process to what they were going through, it put someone who was kind of considered a leader more on their plane and gave them the feeling someone could genuinely relate to what they were going through.”
The Value of Teen Mentors
That’s one way mentors add value for students at SUWS of the Carolinas. Students who want to be mentors must have been away from SUWS for at least a year and must have personal goals they want to accomplish as a mentor. The staff talks beforehand with the student and his or her parents. Mentors may lead hikes and help kids learn wilderness skills. Most mentors are at Seasons, SUWS of the Carolinas’ wilderness program for children ages 10 to 13.
Seasons therapist Kelly Moore worked with a mentor last summer. “They show the newer students what Seasons is all about and are positive role models. In turn, it is about really increasing self-esteem and giving these mentors a sense of worth,” she says.
The fact that some students want to be mentors is a testament to SUWS’ effectiveness. “The wilderness program has become a safe environment for them to make significant changes in their lives. They hold that as a special time and frequently want to give that back to the next generation of kids,” says Shawn Farrell, executive director of SUWS of the Carolinas.
That motivation has inspired Woods and other graduates of Aspen Education Group programs to return to a program to work. Another graduate of SUWS of Idaho is a staff member at SUWS of the Carolinas, which also has had seasonal staffers who are SUWS graduates.
After Woods left SUWS of Idaho, he went to a therapeutic boarding school then to the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Throughout college, he planned to work at SUWS after graduating and chose SUWS of the Carolinas to be near family. He began working at SUWS in 2005 and became a master field instructor before taking his current position.
“I kept coming back because of the people who invested in me at points where I’m kind of surprised they didn’t just give up. It’s been really important for me to feel like I can give back or be part of a process for kids who have given up on themselves. To see that process in other students, where they have similar epiphanies and emotional changes and challenges put in front of them, and see them overcome it and walk away with a similar sense of accomplishment, has been really gratifying,” Woods says.
A sense of empathy from Woods’ personal experience at SUWS informs his work. “It has certainly allowed me, when working with students, to appreciate their fears. I remember what it feels like when you’re sitting around and working on traps, and your whole life at home is moving on without you,” he says.
Without his SUWS experience as a teen, his process for self-examination would have taken a lot longer, says Woods. “At some point or another I think I would have found a way to succeed, but SUWS created a really strong foundation,” Woods says.
Jess Clarke is a freelance writer and editor based in Asheville, N.C.
