Base Camp

The base camp component of our wilderness treatment program allows teens to test their accomplishments in the wilderness and helps them develop the skills necessary to make their recovery transferable and sustainable. The most important skill we can help foster in wilderness therapy is the ability to create a safe internal environment so that the adolescent's well-being is not contingent on day-to-day ups and downs.

Transitioning in and out of base camp teaches our students how to adapt to new situations and surroundings and find security within themselves, instead of depending on external resources for their happiness. This process helps to make their recovery portable once they leave our wilderness program. Our unique wilderness therapy model also helps teens master the daily living skills that will be necessary in the next step of their recovery.

At base camp, teens are in daily contact with their licensed clinical therapist for individual, group, and interactive family sessions. During their time at base camp, teens engage in a variety of activities including:

• Neurofeedback to Treat Teen Substance Abuse
• Daily contact with their individual therapist (this allows the therapist to observe and assess the teen in a variety of contexts and provides the student with more extensive therapeutic intervention)
• Daily physical activities and recreational initiatives designed to promote group cohesion and self-awareness
• Interactive family sessions (utilizing a family systems approach, which leads to greater long-term success)
• Substance abuse educational groups (access to more educational tools reaches more diverse learning styles)
• Narcotics Anonymous meetings (speakers from the local recovery community are able to attend meetings and serve as role models to our students)
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy group sessions(research demonstrates DBT is a highly effective skills-based model for teens in recovery from alcohol and drug abuse)
• Low, medium and high ropes courses (challenging students to face their fears and take risks in a safe setting)
• Yoga classes facilitated by a master level yoga instructor who has an extensive clinical background in recovery and is licensed in the mental health field (regular yoga and mindfulness practice is positively correlated to long-term recovery success.)
• Health and hygiene checks including showering and re-outfitting for the upcoming wilderness expedition
• Guest instructors from the community introduce a variety of educational opportunities for teens in the areas of environmental education, meditation, and art education (the North Carolina region is home to a plethora of talented arts/crafts and other educators whom we are able to host because of our base camp model)
• Therapeutic Drumming (Research indicates that drumming enhances recovery in a variety of ways, including alleviating self-centeredness by connecting with others in the drum circle as well as assisting in accessing a higher power and spiritual perspectives) (American Journal of Public Health, v.93(4);April, 2003