In the following blog post, Parent Therapist Peter Girz, LCSW, continues his series on attachment and parenting. If you haven’t had a chance to read part one yet, please click here: Attachment and Parenting Styles: Part 1. Even if you are familiar with the child/parent attachment that I touched on in the previous post, it can be difficult to understand how attachment styles translate into adulthood. There are no … [Read more...]
Attachment and Parenting Styles: Part 1
It’s not unusual to enter the therapeutic process with a future orientation. When enrolling in True North, families wonder where this process will lead. It is important to maintain a goal oriented perspective, and yet, the process begins with looking into the past. This is the first of four-part series examining the theory and integration of family systems work in the context of True North’s programming. We begin … [Read more...]
It Takes a Village: Breaking from the Academic Norm
Engaging in a wilderness or residential therapy placement is a big commitment for families, especially since it usually entails withdrawing from school, and letting go of expectations one may hold surrounding traditional academics. As a society, we are accustomed to a developmental trajectory that emphasizes academic success as the central point of focus, with emotional and social development lurking in the … [Read more...]
Nonviolent Communication: A Path to Emotional Expression and Relational Repair
Adolescence is an important developmental stage where emotional vocabulary blossoms. That said, identifying and expressing emotions is a skill that youth have to develop. Putting a name to an emotional experience is challenging, and the knee jerk reaction can be inflammatory. Adolescents tend to “react” to relational distress or conflict versus “responding” to it. This “reaction” could be blaming, withdrawing, … [Read more...]
Creating New Paths: Organization from Complexity
When a group of students at True North arrive at a new campsite, the area typically looks a bit chaotic. Trees and bushes, bumps and puddles, sticks and dirt are everywhere. Perhaps the temperature has dropped and everything is covered in a smooth sheen of snow or ice. The functions of the ecosystem that created the area are incredibly complex, to the point of seeming to be completely random and almost infinitely … [Read more...]
COVID-19 Response Update: March 13, 2020
At True North, we continue to follow the current situation with the Coronavirus, and are working to update our related protocols. We are laser focused on providing the core therapeutic work in the field while taking responsible steps to ensure we are doing everything within our control to keep our students and staff safe and healthy. For our students, it is generally life as usual out in the field, although there … [Read more...]
True North Guides are WFR Certified
The physical and medical safety of our students is of the utmost importance to the whole team at True North. The Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification is the “Gold Standard” in medical training for anyone working in an outdoor environment. It is the definitive medical course for wilderness travelers. The 80 hour course is usually spread over 8-10 days with many opportunities for students to ask questions … [Read more...]
Grieving the Loss of Idealized Adolescence
Supporting clients and families in the process of acceptance and charting a path towards healthier communication We often see a form of grief and loss taking place in times of transition to alternative educational settings. Specifically, we regularly speak with parents and students about letting go of the ideal image they wished they had with respect to neurotypical adolescent development and traditional academic … [Read more...]
Treating Self-Harming Behavior in the Wilderness
At this year’s Wilderness Therapy Symposium in Park City Utah, True North therapist Bo Bicknell MSW joined clinicians Emily Thelan (Chrysalis School) and Kendra Meiklejohn (Outback Therapeutic Expeditions) to lead a workshop presentation on treating adolescent girls who exhibit self-harming behaviors in the wilderness. Their audience included visiting consultants, wilderness guides, clinical directors, and other … [Read more...]
Spectrum of Care and Therapeutic Support for Adolescents
True North Wilderness Program is one of many forms of residential treatment that can guide individuals and families on a path to health and wellness. However, our therapeutic milieu and where wilderness falls on the overall spectrum of care is often unfamiliar and at times overwhelming for families to fully understand. Described here are the varying levels of care, from least to most restrictive and supportive. … [Read more...]
A Closer Look at Parent and Family Work
One of the most exciting and sometimes daunting elements of participation at True North is the Parent Program. Whether a family is new to treatment or has had previous experience, this is an opportunity to explore family dynamics and patterns and to engage in a parallel process with students. As families begin their work with parent therapists at True North, there are certain terms that are bound to come up. These … [Read more...]
Skills: Map and Compass
The theme of navigation appears regularly in our lives at True North. A student’s arrival is typically discussed as “the beginning of the journey” through True North. As a therapist, I speak with students and parents about “shifting course," or "finding a new path." One often arrives to a program like True North after they “took a wrong turn,” “started moving in the wrong direction,” or “got lost.” We move through … [Read more...]
A Healthy Diet at True North
Although it may seem like common sense to most people, eating a healthy, well-balanced diet is critical to positive physical and mental health. During the first couple of weeks, our students start to acclimate to outdoor life at True North. For many students, the daily routine at True North is very different from their lives at home. They begin and end each day with a nutritious meal, track their water intake and … [Read more...]
The Green Mountain National Forest
Quite often, folks wonder about our field areas and express curiosity about the actual wilderness part of True North Wilderness Program. Our offices are located in the heart of Waitsfield, VT, but our program utilizes a wide variety of field areas throughout central Vermont and our young adult clients travel even more widely, exploring wild places all around New England. The largest field area that True … [Read more...]
Finding the “Real World” in the Woods: Leaving Behind Social Media and Anxiety
As a student adjusts to life in the woods at True North, the often begin to have discussions about “the real world” and what they do “in real life.” They talk about favorite music, movies, and other media. In particular, they tend to discuss their lives on social media: “What’s your Twitter handle?” “What’s your Insta?” “What’s your Finsta?” (a ‘Fake Instagram,’ typically reserved only for close friends). This is … [Read more...]
Resilience in the Cold
After particularly cold nights in the Vermont hills, mornings can be noisy. Trees creak and snap as the first sunlight reflects off of the bright snow and starts to melt ice particles. Occasional wind gusts nudge branches at the tops of trees into motion, dropping a bit of snow near the top, which upsets the next snowy branch below, escalating step by step into an avalanche of powder thundering down out of the pines … [Read more...]
New Year’s Neuroscience: Goal Setting
As the calendar year winds down, we acknowledge one of the most widely accepted and practiced ceremonies in cultures throughout the world: marking the passage of time by setting intentions for the coming year. New year’s resolutions are grounded in a belief that growth and maturation are not only possible, but within our grasp. We look to the past, recognize our human imperfections, and then turn to the future, … [Read more...]
What to Expect at a Parent Workshop
A core value at True North is the importance of family. In support of our values, we are committed to family inclusion, especially when it comes to working together with the parents and guardians of our students. We have received overwhelmingly positive feedback through the years related to the work that parents at True North have invested in, alongside their children, in a parallel process of self-discovery and … [Read more...]
The Impact of Wilderness Therapy on Academic Success
A question we often hear from families and students alike is, “How is fire making, building traps and hiking possibly going to help me in my life?!” As professionals working in the field of wilderness therapy, we have long seen how a few short intensive months in wilderness settings can have a positive impact on a student’s success in academic endeavors. However, understanding what actually goes on in wilderness to … [Read more...]
Senses Come Alive
Like all of the seasons in New England, Fall is a time for change. When the seasons change so do our behaviors and our senses perk up. These transitions can be a time to reflect on the previous season and get excited for the upcoming season. This is my favorite time of year to be in the woods of Vermont. Vermont is more than 75% forests and many of them are extremely wooded. As the leaves fall from the trees, the … [Read more...]
Parent Programming at True North
At True North, we place a strong emphasis on supporting parents at every stage of the program while simultaneously repairing, shifting or strengthening the relationships between parent and child. It is critical that we address the family as an emotional unit that impacts all members of the system. Students frequently report that as a result of their struggles, they have felt like “the problem” in their family, and … [Read more...]
