Once a week throughout the year, you can find the young adults at a local farm, non-profit organization, or local business, providing service and learning about various aspects of the local Vermont community. Whether it is weeding at a family-run farm that combines sustainable agricultural practices with education or helping out at a locally owned farm that produces food for guests using local and organic … [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...]
Skills: Building Traps
Outdoor living skills, such as learning how to make traps, are an integral part of the wilderness therapy experience at True North. Our students learn how to make two types of traps, the Paiute Deadfall and the Figure Four. They make a total of four traps and learn how to set them up with flat rocks they find near their campsites. Each trap comes with its own unique set of mechanical challenges, from harvesting trees … [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...]
Skills: Making Fire
The successful completion of True North, like all life adventures, requires the acquisition of new skills and expertise. While the word “therapy” often suggests emotional or cognitive work, the Wilderness requires the acquisition of a set of physical skills as well. These physical skills relate closely to the social and emotional work that takes place at True North. An essential skill at True North is the art of … [Read more...]
Alumni Gathering: Boston 2018
When I made the transition from Administrative Assistant to Research and Alumni Coordinator last fall, I was curious what it would be like to spend more time connecting with True North families after graduation. One of the aspects of my work at True North over the past five years that has been the most rewarding is being able to offer support to parents and family members during the intake process and throughout … [Read more...]
Research: Purpose and Process
Why do we conduct research? Each family at True North has a unique story with their own specific struggles and goals. It is our aim to provide individuals and families the best care and support possible as we collaborate to chart the course toward a successful future. Wilderness therapy has a powerful way of identifying the difficulties families are facing and addressing them in a way that is … [Read more...]
Snowshoeing in the Wilderness
“Hiking is a bit like life: The journey only requires you to put one foot in front of the other…again and again and again. And if you allow yourself the opportunity to be present throughout the entirety of the trek, you will witness beauty every step of the way, not just at the summit” UNKNOWN It is fortunate that the Vermont wilderness offers a wide array of activities and interesting … [Read more...]
Pack Weight
Pack-weight is an important consideration when hiking long-distances. Typically, aspiring thru-hikers start with heavy packs, and gradually we find ways to reduce our weight along the trail. When I set out on the Appalachian Trail my pack weighed 54 pounds! Little things make a collective difference. Pack weight determines how nimble and how lite we are on our feet, and eventually the most stubborn hikers begin to … [Read more...]
Young Adult Winter Activities
Staying Active Wintertime in Vermont provides an endless amount of opportunities to stay active and continue to explore the outdoor world. At True North, our young adults go on various day trips and multi-day expeditions that help to develop a love for the quiet beauty of a snowy winter day. From snowshoeing along a frozen river to downhill and cross-country skiing, our young adult groups find plenty of ways to … [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...]
Gearing Up: Winter in Vermont
“Dressed like onions” might sound funny when you think about our students and staff in the cold Vermont winters, but the phrase is actually an important principle in the year round outdoor-active community. The idea is to simply layer up when you are cold and layer down when you are warm to always find the most comfortable temperature for the activity you are doing. Whether it’s sitting around the campfire journaling … [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...]
Celebrating the Winter Holidays
Just a few days after the longest night of the year, the holiday season acts as a beacon of light to our True North family. This morning, members of our friendly staff worked together in the kitchen preparing a home cooked meal to celebrate the holidays. As they moved about indoors, the final snowflakes from last night’s storm danced their way to the thick white blanket that covers the rolling Vermont hills … [Read more...]
Braving the Wilderness: An Argument for Wilderness Therapy
In her 2017 book Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, writes, “What all wilderness metaphors have in common are the notions of solitude, vulnerability, and emotional, spiritual, or physical quest. Belonging so fully to yourself that you’re willing to stand alone is a wilderness – an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It … [Read more...]
End of Summer YA Journal
End of Summer YA Journal As the summer comes to a close, we begin to enjoy cool autumn nights and beautiful Vermont scenery before we prepare for the winter season. Simultaneously, we begin the process of reflecting on the summer, re-tracing our steps through the forests and lakes that we hiked, canoed, and climbed through all summer long. With this in mind, we look back at some of the expeditions that our Young … [Read more...]
