SUWS Wilderness Articles

What’s Really Happening With Your Teen?
Teen behavior can be difficult to interpret. What prompted the emotional meltdown before school this morning? Why the slammed doors or the sudden decline in grades?

More than a Mere Annoyance: Bullies Push Young Victims Beyond the Breaking Point
In a document entitled “Bullying is Not a Fact of Life,” the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) describes bullying as “when one or more persons repeatedly say or do hurtful things to another person who has problems defending himself or herself.”

Using Peak Experiences as a Catalyst for Change in Wilderness Therapy
Amid the routine of daily life, there are certain exceptional experiences that stand out as special and even life-changing. Psychologists sometimes refer to these as “peak experiences” – when everything feels right with the world and you are filled with powerful feelings of happiness, peace and awe.

It’s Not Too Late to Help Your Troubled Teen Before School Starts
The last school year was a struggle, and the trouble continued over the summer. Now your teen is about to start another school year that holds no promise of being any better than the last.

SUWS Wilderness Therapy Programs Serve the Distinct Needs of Pre-Teens and Teens
Despite being only a few years apart, pre-teens and teenagers look, speak, act and think differently. Although research clearly shows that pre-teens are emotionally, socially and physically in a very different place than teens, pre-teens are facing growing pressure to look and act more like their older counterparts.

At SUWS, ‘Search and Rescue’ Becomes Model for Student Success
Throughout the United States, the concept of “search and rescue” is most commonly applied to emergency personnel who are charged with extracting individuals who have become lost or injured in dangerous wilderness terrain. But at SUWS Adolescent and Youth Programs in Shoshone, Idaho, these time-tested techniques and strategies are incorporated into one of the toughest rescue missions of all: bringing troubled teens back from the brink of failure and despair.

SUWS Can Help Your Children Achieve New Successes in the New Year
Spending the holidays without your children is probably not your idea of a dream December. You’d like nothing more than to have a nice family meal beside the Christmas tree, and to wake up to the excitement of opening presents with your kids.

Wilderness Programs – Fresh Approaches after Almost Three Decades of Helping Troubled Teens
Wilderness programs have been helping troubled teens deal with depression, defiance, attention deficit, substance abuse, and other behavioral issues since the 1940s. Although the concept of teens venturing out into the wilderness to learn teamwork, communication, and responsibility is not new, wilderness therapy has come a long way over the years.

SUWS Adolescent and Youth Wilderness Program Announces New Family Camp
Five-day, mid-treatment family camp sends parents on a wilderness journey with their troubled teens.

How the SUWS Wilderness Program Helps Kids with ADD / ADHD Get “Green Time”
Jon Worbets has been taking children with Attention Deficit Disorder camping in the wilderness for thirteen years. Based on his experience, he believes that being outdoors “profoundly impacts these kids. They seem calmer, more focused, and more able to follow through, rather than just acting on their impulses.”

Male Rites of Passage
There are no cell phones, computers, televisions or automobiles. A boy learns how to sit and be still, and to become present emotionally. This helps him center himself so that he can change his life from the inside out.

SUWS Wilderness Therapy Programs Empower Girls
Counselor Megan Lynott works with teenage girls who do not want to be in counseling, much less camping in the desert wilderness of Idaho.

Team Support Helps Teens Transition After Their SUWS Wilderness Experience
Most SUWS students undergo profound and meaningful life changes during their brief weeks in the Idaho wilderness. In order to survive and stay comfortable outdoors, a SUWS teen learns to cooperate and form friendships with his team members.

Safety as Number One Concern of SUWS and SUWS Parents
All parents worry about their children’s safety: SUWS parents are no different. A parent may like the idea of using nature as a challenge and healing agent for his troubled teen, but he wants his child to come home in one piece.

Substance Abuse Groups in the Wilderness
“A lot of neat things happen in the wilderness. When students are away from drugs and other substances, they are away from the influence and out in the wilderness. Exercise and fresh air helps their minds to heal.”

Learning Trust and Creating Meaning Through Serving Others
Through teaching the skills needed to survive in the wilderness, Mark Lauer hoped to help students learn to persevere and become self-reliant, as well as to create meaning rather than just pleasure in their lives.

Inspiring Teens with the Silent Power of Wilderness
In today’s high-speed, information-overloaded society, it often seems as though there’s nothing that networked, always-on-the-go American teens can’t get, see, or do.