ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores a wilderness experience journey in the UK and starts taking a whole class of teenagers out for ten-day wilderness experiences on a yearly basis. He prepared the class carefully over the academic year for a threshold experience, starting with a day walk in the hills, followed by a weekend camp in the mountains. Most wilderness programmes in the United States last for a period of three to eight weeks on average. Therapeutic wilderness experience involves a combination of a number of interventions each with a potentially positive effect on adolescent psychological health and development. The Wilderness Foundation designed a nine-month intensive course to help this group of vulnerable young people and Essex Social Services, UK, supported the programme. During the wilderness experience the group was isolated from outside social pressures and also experienced the challenge of going through a detox from drugs, alcohol, and technology dependency.
