Why Choose Us?

• Active Learning --- On our Wilderness Expeditions, learning is active, experiential, and creative. They not only include wilderness learning opportunities but Expeditions often provide a service component where the clients can give of themselves to others and the environment. Learning emphasizes problem-solving and application to real life. Our field staff (instructors) use teaching moments throughout the day to help clients learn through everything they do, from the most mundane duties to the most exciting events. We call this "processing" the experience. The use of moving metaphors and active analogies make every minute of the day a learning opportunity.
• Teens are invited to change, not forced... choice is emphasized.
• Natural consequences for actions help clients make better choices.
• Therapy and change are in everything we do everyday and is "real life." It is practice for being successful when they return home.
• Wilderness experiences help youth develop self-efficacy, confidence, and clarity of thought.
• Active nature of the program speeds up the therapeutic process and eliminates boredom.

"The Journey changed my son's life. After his fathers death, life hit him pretty hard. I can't thank you enough for your wonderful program."

-D. Yeager, Florida

• Teens learn in different ways.... Hearing, seeing, doing, touching, moving, experiencing, and creating, are all ways to help them access self-understanding. By using multiple modalities, learning has more meaning... It can be internalized and happens at a deeper level.... a true change of heart can take place which helps the teen create a way of being, not just a modification of behavior in order to complete a program and go home. Thus, the changes can have a deeper impact.
• The five "Passages" of the Expedition follow the Stages of Change Theory: Pre-contemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance.
  
  
• Evidence based theories form the foundation of the program:
  Stages of Change Theory Arbinger Institute, The Anatomy Of Peace
  Howard Glasser's Transforming the Difficult Child
  Motivational Interviewing Thoery
  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  Experiential Therapy
  Adventure Therapy
  
• Safety is supreme! Activities are evaluated to maintain safety. Field Instructors are trained to keep boys safe at all times. Supervision is consistent and designed to meet and exceed maximum safety standards.
• The Journey is licensed by the State of Utah, Department of Human Services, Division of Licensing as an Outdoor Youth Program. The Journey, LLC has had licenses with the Division of Licensing for over 8 years and has served over a 1000 youth in their other programs.

A few more things to consider:

• Clinically Driven Wilderness Program: The Journey is designed and founded by Madolyn M. Liebing, Ph.D., Psychologist, and current Clinical Director who was the first psychologist to provide individual therapy and psychological evaluations to wilderness participants in the field (Gass, Adventure Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, 2012, p. 41). She instituted the practice of administering a full psychological evaluation to every client as a part of the program and following that up with treatment by a mental health professional in the wilderness therapy program she co-founded 23 years ago.
• The Journey Wilderness continues that tradition by including a full psychological evaluation for every teen in the cost of the program in order to discover any mental health issues, substance abuse problems, and/or academic strengths and weaknesses. The information is used to create a treatment plan especially designed to help your teen grow.
• Youth participate in two individual therapy sessions per week with a qualified mental health therapist.
• Additionally, because we use the most up-to-date electronic equipment, parents can participate in face-to-face family therapy sessions with their teen in the wilderness using real time video teleconferencing. Parents also receive a personalize session with the therapist over the phone or via teleconferencing on a weekly basis. We emphasize family relationship enhancement, parent support, and parenting classes.
• Our clinical staff includes a licensed psychologist, a consulting psychiatrist, an APRN, and experienced therapists.
• Outdoor education: The Journey Wilderness expedition is a hybrid program combining traditional wilderness skills with adventure activities. Wilderness skills include primitive fire building, leatherworking, and basket-making. Adventure activities include rock climbing, backpacking, biking, and canoeing.
• Often we incorporate a handcart in our expeditions, which is an historically correct replica of the handcarts used by pioneers to cross the plains. The handcart teaches cooperation and working as a team in order to move the group forward. It is a perfect analogy for how family members have to "pull their share of the load" to make the family work.
• Every trip also includes a "personal reflection time" when the teens spend individual time in the solitude of the wilderness and can come to grips with the choices they are making and where those choices might lead them. They can use this time to set new goals and plan for the future.
• Accredited Education: It is essential that as the youth are experiencing the wilderness, they do not fall behind in their education or the credits they need to complete high school. The Wilderness Expedition curriculum is an integrated, multi-subject curriculum that allows your teen to earn high school credits while on the trail which can be transferred back to their local school.