Wilderness Therapy Assists International Students

Guest Blogger: Steven DeMille, LCMHC, PhD
Executive Director – RedCliff Ascent

Wilderness therapy provides many opportunities for teens and young adults to have life-altering experiences. With an increase in international students attending school in the U.S., RedCliff Ascent has seen a rise in international enrollments over the years. These students come to RedCliff because they are struggling in their current academic settings or suffering from emotional concerns that are becoming unmanageable.

Below are some helpful points associated with international students and RedCliff Ascent:

Wilderness therapy has a strong history as a character-building intervention, which supports academic success.
Emotional distress is a major contributor to academic failure.
Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) originally emerged as an intervention for struggling university students. It assists in the development of students' emotional growth, resilience, and self-discipline.
Wilderness therapy is also an effective intervention for mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, and substance use.
OBH can be an effective intervention for struggling students, helping them avoid academic failure or withdrawal from school.
RedCliff Ascent has a long history of working with international students. Up to 18% of the RedCliff student population has been internationally referred.

Comments

Recommended Books for Parents, Families, and Personal Growth

By Stephen C. Schultz Parenting has never come with an instruction manual. As children grow, families encounter new challenges involving communication, relationships, anxiety, technology, independence, emotional regulation, and simply figuring out how to help a child navigate an increasingly complicated world. Over the years, I have spoken with many parents who were looking for more than a quick answer to a difficult parenting problem. Sometimes they wanted to better understand their child's behavior. Other times they wanted to improve communication, establish healthier boundaries, or simply find a different way of looking at a situation. One of the resources I have found particularly helpful is a good book. The right book cannot solve a family's problems, but it can provide a new perspective, introduce a useful skill, or reassure a parent that they are not alone. With that in mind, I have compiled the following list of books that parents, families, and others may find helpful...

Personal Fulfillment – a byproduct of kindness, caring and service

By Stphen C. Schultz As I watch the news and listen to discussions on the daily topics of interest, I find myself disheartened by the selfish, shallow and selective reasoning that seems to be so pervasive throughout our great country. Selfishness creates an attitude of self-pity, which over rides any attempt at empathy for others, compassion or thoughts of service. Chronic self-concern means that the emotional "No Vacancy" sign will always be sputtering. I find myself asking; what ever happened to civility brought about by kindness, tact and tolerance? Where is the courage to be caring, honest, faithful and friendly with one another? If we as a people hope for unity, we must embrace patience, peacefulness, respect, idealism, courtesy and honor. My next thought was that these principles seem to be foreign to whole generations. Many seem to be caught up in a “scarcity” mentality where there are only winners and losers with no opportunity for a “win-win” situation to b...

Paying It Forward: A Simple Act of Kindness at the Pharmacy

By Stephen C. Schultz I walked in the door at home after a long day of work and made my way to the kitchen when my cell phone rang. It was my wife, calling from the doctor’s office. She mentioned that my 14-year-old daughter had an infection and needed antibiotics. She told me the doctor’s office had just called in the prescription to a Walgreens store down the street. I wasn’t excited to leave the house again, but I turned around, grabbed my keys, slipped my shoes back on, and headed out the door. I pulled into the parking lot and got out of my car. My short walk across the lot was met with a welcome blast of cool air as I stepped through the automatic doors. Even though the kids were back in school, it was still summer as far as the weather was concerned. Once inside, I made my way to the back corner of the store, where the pharmacy was, halfheartedly noticing the nondescript music playing overhead. As I rounded the corner of the aisle, I was met with a line of about ten p...

The Interpreted Rock

Search This Blog