NATWC Conference Expands Focus

The National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping (NATWC) hosted its 15th Annual Training Conference this year on Jekyll Island, Georgia September 21-23, 2008, doing something new. Not only did they hold their usual training sessions designed for front line wilderness staff, they substituted a symposium on the broader issues facing outdoor programming in place of the traditional keynote.

Titled "The State of the Industry Symposium," they invited several well known individuals with wide experiences to participate. The panel included Sharon Laney, President of the National Association of Schools and Programs (NATSAP) and Administrator Rosemary Tippett, Rob Meltzer, CEP, Educational Consultant and founder of Northlight Family Services, Lon Woodbury, CEP, Educational Consultant and publisher of Woodbury Reports; Leonard Buccellato, PhD, Founder of Hidden Lake Academy and Ridge Creek Wilderness; Jude Hirsch, EdD, Chair of the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Accreditation council, and Rick "Tick" McClintock, MA, Executive Director of the National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping (NATWC).

The resulting three hour-long wide-ranging discussion covered several topics including what the state of the economy might mean for programs and the industry, the legislation proposed by Congressman George Miller which passed the House of Representatives earlier this year, and how important formal academics and clinical therapy are to a successful program. Despite the length of the session, the approximately one hundred attendees maintained their interest and asked many questions and offered many comments.

The greatest attention and time was devoted to Congressman George Miller's proposed legislation. Rosemary Tippett started the symposium off by describing the legislation, what NATSAP had been doing to work with Congress regarding it, and how she had gradually learned that Congressman Miller seemed to be more focused on simply closing private programs down rather than on improving safety and quality of services in our industry.

The resulting discussion covered several aspects of what was being done or needed to be done. "Tick" McClintock emphasized that NATWC's establishment and growth of the Wilderness Counselor Certification is one of the organization's primary contributions toward increasing standards and establishing best practices in the wilderness industry.

During this part of the symposium, some emphasized the need to work to continually improve the quality of our services, increase professionalism and continue to develop and expand best practices for therapeutic wilderness to respond to critics. Others emphasized and talked about the importance of encouraging parents of alumni to step forward and tell their story to counter the distortions that have been presented by the Congressional hearings and by critics that have little basis in facts.

In the discussion on the troubles in the economy and its impact on the industry, all programs reported they were responding in two ways. One response was in keeping costs down, with the most helpful suggestion being to find and eliminate unnecessary small items which, when combined, can quickly add up to considerable costs. The other suggestion was to work harder at meeting the needs of the families to make sure as much as possible the families would be satisfied. This not only would reflect greater value and service, but it would have the added value that these families would be more open to speaking up for us.

Another line of discussion was the evolution of wilderness programs. It was pointed out that they originally were almost exclusively wilderness or outdoor oriented, with concepts like simple camping out or wilderness survival as their basis. Wilderness programs then evolved to add more clinical elements in what has usually been called wilderness therapy. However this often resulted in an ongoing struggle between wilderness and clinical staff and their different perspectives. It was asserted that with some of the new wilderness programs starting up, it looks like the evolution of wilderness programs is making another step to where there is a complete integration of wilderness and therapy.

The rest of the conference consisted of small break out sessions mostly designed to provide new techniques for the wilderness line staff that composed most of the attendees. These of course were all well attended and talked about favorably.

The National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping (NATWC) www.natwc.org, represents over 50 therapeutic wilderness programs for young people across the country. In addition to its annual conference, they also publish the Journal of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping, documenting and sharing cutting-edge research and advancements within their field.