When a group of students at True North arrive at a new campsite, the area typically looks a bit chaotic. Trees and bushes, bumps and puddles, sticks and dirt are everywhere. Perhaps the temperature has dropped and everything is covered in a smooth sheen of snow or ice. The functions of the ecosystem that created the area are incredibly complex, to the point of seeming to be completely random and almost infinitely … [Read more...]
Treating Self-Harming Behavior in the Wilderness
At this year’s Wilderness Therapy Symposium in Park City Utah, True North therapist Bo Bicknell MSW joined clinicians Emily Thelan (Chrysalis School) and Kendra Meiklejohn (Outback Therapeutic Expeditions) to lead a workshop presentation on treating adolescent girls who exhibit self-harming behaviors in the wilderness. Their audience included visiting consultants, wilderness guides, clinical directors, and other … [Read more...]
Skills: Map and Compass
The theme of navigation appears regularly in our lives at True North. A student’s arrival is typically discussed as “the beginning of the journey” through True North. As a therapist, I speak with students and parents about “shifting course," or "finding a new path." One often arrives to a program like True North after they “took a wrong turn,” “started moving in the wrong direction,” or “got lost.” We move through … [Read more...]
Finding the “Real World” in the Woods: Leaving Behind Social Media and Anxiety
As a student adjusts to life in the woods at True North, the often begin to have discussions about “the real world” and what they do “in real life.” They talk about favorite music, movies, and other media. In particular, they tend to discuss their lives on social media: “What’s your Twitter handle?” “What’s your Insta?” “What’s your Finsta?” (a ‘Fake Instagram,’ typically reserved only for close friends). This is … [Read more...]
The Journey of Guides to Therapists
On Wednesday mornings before a shift, the air is electric but the guides are sometimes a bit sleepy. The night before a week long Wednesday-to-Wednesday shift often lacks the same uninterrupted rest as other nights. The potential pleasures and pitfalls of a new dramatic week often loom heavy in the mind on a Tuesday evening, and each guide must prepare themselves with their own rituals and habits. Before they took … [Read more...]
Resilience in the Cold
After particularly cold nights in the Vermont hills, mornings can be noisy. Trees creak and snap as the first sunlight reflects off of the bright snow and starts to melt ice particles. Occasional wind gusts nudge branches at the tops of trees into motion, dropping a bit of snow near the top, which upsets the next snowy branch below, escalating step by step into an avalanche of powder thundering down out of the pines … [Read more...]
New Year’s Neuroscience: Goal Setting
As the calendar year winds down, we acknowledge one of the most widely accepted and practiced ceremonies in cultures throughout the world: marking the passage of time by setting intentions for the coming year. New year’s resolutions are grounded in a belief that growth and maturation are not only possible, but within our grasp. We look to the past, recognize our human imperfections, and then turn to the future, … [Read more...]
