Hiking a Parallel Trail: How Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness has set the standard for families in Wilderness Therapy

    CLAYTON, GA, October 12, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness is a Georgia-and-North Carolina-based wilderness therapy treatment program and boot camp alternative for troubled teens and young adults. A private, owner-operated program, Blue Ridge has shifted with the changing mental health needs of the client population while relying on a foundation of empirically supported clinical strategies for students with anxiety, depression, dual-diagnoses, and more.

In recent years, Blue Ridge has acknowledged a need for more sweeping family support that spans beyond weekly touch-points between parents and their child's Primary Therapist. Since embracing a robust approach to family work, Blue Ridge has implemented parent workshops, created an in-depth parent resource library, and maintained a strong network of alumni students and parents.

The treatment team at Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness believes that students' long-term success results from deeply understanding how each family system is unique. While teens and young adults are enrolled at Blue Ridge, families participate in a reflective and therapeutic journey of their own. During this process, Blue Ridge Family Therapists and the resources they provide assist parents as they explore their family's habits, behaviors, belief systems and values. The Family Program Team guides Blue Ridge families down these parallel trails by facilitating bi-weekly individualized and group services to parents, siblings and/or other family members when appropriate.

One parents whose child attended Blue Ridge shares, "One thing that my husband and I feel so good about is that after 20 years of marriage, we have direction for ourselves together and as individuals, the Blue Ridge Pathway to guide our commitment to our boys as parents, and some context for how to reflect and attune each other's feelings more often. We had never even thought of doing that before."

The Blue Ridge Wilderness Family Team is composed of Ph.D and Master's level Family Therapists who are passionate about guiding and supporting families through the wilderness therapy treatment process. Each family is assigned to a Family Therapist who is there to support them with weekly individual and group calls, letter writing, self-care assignments, resources and assignments, field visits, and transition preparation for their life after wilderness therapy.

Another Blue Ridge alumni parent explains, "I always had a nagging feeling that my daughter's work should be family-oriented therapy. This is what I've always struggled with, and I'm a therapist! My family has invested a lot of time and money into therapy, but the programs did not emphasize family systems and my own part in my child's problem. Even as a therapist who is more well-versed in this stuff, my patterns of avoidance were preventing me from working on it… But at Blue Ridge, right when you begin- the family therapy component is right in your face. It's not an indictment, it's not castigation, but it's like, 'look, this is something that you have to participate in'."

Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness offers clinically driven wilderness therapy programs encompassing advanced therapeutic skill, a highly flexible nomadic wilderness therapy model, licensed wilderness therapy assessment and multiple treatment options for struggling teens ages 13-18 as well as young adults ages 18-30 in the Emerald Arrow program. Blue Ridge's individualized approach, family support and commitment to service translate to an unparalleled experience and better outcomes for adolescents and families. To learn more about Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness, visit www.blueridgewilderness.com or reach out to [email protected].

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