Press Releases

       Naropa University Hosts Annual Wilderness Therapy Symposium

BOULDER, Colo. (July 15, 2009)—Naropa University is proud to announce the upcoming
7th Annual Wilderness Therapy which will be held Sept. 11-13, 2009, at the Millennium
Harvest House Hotel, 1345 28th St., Boulder, Colo 80302.

The symposium is a gathering for wilderness therapy professionals, professionals from
related fields and students. It is intentionally called a “symposium” instead of a “conference”
because it fosters an exchange of ideas and a spirit of collaboration. About 250 people are
expected to attend the 2009 event, including faculty and students from Naropa’s MA
Transpersonal & Counseling Psychology: Wilderness Therapy program.

Symposium attendees will have the opportunity to attend a number of topical workshops and
breakout sessions. For example, Naropa faculty members John Davis, PhD, and Deb
Piranian, PhD, will lead a workshop on Ecotherapy. The discipline involves helping people
find balance by deepening their connection with the natural world.

“Our students are people who have a deep appreciation for the healing benefits of nature, and
they often have a spiritual connection with nature,” said Piranian. “They feel a calling to help
other people in their growth and healing.”

The symposium’s keynote speaker, David Abram, is the Director of the Alliance for Wild
Ethics. He gave the keynote speech for the United Nations “World Environment Week” in
2005, and is the author of “The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a Morethan-
Human World.”

On the final day of the symposium, participants will leave the hotel to take part in offsite
sessions, held in outdoor settings near Boulder, a city at the foot of the Rocky Mountains that
boasts tremendous acreage of nearby open lands. The offsite options include six-hour
sessions on topics such as equine therapy, natural awareness and group dynamics.
In practice, wilderness therapy has a wide range of uses and applications from extended
expeditions for defiant youth to a short stroll in the local park with a depressed client, from
intensive spiritual quests for alcoholics to an afternoon of team building on the ropes course
with a corporate office. Professionals trained in wilderness therapy learn to leverage the
healing and teaching qualities of wilderness to increase mental health. Wilderness therapists
integrate skills from the fields of clinical psychology, ecology and adventure education to
create opportunities for learning, growth and healing.

Historically, the majority of wilderness therapy programs in the United States have been
targeted toward struggling teens. In recent years, there has been a surge in other types of
programming including addiction recovery services for adults, psychiatric facilities that take
their clients on expeditions, family therapy expeditions and therapists in private practice that
bring their clients out into the wilderness.

Does it work? Research suggests that wilderness experience offers a host of benefits. For
example, Naropa faculty member John Davis presented a number of findings in his 2004
report “Psychological Benefits of Nature Experiences: An Outline of Research and Theory.”
Davis’ report said that wilderness experience fosters relaxation, restoration, peace and
tranquility. It also said that meeting the challenges of a wilderness setting can lead to an
increase in self-confidence, self-esteem, sensory awareness and focus.

Rob Meltzer, the symposium’s chair, once had a young client who was traumatized during
the events of 9/11. It was a worst-case scenario for a family that lived adjacent to Ground
Zero. The trauma was deep and caused significant mental health issues.

“Traditional psychotherapy did not engage him, but wilderness therapy was effective,” said
Meltzer. “In a natural learning environment, he received extra tools to support his recovery.”
Julie Rachlin, a Naropa student who will soon earn her MA in Transpersonal Counseling
Psychology with a concentration in Wilderness Therapy, has seen positive results on several
levels. She entered a wilderness therapy program at age 16 and found it to be “meaningful”
and “life-changing.” After graduating from college, she entered a program geared toward
mentoring adjudicated adolescents, and soon began training to become a wilderness
instructor.

Rachlin eventually worked with a tough client, a young girl who was on drugs and in a gang.
The girl continued to test her boundaries, leading other instructors not to want to work with
her, but Rachlin stuck with the girl. After their time together, Rachlin said she didn’t know
whether she had gotten through to the girl, but she received a letter several months later in
which the girl said she had quit both the gang and drugs.

In general, Rachlin said that many parents have a difficult time establishing boundaries with
their children, and wilderness therapy provides adolescents with the “firm love” and structure
that they need to move forward in a positive direction.

Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges
and Schools, Naropa University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian liberal arts institution
dedicated to advancing contemplative education. This approach to learning integrates the best
of Eastern and Western educational traditions, helping students know themselves more
deeply and engage constructively with others. The university comprises a four-year
undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental
leadership, psychology and religious studies.