Wilderness Therapy & Mentoring

05/31/2018

Outdoor Leadership Training '18

Canoe/Camping Expedition in Nova Scotia's Tobeatic Wilderness Area. Please read on.....

The program will recruit 6-8 students and will be lead by two veteran instructors, Ed Thorney and Dr. Cara Roure Johnson. The focus is on developing core competencies in outdoor leadership for a small group of promising young adults.

Introduction at WTM Base-Camp - Lakeville,CT:

We will meet from June 20-22 for a 3 day two night camp at my home in Lakeville. These three days will be spent practicing basic canoe and camping skills and checking out that we all have proper gear. It is an introduction.

Mentoring:

July has two individualized mentoring sessions for each student -where we can work together on whatever is important for you.

Nova Scotia Expedition: 7/31/18 to 8/10/18:

July 31 we meet again at my house to pack the van, prepare our food storage and depart early the next morning for Nova Scotia. Once in Nova Scotia, we will be canoe camping in the Tobeatic Wilderness. This is a beautiful and remote area. We will be integrating leadership training, emergency evacuation procedures, group problem solving, safety management, communication skills etc.. as well just having having serious fun!

Additional information is found on the website www.wildernesstherapyandmentoring.com

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Outdoor Leadership Training - Summer '18 features a 10-day Canoe/Camp expedition to Nova Scotia. July 31-Aug 10

We start with a 3 day-2 night camp at my place as an orientation on June 20-22. This will help us organize our gear, food and paddling skills.

14-day program integrates individual mentoring with a rugged back-country experience and prepares you to be a qualified assistant outdoor instructor.

Veteran male and female instructor team covers both back-country skills and group management skills.

The two-week intensive training allows the remainder of the summer for other work or family activity.

Take Care,

Ed
860-435-1060

We integrate counseling with outdoor activity to provide a unified intervention for children with social/emotional barriers to success.

05/31/2018

10/10/2017

Recent expedition with Litchfield Montessori School. We are developing a wonderful outdoor program - utlilizing many of Paul Petzoldt's (founder of Wilderness Education Association and NOLS) original concepts of "Expedition Behavior." To balance personal needs and group needs (the foundation of Expedition Behavior) is a skill the world just needs more of! These 4-6 year students keep stepping up to the increased challenges. We encourage viewers to add comments and anecdotes re. wilderness mentoring. Thanks for caring!

08/01/2017

Many people are visiting the Wilderness Therapy & Mentoring (WTM) site these days and I must admit - I have not added any stories or photos in a really long time.
Here is the update. WTM is going strong with three schools, one college, private practice and summer adventure camps keeping a full schedule. My purpose for creating this site is to provide a forum for people to write, ask questions, offer up your own experiences and essentially develop a community of people that believe in the integration of outdoor experiential education and therapy.

Our newest service to be launched this year is the GAP Year. We have designed the program to include high school students going into there senior year. We are finding that many HS seniors can use the support to make the best of their final high school experience.

For me, the single most important learning that keeps emerging is the value of relationship. As social creatures, we need one another to literally bounce off of in order to keep our balance! Interaction, trust, authentic contact between "self and other" is the heart of it all.

I welcome your thoughts about this and please feel free to write me at edthorney@yahoo.com. If you would like to speak I can be reached at 860-689-6327. Website is

04/28/2017

Hi Friends of the Outdoors,

I'm not the most fluid person when it comes to the cyber world and I just now noticed all the really nice comments people have made! Thank you! Thank you! I will begin a more active posting starting today. There are two projects we are unfolding this summer.

1) A Gap Year (age 17+) begins in August '17 and runs into the fall of '18. It focuses, as you can suspect, on wilderness training, an expedition to Nova Scotia and also provides a healthy dose of mentoring and career apprenticeships. It can be found at

04/14/2017

As the school year comes to a close the Gap Year - Planning for an Adventurous Future, is recruiting students now. Young people age 17 and up may find this a great alternative to attending college next year. Please visit the WTM web-site for details.

wildernesstherapyandmentoring.com