Doug Nelson, an early pioneer in developing what became Wilderness Therapy programs, shared his experiences about the early days of Wilderness Therapy for adolescents with talk show host Lon Woodbury on L.A. Talk Radio's Struggling Teens weekly interviews.
About Doug Nelson
Doug Nelson acquired an interest in Wilderness Therapy when he was in charge of the BYU Survival Program in 1973, and he worked as Director until 2008. During this time, too, he launched the famous Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS). Later on, while he was still teaching at BYU, he started the Wilderness Academy which evolved into what is now Aspen Wellness Solutions.
The Story Behind the Very Early Days of Wilderness Therapy
The wilderness therapy industry grew largely out of academic experiments at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, in the late 1960s, when Larry Dean Olsen offered a course in wilderness living. Modeling the popular Outward Bound program, he took troubled students into the desert to learn survival skills, noticing improvements in behavior and academic performance. One of his students was Doug Nelson who felt an immediate affinity for the 30 day survival program. It reminded him of his childhood in a Southern Utah farm community, where he had spent a considerable amount of his youth, teenage years, and early adulthood hiking in the back country. One thing led to another and within two years, he became the director of the BYU Survival Program.
During the BOSS program, pupils on a 21 day exploration would come home changed; they were far more satisfied with their parents and much more agreeable. Subsequently, after he sold this successful Wilderness program, Nelson made a new program for teenagers. This was the Wilderness Academy, which incorporated the 21 day program with a healing component to help incorporate the life lessons discovered in the wilderness with daily life. Counselors in the field would draw parallels between a child's encounters in the wild with what was going on at home. Moms and dads were also motivated to invest three days with their kid at trail's end, and those who participated were reimbursed part of the expenses for this commitment to their child's growth.
Nelson shared stories about some of the therapeutic experiences that emerged for children and their parents. Often, it was found that the child was acting out because of issues related to the parents. For instance, in one case, the parents were thinking of a divorce. In another case, the father was too busy with his work as a lawyer to spend much time parenting.
Nelson also outlined how Steve Cartisano created a powerful marketing program that made the industry popular. However, there were many opportunistic programs run like boot camps instead of therapeutic programs resulting in fatalities, with the result that States had to create new regulations to ensure safety factors.
Now retired, Nelson played a significant task in the very early days of wilderness therapy, helping it evolve from an experiment at BYU to ending up being a highly effective healing choice for struggling teenagers when absolutely nothing else made a difference.
About Doug Nelson
Doug Nelson acquired an interest in Wilderness Therapy when he was in charge of the BYU Survival Program in 1973, and he worked as Director until 2008. During this time, too, he launched the famous Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS). Later on, while he was still teaching at BYU, he started the Wilderness Academy which evolved into what is now Aspen Wellness Solutions.
The Story Behind the Very Early Days of Wilderness Therapy
The wilderness therapy industry grew largely out of academic experiments at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, in the late 1960s, when Larry Dean Olsen offered a course in wilderness living. Modeling the popular Outward Bound program, he took troubled students into the desert to learn survival skills, noticing improvements in behavior and academic performance. One of his students was Doug Nelson who felt an immediate affinity for the 30 day survival program. It reminded him of his childhood in a Southern Utah farm community, where he had spent a considerable amount of his youth, teenage years, and early adulthood hiking in the back country. One thing led to another and within two years, he became the director of the BYU Survival Program.
During the BOSS program, pupils on a 21 day exploration would come home changed; they were far more satisfied with their parents and much more agreeable. Subsequently, after he sold this successful Wilderness program, Nelson made a new program for teenagers. This was the Wilderness Academy, which incorporated the 21 day program with a healing component to help incorporate the life lessons discovered in the wilderness with daily life. Counselors in the field would draw parallels between a child's encounters in the wild with what was going on at home. Moms and dads were also motivated to invest three days with their kid at trail's end, and those who participated were reimbursed part of the expenses for this commitment to their child's growth.
Nelson shared stories about some of the therapeutic experiences that emerged for children and their parents. Often, it was found that the child was acting out because of issues related to the parents. For instance, in one case, the parents were thinking of a divorce. In another case, the father was too busy with his work as a lawyer to spend much time parenting.
Nelson also outlined how Steve Cartisano created a powerful marketing program that made the industry popular. However, there were many opportunistic programs run like boot camps instead of therapeutic programs resulting in fatalities, with the result that States had to create new regulations to ensure safety factors.
Now retired, Nelson played a significant task in the very early days of wilderness therapy, helping it evolve from an experiment at BYU to ending up being a highly effective healing choice for struggling teenagers when absolutely nothing else made a difference.
About the Author:
Lon Woodbury, the founder of Struggling Teens, has recorded the entire interview on his weekly L.A. Talk Radio show for people to at their convenience.
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