Dare to challenge
Dare to change
Dare to live
Young Adult & Adolescent Outdoor Adventure Therapy
in Costa Rica
Relying on decades of experience in the Costa Rican outdoor industry, our bicultural team provides a therapeutically sophisticated and holistic approach to helping young adults & adolescents with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, lack of motivation, executive function deficits, trauma, and substance abuse. Our students are individuals with very real challenges looking for lasting change. Pure Life provides treatment, utilizing traditional individual and group therapy in combination with outdoor experiential learning and adventure. Our integrated and dynamic approach includes an emphasis on fitness, mindfulness, life skills, and cultural immersion.
Pure Life for Adolescents
Our new program, available for all gender adolescents ages 14-17
After successfully serving young adults for the past six years, families and professionals have asked us to provide services for adolescents. We are pleased to open our doors to adolescents ages 14-17 in 2020. These students will be able to heal and grow in the beauty of Costa Rica. Our unique model incorporates: nature, mindfulness, cultural immersion, adventure activities, and community service with the strong foundation of clinical support provided by our licensed Masters-level clinicians.
What is Adventure Therapy?
What does surfing have to do with depression? How does rafting help treat anxiety? Activities like these help students develop self- efficacy and grit. Self-efficacy, our belief in our own ability to persevere and succeed, translates to a happier and healthier life. Adventures challenge students to overcome perceived limitations, ultimately building their self-confidence. Our mission is to facilitate meaningful therapeutic experiences that provide students with the tools to thrive and flourish. Research shows that skills and coping methods learned through adventure therapy transfer to post program success. Each novel experience has the potential to become a profound, therapeutic moment promoting lasting change.
Who Do We Serve?
Adolescence and the transition into young adulthood is an exciting time of life but can also present many unique challenges, especially for young people dealing with depression and anxiety. These challenges are very real and can be debilitating. It is not uncommon for even the brightest young people to feel “stuck” or “paralyzed” in the transition. Some struggling young adults self-medicate with substances, overeating, undereating, or by avoiding, isolating, giving up easily on everything, or just simply sitting in their parent’s basement and shutting down. Whatever your challenge may be, there is hope and help available.
Therapeutic Gap Semester for Young Adults
Young adults choose to take a gap semester for many reasons. They are not ready for the rigors of college, they need to take a break from academics, or they are finding that they have personal barriers that might get in the way of a successful college experience.
Most gap year programs fit a common profile that includes experiential learning and a deliberate challenging of comfort zones. Many are also marked by cultural immersion, community service, and adventure activities. Yet, a traditional gap year does not include the therapeutic component that is often necessary to help emerging adults reflect on their experiences and prepare for the next stages of their development.
Pure Life is able to provide a traditional gap experience with with the added deliberate focus on the therapeutic needs of young adults. Our three month adventures are built to intentionally foster grit and resiliency in students while supporting them as they confront the barriers that are holding them back from success.
Videos From Our Alumni
Check out some of the videos below to see first hand how Pure Life has helped our students overcome many obstacles in their life.
"A better future begins with a choice to change"
EXPLORE
COSTA RICA
Our Mission
Pure Life founder, Andrew Taylor, came to Costa Rica for the first time as a river guide in 2003. He quickly saw the positive impact the country and its culture had on people’s lives and wanted to do more to help people grow. He partnered with Aspiro to bring Wilderness Adventure Therapy to this novel environment. Now, Pure Life is the industry leader in international young adult & adolescent experiential therapy. Read more of the story by clicking below:
“There is power in going out into nature and challenging yourself – it changes you.”
Janna Dean, Pure Life Clinical Therapist
