At Pure Life, we add adventure into therapy. Pure Life Adventure therapy is not your traditional wilderness therapy. Historically, wilderness therapy programs are sought out by parents of adolescents with more serious behavioral issues along with mental health issues. While Pure Life Adventure Therapy involves the healing properties of nature we also include challenging and fun activities such as surfing and whitewater rafting to build confidence, raise self-esteem, and teach young adults how to be self-sufficient. Teaching our students how to have fun in healthy, exciting, and positive ways is very important to their long-term mental health. If you’re considering outdoor therapy for your young adult or therapeutic gap year programs, it is important to understand the differences between wilderness therapy and adventure therapy.
What Is Wilderness Therapy?
When you hear the term wilderness therapy, more often than not, you are picturing a group of troubled teens backpacking in the wilds of nature for weeks. Those seeking an intensive wilderness therapy program that secludes students with their therapy group may have serious behavioral issues that need to be addressed along with their mental health. Removing the students from any confines of society, the public, or social patterns they are accustomed to can positively impact their specific needs.
At Pure Life, our adventure therapy program is for a wider range of mental health issues that do not focus on severe behavioral needs. We believe in taking our students into nature, which is incredibly healing. We share the healing concepts of being outdoors and teaching self-sufficiency, but we added additional concepts and practices for our unique students.
Another major difference between traditional wilderness therapy and Pure Life Adventure’s model is that our students are always involved in the decision to attend. More traditional wilderness therapy programs may accept students who have been forced to attend for a variety of reasons, even if they don’t want to be there. It’s not uncommon for a young person struggling with depression and anxiety to experience avoidant behavior, so resistance and reluctance towards change can be a problem in the overall success of the experience.
At Pure Life Adventure, we bring our students into every step of the process because we believe it should be a team effort and because the student “buy-in” is critical for long-lasting change. At Pure Life, our students are involved in the application process and must want to attend the program for themselves.
Adventure Therapy: An Outdoor Adventure Therapy Model
At our founding, Pure Life Adventure partnered with an adventure therapy program because we wanted to take young adults into the front-country (natural areas easily accessible and often used for day use). During their time in the front country, we wanted to include adventure activities such as rock climbing, mountain biking, surfing, rafting, and more.
One main difference between our program being in the front country versus backcountry or nomadic programs that stay in the backcountry is that our program requires a higher level of trust from our students. Our students will work with local Costa Rican families and interact with the community and the public. Because of this, they must have the ability to manage inappropriate behaviors and be emotionally stable. This is one important difference between our adventure therapy program and traditional wilderness therapy. Pure Life’s adventure therapy model tends to promote a more bought-in and engaged milieu with higher-functioning adults.
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Another benefit of our adventure therapy programs is the ability to still have some comforts of normal life. Pure Life offers beds three nights a week at our beautiful campus. We also have students harvest fruits and vegetables from our garden, and we are fortunate to have access to delicious fruits and vegetables on many of our itineraries.
The Pure Life Outdoor Adventure Therapy Model
- Part of the Association for Experiential Education AEE Accredited.
- Front Country Experience—students are not isolated from the outside world, they are interacting with the Costa Rican culture at times during their stay.
- Adventure Elements to Build Confidence—activities are created to challenge and build up students.
- On campus 3-Nights a Week—our students are on campus and sleeping in beds three nights a week. Other nights involve camping and homestay experiences.
- Healthy Foods—our program includes resetting student habits with healthy food and includes student participation in preparing fresh meals.
- Access to Showers and the Outdoors—students spend the majority of their time outside, but still have regular access to showers and personal comforts. This isn’t boot camp.
- Engaging with High Standards—our program is fun and engaging and we are a mental health program with high standards for safety so that means we’ve got rules and structure to keep everyone physically and emotionally safe.
- Collaborative Admissions Process—our Program Director speaks with every student before they commit to joining us in Costa Rica. We use trauma-informed practices in our admissions process and the student has to agree to come fully informed and without coercion.
What You Won’t Find At Pure Life Adventure Therapy
- “Traditional Wilderness Therapy ” involves a total immersive backcountry experience, this is also called a nomadic model where the student is completely immersed in the backcountry wilderness the entire time.
- Forced or Unexpected Admission for the student.
- Aggressive or defiant behaviors within the milieu.
- Strong addictive behaviors with respect to substance abuse.
Facing Life’s Challenges Through Adventure Therapy
Adventure Therapy is uniquely positioned to gently push your child out of their comfort zone as they engage in adventure activities like waterfall rappelling, surfing, or rafting. Facing fears through adventure in a controlled, supportive environment leads to breakthroughs in confidence, self-belief, and emotional resilience. Henry Ford once said, “The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.” We want your child to develop a growth mindset where challenges are met with optimism and skills rather than trepidation and fear. Adventure Therapy is the perfect vehicle to accomplish this.
At Pure Life Adventure, we strongly believe that parents should stop enabling adult children–when parents shield adult children from life’s challenges, this leads to the atrophy of skills and confidence. In addition, mental health struggles, like depression, anxiety, and self-doubt, arise when young adults feel stagnant or “stuck.” Practical coping strategies are the natural outcome of Adventure Therapy and can unmoor your child from the island of parenting oversight.
While change is inevitable, growth is often optional. Growth through outdoor therapy is growth that lasts. The skills your child will develop are life skills that successful adults use every day. Set amidst the lush backdrop of Costa Rica’s natural beauty, Pure Life’s Adventure Therapy Program can harness nature’s healing and restorative powers. You may be tempted to think it’s all about the high adventure, but that’s merely the foundation for our program. The true greatest of our program lies in the emotional and psychological development that happens through building resilience and overcoming life’s challenges–one waterfall repel or white water raft trip at a time.
Pure Life Adventure Therapy For Young Adults
Our outdoor adventure therapy uses tools such as surfing, rappelling, and whitewater rafting to help break down walls and challenge students, while also giving our licensed therapists a unique look into the individual struggles of each student.
Students can expect to engage in individual and group therapy weekly. Our adventure therapy program uses a hands-on, strengths-based, student-integrated clinical model through which participants quickly learn new, healthy coping strategies, behavioral and emotional regulation skills, leadership skills, and life skills that lead to future success.
We use the latest research and data to refine our treatment program and approach with young adults. Our adventure therapy programs aim to facilitate the development of the student’s ability to and belief in themselves to complete tasks. Adventure therapy is a great option for those seeking programs for gap year students. Our students will leave our adventure therapy with the knowledge and the ability to use their strengths to continue to progress in life and build a strong foundation for their future.
If your young adult is struggling with mental health issues such as depression, low self-esteem, low motivation, and anxiety or struggling to progress into adulthood, maybe it’s time to consider a gap year for mental health. Please reach out to Pure Life Adventure today. We would love to speak with you about your child’s needs and how we can help.
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