Celebrating Our First Adolescent Graduates

New Vision Wilderness – West Coast (Oregon)

Celebrating Our First Adolescent Graduates

“Inspiring Change… by Nature.”

In early 2013, New Vision Wilderness’ highly successful wilderness challenge program in Medford, Wisconsin, deemed “North Woods,” was expanded to a new region. The Pacific Northwest was long-researched as a supreme location to conduct our wilderness therapy and mental health intervention programming. As Summer 2013 approached, West Coast was granted a license allowing the intake of preteens and adolescents. As the program evolves into a larger force, it permits us to continually increase the daily census.

The first three clients have completed and graduated from New Vision Wilderness (West Coast)! These three graduates emerged from the wilderness successfully, and ready to move forward into a productive life ahead of them. We memorialize this event as the culmination of the hard work our program has put forth in the mental health of our countries’ youth, and for the blood, sweat, and tears that our staff has given in the name of progress.

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A Parent Speaks Up

“I am sure many parents feel the same apprehension when sending their child to a wilderness program. Did I do the right thing? Will my child resent me?  When I picked my son up from his graduation he said to me ‘Mom, thank you for making the decision I needed, not the one that I wanted.’ Having my son back, seeing him smile, the clarity in his eyes, his sense of humor coming back to life is all the assurances I needed. Having the time to focus on the things I needed to work on without the worry of wondering if my son was ok and knowing he was in good hands allowed me the time I needed to work parallel on being ready to start a new relationship with him when he came home and it also allowed me the opportunity for the first time to see that I wasn't alone and that many other parents had gone through what I had, made the mistakes I had made, felt confused and lost as to what to do. That in itself allowed me to put my own defenses down and look at not only myself but my family as a whole and see how we can all work together towards a peaceful and happy home again. I also learned to hear my son in the way that he needs to be heard by me. I gained immense insight into who my son is and what he needs in order to live a happy sober life from working with his therapist who gave me the tools that I needed to be there for him without rescuing him and allowing him to take responsibility for his own life.” – (mother)

A Word From Our Clinical Team

“They were the pioneers in our program and took that to heart. Within the beginning growth of the West Coast program they were able to transform, grow and be an integral part in the culture of the group. Through the development of the group, they too developed as young men with direction, excitement and meaning for their future. Their journey at NVWC showed strength and an inspiring ability to look for insight. They showed what it meant to challenge themselves and what you receive from that challenge physically and emotionally. They were able to gain insight and be able to exhibit the insight via with artwork, peer feedback and modeling how to take the opportunities to move forward and find that new path.” – E. Deardorff, APSW MSW, Assistant Clinical Director

“It is such a great feeling to see my first NVW-West Coast graduate feeling proud and ready for the next step of his life. What a thrill to be able to bring the magic of NVW to the Pacific Northwest, my home. It has been an exiting, challenging and a very fulfilling endeavor to be a part of the clinical team responsible for getting the West Coast program up, running, and thriving. The amount of energy, commitment and pride that the West Coast Program and staff bring to the New Vision philosophy has been inspiring and makes me proud to be a part of the most clinically intense and effective wilderness therapy out there!” – R. Becker, MSW, Lead Field Therapist

“Inspiring Change… by Nature.”

Tour Writeup by The Price Group! [article]

Trip to New Vision Wilderness
by The Price Group - Educational Planning Services
May Peach and Louise Slater

As we arrived at New Vision Wilderness, each of us was outfitted with the outdoor gear we needed to go into the woods. That was a real experience for us Southern girls! Getting the gear on correctly  nearly made us break out into a sweat. Once we had on all of the many layers, we looked and felt like astronauts! May learned quickly that there was an art to walking in the snow. Drew Hornbeck, the executive director, told May to walk as if she was determined to get somewhere fast. She resembled an elephant as she stomped through the snow, but she didn’t fall down!



It was beneficial hearing from several of the young people about the different aspects of the program. New Visions does not use a level system but rather a relationship model. The adolescents are asked to find something they are passionate about, and are expected to develop a Mastery Project around this new passion. One girl taught herself sign language because she had stopped talking due to her trauma. Another girl taught herself how to play the trumpet because she only played string instruments.  We visited one camp site and learned how maple syrup is made. Louise and I had our first ride on a snow mobile – it was thrilling!

Louise sat on a log that day with another educational consultant and a young man who had been adopted from Guatemala. He talked about his drug use, his anger, and his fear of abandonment by his adoptive family. At first, he was very fearful about his new surroundings. Slowly he began to learn to explore his emotions and feelings. New Vision Wilderness is unique in many of its approaches to therapy. Most young people who come to New Visions have experienced significant loss, trauma, or have some attachment issues. This young man told us about a process he was involved in called “Brainspotting”. He had been taught how to relax and breathe deeply. He then was told to follow a moving object with his eyes until the therapist told him to pause. He was able to identify and release some early fearful memories; however, what was most significant was that he told us he had woken one day with a very strange feeling. When he was able to process the feeling with his therapist, he was surprised that he could label the feeling as joy! Since then, when he focuses his eyes on that certain spot and breathes deeply on his own, his experiences of joy become stronger and longer. A therapist, as well as one of the owners, Steve Sawyer, explained to him that new neuro pathways were being strengthened during these times.

The original plan was for all of the educational consultants to return to the wilderness to the next day to see a girl’s group. However, once we had learned about Brainspotting from the young people, we had lots of questions about EMDR, Brainspotting, and Core Resourcing. Steve Sawyer explained the concepts and showed us segments of two YouTube videos. One of these was from Dr. David Grand (YouTube Parts 1 2 3).

At dinner, the staff at New Visions asked us if we would like to go back to the feel or stay at the lodge and learn more about Brainspotting. It was unanimous – all of the consultants preferred to learn more about Brain Spotting. To be honest, most of us had real concerns that this process seemed a little “out there” and “new age” so we wanted to understand more about how it worked. After further explanation, the clinical director, Liz Deardorff, got ready to demonstrated brain spotting, and Louise volunteered – intrigued by the report from the young man the day before.



Here are Louise’s memories from Brainspotting:

I was asked to sit quietly, close my eyes, and begin to relax while focusing on my breathing. Since I had been practicing a few beginning sessions of breathing through a yoga program on my Ipad, this part seemed easy. Then Liz asked me to tell her a place on my body that felt calm and neutral. She then asked me to find another neutral point ( a resource point). She asked me to draw a line of energy between these two points – could I feel the energy? Liz assured me that my body knew how to do this. Could I tell her a color I was seeing? We continued along this line until I had several resource points and lines of energy. We made a grid of sorts from point to point in my body, which is called your sacred place ,or the point where all of the other points intersect. Strangely, I felt tension between my left shoulder blades. When I was asked to slow down and become more aware of my surrounds, it felt as if I was coming out of a very relaxed, safe deep place. I could feel energy vibrating though me and my hands were tingling almost as I had an electrical current running through my body. It was so much energy, in fact, that in order to relax (and I still had tension in my left should blade), I dropped into my new yoga pose.

After a short while, Steve Sawyer led me to his office to try a short relaxation procedure that involved focusing on that pain point, breathing, and following my eyes through a few movements. While the entire experience was a little bizarre for me, it is very clear to me that the staff is moving energy and unblocking energy, similar to a massage or intense exercise. Could I see sending one of our clients with trauma or attachment issues to New Visions for wilderness therapy? Absolutely! It is unlike any other wilderness therapy in the use of brain spotting and trauma work.

We left New Vision Wilderness with a deep respect for the work they are doing in the field. On our long van ride to Chicago, we stopped at the headquarters for New Vision and met some of the office staff. It was great to meet them since these are usually the people we talk to on the telephone when we call with a referral.


A big thanks to everyone at New Vision Wilderness for hosting us! We truly enjoyed our visit!