NVW Staff Challenges Tough Mudder

The New Vision Wilderness staff is always incorporating staff-wellness events into their weekly and monthly schedules. Bringing each other together outside the workplace helps strengthen their bonds at work. From smaller events, such as cookouts and movie nights, to larger events, such as marathons and Tough Mudder obstacle courses, the New Vision staff enjoys wellness events.

If you’ve never hear of Tough Mudder before, than you’re in for a surprise.

What is Tough Mudder?

Tough Mudder events are hardcore obstacle courses designed to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses, over one million inspiring participants worldwide to date, and more than $5 million raised for the Wounded Warrior Project, Tough Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world. But Tough Mudder is more than an event; it’s a way of thinking. By running a Tough Mudder challenge, you’ll unlock a true sense of accomplishment, have a great time and discover a camaraderie with your fellow participants that’s experienced all too rarely these days.

Dave Mosse, Field Director, Challenges Tough Mudder

“The race was great. It was a total of 11.8 miles with approximately 20 obstacles. Our average mile pace was about 8:30 minutes per mile. All the obstacles were fun but my favorite with out a doubt was an obstacle called the funky monkey, which came at about the 11-mile mark. This was a new take on the monkey bars we all know and love from our days on playground except instead of straight across it had a 45 degree pitch going up and the same going down on the other side! We rocked it with no problems. Another obstacle that was fun was a leap from a 30ft platform, which was reached by climbing up a nearly vertical and very muddy wall with small wood ledges with enough room to step on with one toe. That one was great. When you hit the water and mud, it was very refreshing. The other obstacle that sticks out as a favorite would be the "Berlin Wall," which is a 15ft wall where you have to use your team mates as a ladder to get to the top and the help the last person over the wall by pulling them up! Great team work. My least favorite was called "electroshock" therapy. For this obstacle we had to crawl under 20ft of barbed wire, which had electrically charged wire hanging down, and damn did they pack a wallop! I saw two people get knocked out for a moment when they got shocked. I was lucky and only was shocked twice it the back, but damn it hurt. Our total time was 2hr 20min and it was a blast! I'm a lot more confident as I move into training for a 24hr obstacle course race next spring or fall.”

More Resources:

Dave Mosse, Field Director Biography: http://goo.gl/8GSKqm

Tough Mudder Website: http://goo.gl/4cNFzo

Therapist’s Healing Work with Children Hits Close to Home

Urging Others to Donate Blood

by Colleen McGee, MA, Lead Field Therapist (Wisconsin)

As a wilderness therapist, it’s probably no secret to most that my career in wilderness is a life guided by activism and advocacy for children and the environment. I am witness to healing and transformation every day and I take great pride in my work as a helping professional. Today’s teens are a misunderstood population to say the least, and in a world further complicated by technology and increasing demands it seems the need to get back to basics in nature couldn’t be more urgent. This philosophical foundation, among others, has guided my journey in this field and the rewards it has brought me has enriched my soul and strengthened my commitment to see the young people I work with heal the wounds of their body, mind and spirit. Recently, my sense of the necessity of helping and healing professionals has hit close to home for me in a very different and unexpected way; when I learned that my 13 year-old nephew and godson Christopher had cancer.

Initially, I was consumed by grief and paralyzing fear, my sense of powerlessness rendering little other than the words “Why?” and “How?” constantly ringing through my head. As the dust eventually settled on this seemingly earth-shattering news, I found myself humbled and hopeful, and at the mercy of the dedicated medical staff and their commitment to healing and helping children. Turns out, Stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a treatable cancer with a high recovery rate and I’m not so powerless in this process after all. I am reminded in some ways here of what families go through when they enroll their child at New Vision Wilderness. And just like my relationship with the families who have entrusted their child to me and the capable staff at NVW, I could hear my own advice popping up in my head when I reminded myself to trust the process. I wished the medical staff could make the same guarantee to me that my families ask me to make to them when they urge me to promise this intervention will work and their child is going to get better. Just like the families I work with there is more I can do than just sit and wait for the next bit of news.

I have learned that cancer patients, like any other human being going through a period of distress, thrive on the support, guidance and well wishes of others. I have been moved and inspired by the outpouring Christopher and his family have received through neighbors, friends and even a few professional athletes! In addition to support and encouragement, part of Christopher’s treatment includes several blood transfusions; an especially touching piece considering this part of his healing is contingent on the kindness of absolute strangers who are willing to endure the discomfort and time associated with this process. In the spirit of paying it forward, I have happily signed up and donated. Now I’m asking you to do the same. Did you know that according to the American Red Cross, one blood donation can save the lives of up to three people? And in the U.S. someone needs a blood transfusion every two second? This adds up to almost 44,000 needs per day! And although only 38% of the population are actually eligible to give blood, most of the people who don’t cite excuses such as “I never thought about it” or “Needles are scary” to avoid a measure that saves millions of lives. Just knowing these transfusions are helping my godson heal are enough to take my advocacy skills in a different direction. One of the tenets of NVW’s model includes placing a high value on giving back and being part of a community and from one community member to another. I ask you to do the same. Donating blood and volunteering are just a couple of the ways we can take action to fight this disease and play a larger role in the betterment of self, others and the world.

In closing, I want to take a moment to tip my bug-sprayed, campfire smoke-infused hat to those medical professionals who have dedicated their careers to heal children fighting this horrible disease. From one helping professional to another, I am inspired by your commitment and your kindness. Most importantly, I am inspired by your love. In the spirit of humility and hope I thank you for the lives you save.

NVW Success Stories - A Parent's Note to Steve

June 27, 2013

Dear Steve,

Susan and I wanted to write you to update you on what’s happening with our son, and to thank you again for all you did for him on the positive path he seems to be on.

H. graduated Cherokee Creek Boys School two weeks ago, a full year since he first arrived at New Vision Wilderness and only nine months since he went to South Carolina. In that time, he has grown so much both physically and emotionally that it seems a miracle. We are so excited that he has come home and that we have the opportunity to be a strong and loving family again.

What New Vision and you, specifically, did for H. was amazing. Not only did you arrest his bad behaviors but you opened his mind and heart to a whole new future. Cherokee Creek made a point of telling us that none of their students had ever come out of the wilderness in such a strong and stable condition as our son did. He was open to his new therapist and made a fairly easy transition to the new environment. Most importantly, he had become self-aware and less impulse-driven.

The key to all this was the incredible work you did to break through all the emotional barriers he had built around himself. You were able to help him find awareness of what he was feeling and the vocabulary to describe it clearly to others. He was able to talk to you as he had never talked to anyone else; parents, friend or therapist. He is now not only someone who can talk, but he is someone who wants to communicate.

At Cherokee Creek, he has become a mentor and leader. Several times this year he has been asked to mentor new students. He has also spent time rooming with student’s having real difficulties, helping to get them on track again.

H. also worked very hard to put himself in a position where coming home was first a possibility, and then a reality. While he still has issues to work on; He has come a long way. He has found a passion working with animals. He organized a volunteer program at a local animal shelter, which he and several students go to on Saturdays. He also asked for and was able to arrange an internship at a Veterinary Hospital around the corner from us for the two weeks he is home, before going to summer camp.

Thank you again for doing so much to help set H. on the path he is on. Our best wishes go to you and everyone at New Vision and good luck on your new endeavors.

Forever in you debt,

Adam S. and Susan S.

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!

How to Stay Healthy in the Workplace

How to Stay Healthy in the Workplace

Written By: Adam Eader, Associate Director/Admissions Counselor

When people ask me what I do for a living, I usually tell them the truth. Sometimes, straight faced, I unleash a story that I tame lions in the circus or I am a professional Frisbee golfer (which is actually a dream I still hold). After they look at me with wide eyes for a few moments I go into an elaborate description of the dangers encountered while working with frustrated lions. Eventually, I get serious and tell people that I work for a wilderness therapy company, which leaves them equally intrigued and in disbelief. "Wilderness therapy, what is that? Is that where you go into the woods and hug a bunch of trees?" I enjoy hearing what people think wilderness therapy is, especially when they don't know at all. "No, I don't counsel bears and I don't resolve conflicts between squirrels," I often have to explain to avoid confusion. When I do finally get to the point of explaining what wilderness therapy is, I feel myself putting the record on the turntable and giving them the same repetitive description of my job that I always do. However, whenever they start throwing questions at me and begin showing sincere interest in my occupation, I begin giving them fresh and sincere answers, which help to capture the excitement that I had the very first time I ever explained what I do. Nowadays, my understanding of what I do is more in depth, and I no longer stumble over my words as I try to paint them a picture. One of the last responses I usually get from people is, "Your job must be so rewarding," which I respond, "Yeah, it definitely can be."

It is very fortunate to possess a rewarding job, and so many times the rewards we receive from our occupations are dictated by our actions and perceptions. In order to lead healthy and fulfilling professional lives, we should live healthy and fulfilling personal lives. My job, like so many others, can be very fast paced and stressful. If I allow that stress to linger in my mind and body, I will continue building my stress levels up, which will eventually make me feel unhealthy and unmotivated. For the past seven years, just under five with NVW, I’ve been able to reflect on this issue and find multiple ways to combat stress in order to maintain a healthy and passionate lifestyle in and out of work. While stresses have gotten the best of me at times, it has always been up to me to assess where that stress is coming from and put a plan into action that will help me to address it and move on. In no particular order, here are some of my own tools, which I've used in the past to help stay passionate and healthy about working in a fast paced company.

Physical Activity

I've learned that one of the best ways to combat stress is by physical exercise. Knowing that, I've always made it a point to structure in exercise during my off time. I do many solo exercises like biking and running, but I've also played in sports leagues and on teams. I also like to sign up for events such as the Birkebiener or 5k - 10k runs so I keep goals in front of me that help keep a consistent exercise regimen. Breathing and mindfulness exercises can help with focus as well as a good way to cool down.

Minimizing the Impact of Off-Shift Activities

We all measure the impact of our own activities differently, so while you are running two marathons or traveling to Europe during an off shift, which would be pretty impressive, keep in mind the impact that activities you choose are going to have on your well-being. Be reflective and realistic about how much activity your mind and body can handle during your off time.

Surround Yourself with Positive People

When leaving a shift or taking the weekend off, I would often think about the people who mean the most to me and have had the biggest positive impacts on my life. I would think about what they've done to help me become who I am. I would call them to find out when I could talk to or see them during my off shift. Not only does this help a person disconnect from their job, but it will also help you surround yourself with positivity. Additionally, these are the people who have shown a vested interest in your life, so it feels good to return the favor and show your appreciation. Negativity breeds Negativity.

Having a Sense of Humor

Both in the field and out, I have always appreciated people's sense of humor. There are times to be serious and there are times to be goofy. Using some humor is a great way to keep you and the people around you motivated and can help build a sharing and safe community.

Speak Up!

Tell people what you need. This can mean a lot of different things. Make sure you're telling your co-workers and supervisors what you need and tell yourself what you need. If something doesn’t sit right with you, make sure you get it figured out. Just like other parts of your life, if you don't bring it to the light, it will fester in the depths.

Take Time Off

Give your all to your one job. However, take time off. Don't work other jobs when you get out of the field if you can help it. Reward yourself. Read something you want to read. Study up on new skills. Take a vacation…I know sometimes people work multiple jobs, but it is my belief that everyone deserves and needs adequate time to get away from job related responsibilities.

Spiritual Practices

For those who partake in spiritual practices, it is important to maintain those practices during your off time. I generally find a spot by myself and do some reflection exercises. It’s a good way to positively recharge my mind and body and helps me set some positive goals for my personal life, which will transfer into my professional life.

Give Yourself Credit

Constantly remind yourself of what you’re doing well. This will help you focus on the positives and utilize your strengths to build upon your weaknesses. I always remind myself about my goals, which are to positively impact youth so that they achieve positive personal growth. I re-read thank you letters from past clients; look at old pictures of clients’ projects that they built; and think about the great places, both mentally and physically, that past clients are currently in. This reminds me about why I have worked so hard and sacrificed what I have.

There are other ways to help you stay fresh as an instructor, and I suggest that you share what works for you with one another.

New Vision Wilderness and The Ice Age Trail

New Vision Wilderness Participants Paying Back

Written By: Adam Eader, Educational Director

During this past August, myself and four boys from a NVW Quest Trip took part in an Ice Age Trail Alliance trail building event.  The event spanned four days and took place near the town of Rib Lake, WI.

The Ice Age Trail, which meanders through Wisconsin, is roughly 1,000 miles in length. It follows the terminal moraine of Wisconsin’s last glacier, which began receding out of Wisconsin over 10,000 years ago.

All New Vision Wilderness participants hike along some portion of the Ice Age Trail during their time in the wilderness, and all participants help work on the trail to make it more accessible for future users. What made this event so special was four boys from NVW’s program were able to meet up with hundreds of Ice Age Trail volunteers for a couple days of work.

On our first morning, the IATA met with us and introduced Mark, our crew leader. Mark went to school for entomology, and after explaining to our guys what entomology was, they asked him about every bug they came across. One of the best parts of the day was during a break, when Mark took out a water bottle full of Tootsie Rolls and handed them out to the group. They raved about the candy all the way back to camp. Thanks Mark!

Mark also taught our guys how to safely carry and work with tools while widening the corridor on an existing trail. Corridor is the width of the trail and five feet past it on both sides. We cut back any tree or branches that were impeding on the trail, and properly discarded the vegetation. We also stopped along the trail to dig out any rocks or tree stumps. These obstacles are called “trippers,” and were one of the boy’s favorite activities, since it allowed them to safely swing the Pulaski, a tool with an axe head.

The event was very beneficial for the boys. Not only did they gain some community service experience while “leaving the woods” for a bit, but they also enjoyed positively interacting with the other volunteers