What Is the Wilderness Therapy Institute?
Our Mission
The Wilderness Therapy Institute is dedicated to research, training, and staff development initiatives that elevate the fields of Wilderness, Outdoor, and Adventure Therapy. We are committed to exploring the synergistic connections between physical health, outdoor living, nature-based healing, transpersonal psychology, and clinical psychology.
Our Vision
The Wilderness Therapy Institute helps ensure that individuals who engage in Wilderness Therapy are treated respectfully and experience enhanced mental health through meaningful connection to nature, improved biological functioning, and an overall sense of well-being.
The Wilderness Therapy Institute aims to support the evolution of wilderness therapy toward safer, more effective practices by providing informed, intelligent, evidence-based frameworks. We further the evolution of the field by researching the biological, psychological, and ecological mechanisms that make nature-based interventions effective.
Our Purpose
What makes the Wilderness Therapy Institute distinct from other organizations is that we are a group of dedicated individuals who are not affiliated with private programs, and who believe deeply in the healing power of spending extended time in nature for therapy, healing, and personal growth.
We also seek to support those who wish to build careers helping others spend time outdoors while engaging in meaningful mental health and healing work.
We believe the field of Wilderness Therapy needs to change and improve —but we do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We aim to preserve the foundational principles on which the field was built, while allowing for thoughtful growth and evolution that reflects current culture and the needs of those being served.
Room for Improvement
Metabolic Health Research Initiative
The Metabolic Health Study is the “flagship” initiative for WTI and it is already underway. For more information, click here. Our intention is to focus on this one study for now, but other ideas for future study include:
Research on the impact of ecological / transpersonal connection on mental health
Research into the use of authority in wilderness therapy
Advocacy to help preserve wilderness therapy into the future
Legacy projects to protect the history of the field
Rites-of-passage, nature connection, and primitive skills training
“Heal the Healers” programming to support professionals in the field