{"id":31360,"date":"2019-01-11T03:37:40","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T11:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31360"},"modified":"2019-01-09T15:18:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T23:18:17","slug":"wilderness-helps-youth-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/01\/11\/wilderness-helps-youth-heal\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilderness helps youth heal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BaMidbar students hike in all weather conditions, learning to live and care for themselves in outdoor environments. (photo from BaMidbar)<\/em><\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was 15 years old, now-camp director\nJory Hanselman had some family members who were struggling with mental illness\nand addiction. At the same time, a couple of close friends passed away in\npretty quick succession. Hanselman was struggling to cope, until her parents\nsent her to a wilderness therapy program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an extremely transformative experience\nfor me,\u201d Hanselman told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cI was there over Passover and\nso, while the program I was at was not in the least bit Jewish, my identity as\na Jew was really central to what I experienced and got from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really connected it to the narrative, and\nthinking about finding my freedom from narrow places and overcoming obstacles\nI\u2019ve faced in life. So, I looked into how I could become more involved in\nwilderness programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In college, Hanselman spent summers at Ramah in\nthe Rockies and saw firsthand the beautiful integration of Jewish learning via\nmeaningful, outdoor-based experiences. And, when Ramah in the Rockies started\nexploring the idea of opening a Jewish wilderness therapy program, their\ndirector reached out to Hanselman, knowing that she had been working in the\nfield. Hanselman was asked to provide input on how to build a therapy program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey decided they would move forward and\nofficially create BaMidbar and so I came on board at that time, in September\n2016, to help move the program from a space of ideas to implementation and actuality,\u201d\nshe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One great thing about its location \u2013 literally,\nin the wilderness \u2013 is that it\u2019s only an hour-and-a-half drive from Denver,\nColo. However, said Hanselman, \u201cTo give you a perspective, we are an hour drive\nfrom cell service in any direction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The therapy retreat is for Jews from 18 to 28\nyears old who are struggling with mild to moderate social and behavioural\nchallenges, including depression, general anxiety, social anxiety and more. The\nyoung adults in the program have reached the tipping point where the issues are\ngetting in the way of their being able to fully engage with the people and\nthings around them in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also see lots of folks who have\nco-occurring substance abuse disorders, who are also using substances in\naddition to working through challenges associated with other mental health\nchallenges,\u201d said Hanselman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
Staff member Cliff Stockton teaches primitive fire building skills to students at BaMidbar. (photo from BaMidbar)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea of wilderness therapy (WT) is using\nwilderness- and adventure-based experiences as the vehicle for therapy, to\ngrow. So, we joke a lot in the WT industry that it\u2019s not about doing therapy in\nthe wilderness, it\u2019s about doing wilderness-based therapy. It\u2019s not just going\nout and meeting with a clinician in a wilderness-based setting; it\u2019s really\nusing that experiential environment as a vehicle for working through different\ntherapeutic concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BaMidbar program involves the whole family.\nWhile students work with an individual therapist, their family is having weekly\nphone meetings with the therapist who, in turn, also works with the field staff\nto implement a treatment plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, our students are learning how to, for\nexample, build a fire with friction, and they use this opportunity to build\nprimitive skills to challenge themselves,\u201d said Hanselman. \u201cThey learn what\ntools they need to work through and understand what they\u2019re capable of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWilderness-based experiences are used as\nmetaphors and storytelling to support our students in connecting what is\nhappening in the wilderness environment to life outside the program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The small-group environment at the camp is used\nas a way to help campers learn and rebuild communication skills and other\ntools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe provide feedback and strong support for\nthem, as they determine how to have healthy emotional responses to different\nstressful situations, or anger management strategies, and things like that,\u201d\nsaid Hanselman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are many WT camps, BaMidbar is\npossibly the only one that uses a Jewish lens and framework in everything they\ndo, including using the Jewish calendar as an opportunity to look at topics\nthat are thematically relevant to campers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo give an example, for Passover last year,\nevery day we had a theme we focused on that tied to the Passover narrative, as\nwell as our student therapeutic journey,\u201d said Hanselman. \u201cDay One, we focused\non our narrow place. Day Two, we talked about the story of Nachshon Ben\nAminadav … jumping into the unknown and what it might look like to take a\nleap of faith and know that you need to change your situation, even if you\ndon\u2019t know what the future holds. Day Three, we looked at manna in the desert\nand talked about what sustains you physically, metaphorically, spiritually. Day\nFour, we talked about receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai and did a summit hike,\ntalking about our personal value systems, what we live by, things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With BaMidbar being a kosher camp, Shabbat is a\nbreak from the routine, which, in this case, is wilderness. On Shabbat, they\nspend time in a cabin, while still studying texts through the lens of how they\nare relevant to one\u2019s life. This is the perfect time, said Hanselman, to talk\nabout family. For instance, \u201cbecause, throughout Genesis, that revolves around\nchallenging family dynamics…. I always joke that Abraham was the first\nwilderness therapy participant. He leaves everything he\u2019s familiar with and\ngoes off into the wilderness on this journey of self-discovery. So, we do a lot\nof programming around Shabbat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
BaMidbar\u2019s program is rooted in Jewish ritual. Here the BaMidbar community celebrates Havdalah. (photo from BaMidbar)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

BaMidbar<\/em> (which means \u201cin\nthe desert\u201d in Hebrew) is non-denominational and the organizers are dedicated\nto meeting every student where they are in their unique journey, recognizing\nand honouring that it can be very different for each individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very dedicated to making sure that\nstudents understand that our goal is to explore meaning, values and purpose\nthrough a Jewish lens \u2013 not to tell them how to live Jewishly or what that\nideal Jewish life might look like,\u201d said Hanselman. \u201cThat\u2019s not our goal. Our\ngoal is to look at the wisdom Jewish tradition provides and to support students\nfor whole health wellness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants can expect 10 to 12 weeks in the\nwilderness (Shabbat in a two-room cabin). Groups are small, with a current\nmaximum of eight individuals, and the program runs year-round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In winter, said Hanselman, \u201cWe fully outfit our\nstudents, so they receive all their gear from us. We make sure they have what\nthey need to be safe and warm in a wilderness environment. We have a lot of\nstaff practices around safety and support in that winter environment, and then\nwe have tents that have wood stoves in them when it gets below a certain\ntemperature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The camp fee is around $3,500 US per week. A\nnonprofit, the BaMidbar program offers scholarships and works with every\nfamily, regardless of their financial situation. Currently, about 75% of\nstudents receive scholarships provided mainly by private donors and\nfoundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While BaMidbar has received many inquiries from\nCanadian families, they have not had any Canadian participants. \u201cBut, we can\nwork with them \u2013 from Canada, or Israel, or other countries,\u201d said Hanselman.\n\u201cWe just haven\u2019t yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, visit bamidbartherapy.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BaMidbar students hike in all weather conditions, learning to live and care for themselves in outdoor environments. (photo from BaMidbar) When she was 15 years old, now-camp director Jory Hanselman had some family members who were struggling with mental illness and addiction. At the same time, a couple of close friends passed away in pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2551,1573,6977,218,8627],"class_list":["post-31360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-addiction","tag-camp","tag-healthcare","tag-judaism","tag-wilderness-therapy"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}