131: Research:Transporting Young People to Wilderness: Part 1
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
Release Date: 06/29/2021
301. Surviving Climate Anxiety: How to Cope, Heal, and Stay Grounded in a Changing World
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
How do you live well, stay engaged, and protect your mental health when the future of the planet feels so uncertain? Listen to this episode of Stories from the Field where our host Will White is joined by Dr. Thomas Doherty—psychologist, ecopsychologist, and author of Surviving Climate Anxiety—for a grounded conversation about eco-anxiety as a normal, values-driven response to climate change rather than a disorder to eliminate. Thomas reframes climate anxiety as a signal of care and connection, and introduces practical ways to regulate the nervous system, make meaning, and stay...
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300: Wilderness Therapy Is Growing?! What 300 Episodes Reveal
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
Wilderness therapy isn’t dying. It’s growing. In this milestone 300th episode of Stories from the Field, host Dr. Will White sits down with guest host Jake Weld to reflect on nearly a decade of conversations exploring wilderness therapy, outdoor behavioral healthcare, and the evolving relationship between mental health and the outdoors. Drawing from hundreds of interviews, download data, and personal experience, Will examines why episodes centered on controversy, trauma, and program closures continue to draw the most attention—and what those patterns reveal about public perception of the...
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299: The Most Controversial Wilderness Program? Part 2: Scouting, Faith, and the Roots of the Field
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
What do Outward Bound and many wilderness therapy programs have in common? Their shared roots trace back to a movement that believed the outdoors wasn’t just a place to learn skills, but a place to shape moral character, spiritual values, and a young person’s sense of purpose. In Part 2 of this series, Stories from the Field host Will White continues his historical exploration of the influence of the Boy Scouts of America on the early development of many wilderness therapy programs. Drawing on research from his doctoral dissertation, his book, and hundreds of podcast interviews, Will...
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298: Accidental Roots of Wilderness Therapy: A 1901 Insane Asylum Experiment
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
How did an early twentieth-century psychiatric institution help shape what would later become wilderness therapy? In this episode, our host Dr. Will White continues Season 26’s exploration of a history of wilderness therapy by examining a little-known moment from 1901 at the New York Hospital for the Insane on Ward’s Island. During a tuberculosis outbreak, hospital administrators moved psychiatric patients into tents on the hospital grounds as a public-health measure—an intervention never intended to be therapeutic. What followed surprised staff: patients living outdoors showed notable...
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297: Where Did Wilderness Therapy Begin?
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
Where did wilderness therapy actually begin—and why is it so hard to define? In the opening episode of Season 26 of Stories from the Field, host Dr. Will White launches a season-long exploration of a history of wilderness therapy. Drawing from decades of experience, doctoral research, and nearly 300 podcast conversations, Will reflects on why the field resists a single origin story or definition. From Boy Scouts to Outward Bound to Brigham Young University and therapeutic camping to psychology, education, and cultural movements, this episode explains why wilderness therapy’s roots are...
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296: Is Wilderness Therapy Like Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy? A Conversation with Dr. Sandy Newes
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
Does wilderness therapy create an altered state similar to psychedelic-assisted therapy? And what can both approaches teach us about trauma, embodiment, and lasting change?In this final episode of Season 25, Will sits down with Dr. Sandy Newes, a psychologist, educator, and longtime experiential practitioner whose career bridges wilderness therapy, trauma-informed care, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. A 2025 recipient of the Association for Experiential Education Michael Stratton Practitioner Award, Sandy reflects on decades in the field—exploring how experience, embodiment, and...
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295: Wilderness Isn’t the Problem
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
What do decades of practice in wilderness therapy reveal about ethics, transport, and change? In this episode, Will talks with Paula Leslie—former Aspen Achievement Academy field guide, therapist, accreditation reviewer, and longtime educational consultant—for a rare and reflective conversation about the evolution of the field. First introduced to many readers through Gary Ferguson’s book Shouting at the Sky, Paula looks back on her formative years, the core lessons that still endure, and the ethical blind spots that only became clear with time. From learning to “do hard things” to...
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294: The Most Controversial Wilderness Therapy Program? (Part 1)
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
What is the most controversial program in the history of wilderness therapy? Some might say it’s the very program podcast host Will White was compelled to attend as a teenager. In this deeply personal and historical episode, Will shares—for the first time in full—the origin story that shaped his life and ultimately his 35-year career in mental health treatment in outdoor settings. Sent by his parents at fourteen to a “wilderness therapy program” long before the field formally existed, Will describes how the experience built him, challenged him, and exposed him to both mentorship and...
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293: The Parallel Process Updated: What Parents Need to Know
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
How can parents grow alongside a struggling teen or young adult without getting pulled into their anxiety, shutdown, or refusal? In this episode, Will welcomes back Krissy Pozatek to discuss the updated edition of her influential book, The Parallel Process: Growing Alongside Your Adolescent or Young Adult in Treatment. Krissy explains how the mental health landscape has shifted—more anxiety, school refusal, neurodivergence—and why parents can no longer rely on old models of detachment or over-involvement. She outlines her expanded five principles, including her new emphasis on reframing...
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292: The Anti-Program Approach: Belay Life’s Immersive Adventure Model
Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors
What happens when a wilderness guide, therapist, and seasoned mentor decides that traditional treatment programs no longer fit the needs of young adults? In this episode, Will speaks with Andrew “Chappy” Chapman, an innovator who has blended decades of guiding, wilderness therapy work, and young adult mentoring into something entirely new: one-to-one immersive adventure model. Chappy traces his path from SUWS of Idaho to the early days of True North Wilderness Program and later to New Summit Academy in Costa Rica, each step shaping his understanding of how young adults learn, struggle,...
info_outlineThis episode examines research studies regarding transporting teens to wilderness therapy programs with Dr. Christine Norton, a research scientist at the OBH Center at UNH. Transporting unwilling participants to wilderness therapy programs has been referred to as "escorting," "gooning," as well as "legal kidnapping" and is one of the more controversial aspects of the field. Dr. Norton reviews transport research studies, how the research can help inform practice, and changes she is seeing in the field regarding this practice.
Dr. Norton's Bio from the OBH Center website:
Christine Lynn Norton, PhD, LCSW, is a Professor of Social Work at Texas State University. She received her Ph.D in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago. She has a Master of Arts in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago, and a Master of Science in Experiential Education from Minnesota State University-Mankato. She has taught as adjunct faculty at The University of Denver, Prescott College, and Naropa University. Dr. Norton has over 25 years experience working with adolescents and families in a variety of practice settings including community and wilderness-based outdoor behavioral healthcare programs, juvenile justice, youth and family counseling, school social work, and youth mentoring and educational empowerment programs. Her areas of practice and research interest and expertise are in innovative, experiential interventions in child and adolescent mental health; outdoor behavioral healthcare; experiential education and adventure therapy; positive youth development; foster care support in higher education; and international social work. Dr. Norton is a Research Scientist with the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Center and she helped launch Foster Care Alumni Creating Educational Success (FACES) at Texas State. She is the Foster Care Liaison Officer to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and is the founder of the Foster Care Adventure Therapy Network, an international group of programs and practitioners who utilize adventure therapy with current and former foster care youth and young adults. Dr. Norton has over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, has edited three books, and has authored over ten book chapters. She has secured over $3,179,154 in internal and external research funding as PI and co-investigator, and is a leading social work scholar who has presented her research nationally and internationally. Dr. Norton is active in study abroad and service learning on her campus, and is a Fulbright Scholar, having taught adventure therapy in the Department of Civic Education and Leadership at National Taiwan Normal University from January-June 2017. She also served as a delegate for Women4Peace, a U.S. State Department 100KStrong in the Americas grant, working to bring experiential peacebuilding strategies to rural women and girls in Columbia.
Before becoming a researcher and academic, Dr. Norton worked for Outward Bound (OB) as an instructor and a course director for Intercept, OB's youth-at-risk program. She also worked as a clinical social worker with the Journey program, OMNI Youth Services' outdoor experiential therapy program. She has also been active in the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) for over 20 years. She has helped to establish best practices in adventure therapy, and served as the Chair of the AEE Therapeutic Adventure Professional Group (TAPG). She is currently on the TAPG Advisory Council, has assisted with AEE/OBH accreditation site visits, is a member of the TAPG Certification Standards Committee, and is also an ActivatEE team member and speaking coach. For her service and research, Dr. Norton received both the 2014 AEE Servant Leader Award, as well as the 2017 AEE Distinguished Researcher of the Year Award. She also served as one of two U.S. delegates to the International Adventure Therapy Conference (IATC) from 2009-2015. In this role, Dr. Norton convene 7IATC in Denver, in partnership with Dr. Christian Itin, and was an Ambassador for 8IATC. Dr. Norton remains active with the international adventure therapy community, engaging in global research partnerships and trainings.