Who is the Wilderness Trek Program designed for?

The Sunday Creek Wilderness Trek Program has been designed to offer students the opportunity to create a preferred future and a sense of actively shaping their lives. It not only caters for students who have been identified as "at-risk" but any student who feels unsatisfied about their current direction in life.

What assumptions are driving the Wilderness Trek Program?

The Wilderness Trek program draws its theoretical assumptions and consequents practices from a variety of fields including: Reality Therapy, Perceptual Control Theory, and Adventure Based Counselling. Assumptions arising from our interpretation and interaction with these fields as well as our own experiences are:

• We are all worthy and have the capacity to succeed and love life
• Our capacity to be successful and fulfilled is dependent on:
• Having experiences of success to draw from
• our awareness of our needs and desires
• our willingness to be responsible for satisfying our needs and desires
• our awareness of how well our current strategies and behaviours satisfy our needs and desires
• our willingness to take risks and question our current beliefs and behaviours
• our faith in our creative ability to problem solve and discover new ways of being
• believing that we are worthy and deserve the best
• We learn best
• Through experience
• In unfamiliar challenging environments
• When we feel safe emotionally and physically
• When we feel supported
• When we can apply specific learning experiences to many aspects of our lives
• The wilderness environment provides a powerful context to seek personal perspective, clarity and inner strength

How are these Assumptions Reflected in the Wilderness Trek Program?

Flowing from these theoretical assumptions the Wilderness Trek has been designed to support students by:

• Maximising their chances of experiencing success in reaching a difficult goal by providing them with an environment that requires them to persist.
• Allowing students to experience the natural consequences of their actions without being judged for them.
• Providing a series of sequenced briefs and debriefs over the three days which encourages students to:
• Get in touch with what they're feeling and observing in the present.
• Experiment with different ways of relating to themselves, others and the environment.
• Reflect upon their recent experiences while on The Trek and what they mean for them on their return back to school and home.
• Get in touch with what they really want to get out of life.
• Consider whether what they're doing at home and school is helping them realise their dreams.
• Commit to a plan of action or a series of strategies and short term goals that will improve their chances of success in getting what they want out of life.
• Providing an environment that is removed from their normal daily routines and distractions.
• Using facilitators on the walk who are skilled at:
• Facilitation awareness in others (See Appendix A).
• Perceiving people as worthy and capable under all circumstances.
• Setting and maintaining clear boundaries.
• Not responding to other people's issues or "misbehaviours" in a defensive, aggressive, or manipulative/rescuing manner.
• Communicating clearly what they see and feel.
• Only accepting students who choose to participate in the walk of their own free will with a clear understanding of what its nature and purpose is.

Further Reading

Adams, A. & Sven, R. (2000) A Holistic Model of Bush Counselling: Cornerstones Of Practice.
Australian Journal of Outdoor Education Vol 5 (1).
Cheshire, A., Lewis D. (1996) The Journey: A narrative approach to adventure based therapy.
Dulwich Centre Newsletter No.04
Schoel, J., Prouty, D. and Radcliffe, P. (1998) Islands of Healing: A Guide to Adventure Based Counselling, MA.: Project Adventure, Inc.
Nadler, R.S. and Luckner, J.L. (1992) Processing the adventure experience: Iowa: Kenall/Hunt Publishing.