Naropa University teaches students to harness the healing power of the wild

By Katherine Creel

There’s something about being outside, surrounded by trees, drinking in the sunshine and soaking up the sounds of nature that makes all of our troubles disappear, even if it’s only for as long as it takes to reach the top of the Third Flatiron. After all, that’s why so many of us can’t wait to hit the trail on Saturday after a long week of being chained to our desks. We might not be able to explain why, but nature just makes us feel better.

That, in simple terms, is the idea behind Naropa University’s Wilderness Therapy program. Developed in 2002 by Deborah Bowman, the program takes the fundamentals of psychological counseling and integrates the benefits to be found from natural or “non-built” environments.

Deb Piranian, program director, says research has repeatedly shown that not only do people feel less stressed in nature, most “peak experiences,” those profound moments of spirituality or revelation, occur in nature.

Roslynn Regnery, a recent graduate from the program, can attest to the transformative power of the natural environment. She describes through-hiking the Appalachian trail in 2004, all 2,165 miles of it in mostly one go, as a kind of “equalizer.”

“I liked everyone I met on the trail,” she says. “How often can you say that in everyday life?”

The people she met, she says, were largely those at a transition point in life: grieving for a lost spouse, facing retirement or an “empty nest,” or military veterans returning from active duty. Regnery realized not only do people have an instinct to turn to nature for support, but that she wanted to help them do that.

She also recalls the self-confidence that came with being away from television, advertisements and other mass media.

“That was the dirtiest I’ve been in my entire life, that was the smelliest I’ve been in my entire life … and that was the most beautiful I’ve felt in my entire life,” she says.

After her experience on the trail, Regnery enrolled in Naropa’s program in 2007 and graduated this spring with her four classmates, making this the smallest group in the program’s history. Most years see between 15 and 20 students, and that number is kept low because of restrictions on group size in many of the program’s excursion areas and for safety considerations.

The first year of study looks much like any program for licensed therapists, with the same core classes and required coursework. In the second year, however, students step out of the classroom and into the great outdoors. Excursions include backpacking in the backcountry, mountain climbing and river rafting.
The outdoor component makes this a physically demanding program. Applicants must be able to carry a 50-pound pack off trail for 10 miles.

“It’s non-sofa therapy,” Regnery says.

Despite the name and the rigorous excursions students undertake, wilderness therapy doesn’t have to be wild at all, and it doesn’t even have to be outdoors. For elderly or disabled clients, simply bringing a little bit of the outside world into where they live can have profound benefits, and horticulture therapy is just one subset of the larger wilderness therapy. Equine-assisted therapy is also a popular form of wilderness therapy, because of the unique way horses interact with their human companions.

That’s not to say the name isn’t fitting.

“The most wild place of all is inside [us],” Piranian says.

And despite a presumed similarity with programs like Outward Bound, wilderness therapy isn’t just for troubled teens. It’s for anyone seeking optimal emotional health. Children suffering from an aversion to nature, adults dealing with the stress of work or clients coping with age or illness, almost everyone can find an aspect of wilderness therapy to enhance their lives.

“Wildnerness isn’t just a place to do things,” Piranian says when she describes the difference between wilderness therapy and programs like Outward Bound, where she served as an instructor prior to joining Naropa. “It’s about understanding and developing a relationship.”

Whatever form wilderness therapy takes — rafting the rapids of the Colorado River or walking around the neighborhood park — the key is to develop a relationship with nature that supports other relationships in the client’s life.

While it’s hard to put into words exactly what it is about nature that helps us grow and heal, Roslynn says, “Nature is non-judgmental … There’s no advertisements or things telling you the way you should be.”
“It brings you back to the basics in life.”

Piranian says that while the connection between humans and nature is often indefinable, it’s not surprising that it is a nurturing connection. “We’re a part of nature,” she says. “We’re not separate from it.”
Respond: info@boulderganic.com

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