What's New at Soltreks!

Soltreks completed its 11th summer season with its largest enrollment yet. With an average length of stay of six weeks, students with their parents participated in a family session followed by a graduation ceremony honoring their commitment toward growth and change. Seventy-five percent of summer enrollments returned home to attend school or attend a previously scheduled academic/therapeutic opportunity. Twenty-five percent transitioned to a therapeutic setting.

Family Treks
Several family treks were facilitated by Directors and a senior instructor. Ranging from four to seven days, parents and their child learned skills to live comfortably in the wilderness while balancing hiking or canoeing with a customized curriculum to meet their family’s therapeutic goals. Parent feedback included, “I want to thank you for giving all of us such an inspiring workshop. The few days that I spent with you gave me hope that things can be better and that I do have choices. I won't pretend that it is easy now but I do try and remember how painful it was for me to see my behavior with my family and I do not want to go back to that place. I hope that we will be able to have another workshop with you guys one day!”

Following a mother/daughter trek, a mother shared, I can’t tell you how much I appreciated the efforts you made to make our trip successful. I feel that she and I both worked pretty hard with you and I think it was important for us to be together after such a long time apart.” Her daughter attends a therapeutic boarding school and joined her mother at Soltreks during a school break.

A family participated in a trek in spring and shared the following story: “A trek was first recommended by our educational consultant in an effort to help our younger daughter (16 years old) address some issues relating to her lack of confidence.  When it became apparent that our daughter was not willing to go without us, the trek evolved into a family event.  Initially, I thought that the trek would be an experience focused exclusively on her and that its benefits would be confined to her.  My husband and I were in for quite the surprise.  With the insight offered by Doug and Lorri, it didn’t take long for us to see the many connections between our daughter’s issues and our own, and to learn how our conduct enabled her in many different ways.  As it turned out, we got as much out of the experience as our daughter, and came to learn not only about our interactions with her but about our interactions with each other as husband and wife and about ourselves.   

Going into the trek, I was clearly apprehensive about the physical and emotional challenges that I knew awaited me.  We were heading to the Gila Forest in New Mexico, which is a high altitude destination, and I’ve always suffered from altitude sickness.  I was also concerned about the physical challenges of carrying a heavy pack, hiking, no plumbing, electricity or a comfortable bed to sleep in.  What would I eat, where would I be able to go to the bathroom, would I be able to sleep in the middle of the woods were questions that I tried to manage.  I was also worried, although less so, about the emotional component, and what would be expected of me. 

While the trek turned out to be the most difficult thing I have ever done mentally or physically, it also proved to be the most incredible thing I’ve ever done.  When you wake up in the woods, alone in your sleeping bag under your own tarp, and you hear the morning sounds of the wilderness, you feel this tremendous sense of peace and joy.  You have made it through another night and a beautiful day is there before you, inviting you to make of it what you can.  Feelings and connections that were previously inaccessible emerge almost from nowhere and leave you feeling this sense of wisdom and understanding.  And it’s with that mindset that you sit down on a warm patch of pine needles and write in your journal.  Alone with the tall pines and spruces, the birds, and a cup of coffee supplied by Doug and Lorri, you write and write, the stream of thoughts, feelings, and ideas flowing freely.  Therapeutic assignments facilitate deeper connections and understandings.

We left the trek a stronger and healthier family.  We learned how to listen to each other and to communicate that understanding.  We learned about triggers and non-productive conversation.  We learned what we each bring to the family relationship.  I have personally learned to listen more closely to myself and to try to understand what I’m feeling and why.  And finally, while we came to see that the trek was really a beginning for our family, it provided a roadmap for us of where we needed to get to.  For all these reasons, we found the trek to be a transformational experience, leaving us in a better place individually and as a family.” 

If you are interested in a Family Trek or Retreat, call 218.834.4607 or submit an application click here.

New Team Members
Shawna Willis joins the therapeutic team as a Masters level Licensed Professional Counselor. She also has licensure in teaching and school counseling. Shawna is currently working on a Doctorate degree in Counseling and is a Certified Victims Assistance Advocate providing crisis counseling, therapy and advocacy.  She is instrumental in motivating clients to develop and achieve their personal goals while providing leadership and support to her colleagues.

Program Updates
Soltreks is known for its nurturing, compassionate program delivery with attention to detail and focus on family. As the program moves into the 2009 season, it will continue to facilitate the programs most effective to its clients, culture and mission offering year round customized and individualized One-on-One treks and Family/Specialty treks. Soltreks will accept enrollments for small group treks, Open Enrollment for adolescents, effective May – September to include the respected Summer Program supporting those students in need of a structured, small group therapeutic experience. Soltreks’ accredited curriculum awards 2.5 high school academic credits to graduates.

Soltreks currently offers effective One-on-One treks to young adults who are struggling with transitions in their lives. Upon completion, they are transitioning to a college setting, young adult transition program or work/study program while continuing to develop and demonstrate successful independent living skills. The One-on-One trek promotes a powerful instructor-student partnership given the customized and individualized nature of the program while focusing on the heart of the work. Customized One-on-One treks are offered year round. For admissions call 218.834.4607 or submit an application click here.

Upcoming
Soltreks will be attending the annual fall IECA conference held in Baltimore, MD November 2008.

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