I’m humbled and honored in speaking to the United Kingdom & European Symposium on Addictive Disorders (UKESAD) here in London May 4th. In considering my decades in the field of experiential treatment, I honed in on ‘wilderness therapy’ as the focus of my talk, to reveal a type of treatment for addiction not as customary or known to those professionals, liaisons, and non-professionals working within the addiction field.
That said many, many young people in particular become sober and clean in a somewhat ‘dirty’ setting of the wilderness. My colleagues at Four Circles, Sierra Tucson, Wingate Wilderness have sponsored this presentation with their contributions. Special thanks to Shayne Gallagher who assisted me by taking on a piece of the presentation by himself, and did ‘fabulous’. Four Circles’ new clinical director, Kelly Wedell provided me with the 12 step snapshot of their program.
This work in addiction and recovery is collaborative, and that carries over from the urban to the rural to the wilderness setting. Why wilderness? No distractions, no interference with the recovery process. I hope you enjoyed my talk here in London.