12 Step Program
Wilderness Quest employs a 12-step program which guides our students toward change and to a commitment to live principle-based and sober lives. The Wilderness Quest 12 Step program draws from the most successful programs in the world, including Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA), and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). The resulting program is a powerful combination that fits the special needs of adolescents and young adults today, especially as they receive therapy in the wilderness environment.Many students arrive at Wilderness Quest in a state of denial about their destructive and unmanageable behavior. The wilderness provides a powerful mirror, reflecting to the student the nature of choice and consequence. Once students come to terms with this unmanageability, staff are able to utilize the 12 step model to bring about change.
Spirituality is a strong component of this 12 step program, with emphasis placed on a higher power that is specific to the individual. In this context, the power of personal spiritual recovery is about sobriety and finding inner peace.
Rigorous honesty with self and others establishes a foundation for recovery. As students take a moral inventory, openly admit, and take personal responsibility for their choices, they become empowered to change. As a result of this change, students develop awareness of those they have harmed and begin to understand the process of making amends. Once students have developed insight into their abusive behavior and the impact that it has had on others, many students experience the joy of doing for others and giving back. Wilderness Quest offers opportunities to provide such givings, and provides encouragement that this giving continues even once the student leaves the wilderness.
