- Dean Everritt

Click here to send an email

Q: What is your educational and vocational background that led you to Adirondack Leadership Expeditions?

A: I earned my Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work in 1999. Since then I have counseled adolescents and their families in various residential treatment settings, the last three years working in wilderness therapy at ALE.

Q: Why did you personally make the shift from residential treatment to the wilderness model?

A: I have a combined passion for working with children and their families, as well as being physically active in the outdoors. Plus, I find wilderness therapy to have a high level of effectiveness.

Q: How do you find wilderness to be so effective?

A: The primary reason that wilderness works is that it provides specific opportunities to build self esteem. It does this in four ways. First, wilderness helps teens overcome challenges and overcome self-perceived limitations. Second, it gives them a sense of competence. Thirdly, wilderness enables teens to create healthy reciprocal relationships. And finally, it teaches them to give back to their community. Putting adolescents out in the middle of the woods removes all the usual distractions, temptations, and stressors of their daily lives. When one finds oneself in such a simple, basic environment and recognizes the system of support we provide for them, the potential for change is infinite.

Q: What type of adolescent works well in a wilderness program such as Adirondack Leadership Expeditions?

A: We can work with various types of challenging behaviors, but the adolescents that thrive the most in wilderness are unconfident, egocentric, entitled, oppositional defiant, and impulsive. However, we also do well with students who need time and support in processing issues of grief, loss, and trauma. We believe that every teens' behavior is an expression of an emotional need, so we spend a great deal of time examining specific behaviors to determine what need they are attempting to fill. After this assessment, we proceed to help the kids develop better, more healthy strategies to get their needs met.

Q: What type of student do you specifically work well with?

A: I work well with students who have ADHD, substance abuse issues, and those who are hurt, angry, and put on a tough exterior to feel safe and in control. I also enjoy helping young men and older men work through "father-son issues."

Q: What are healthy expectations for parents to have during and after their child's stay at Adirondack Leadership Expeditions?

A: We provide parents with in-depth updates on the progress of their child, and we also offer parenting education. Parents need to be prepared for us to identify and explore all maladaptive behaviors and coping mechanisms not only with their child, but within the family system as well. It is crucial that parents are honest in giving us a thorough family history; this helps provide tremendous insight into the family and child. It is also crucial that parents are willing to be engaged in the process, and do their own homework.

Q: When it comes to transitioning out of wilderness, how do you address the family system as a whole?

A: Core human change is a process that takes place over nine to eighteen months. It is important to remember that we do not fix teenagers; we begin the process of healing. Wilderness is an ideal setting for assessing students' needs because the kids receive constant supervision. Coping patterns and behavioral disorders are more effectively and efficiently noted in wilderness, than in a traditional 50 minute office session. Because of quick, proper pattern assessment, we initiate and accelerate the change process for adolescents. We then aid in providing information and insight to the family regarding aftercare for the particular student. We experience the highest levels of success for our students when the appropriate systems are applied fully and consistently after the student leaves wilderness. Once the student has the experience of reaping the benefits of their better choices at ALE, this typically increases their tendency to reach for support and continue to make better choices elsewhere.

  - Christine Riley

Click here to send an email - Information coming soon

  - Sara View

Click here to send an email - Information coming soon