2. Interview with a Wilderness Therapy Worker and Climber!

Cover image: a close up image of a hand and a rope on rock implying someone is climbing it

When I was researching for this project, someone who I instantly thought of was my friend Greg. Greg works as a head instructor in wilderness therapy and spends most of his off days rock climbing. I thought that he could bring some very interesting insights to this blog relating to adventure culture and climbing as well as relating to mental health and accessibility in the outdoors because of his job.

I first interviewed Greg about what he loves about climbing and how he prefers to experience nature. Greg talked about how he loves the climbing community and when he climbs he enters this “flow state” that the physical challenge allows him to get into. He also mentioned that in life, “you get out what you put in” and that grueling challenge is not necessary but when you put in the work it is “sweeter”. Also, that certain isolated places can’t be reached with money but only effort and climbing and hiking allows him to do that. I think that certain elements of this did resonate with the popular idea that challenge and suffering are necessary to have an enriching experience in the outdoors. However, the “flow state” he described in nature can be achieved in numerous other ways and it seemed that the physical challenge was perhaps mainly just his preferred method. I do kind of agree that when something takes challenge to reach it is sweeter and I suppose I’m still processing how true that statement actually is or if it’s just what I’ve been socialized to believe as well as the statement’s relation to disability and ableism.

The next questions that I asked were about his job in wilderness therapy. For an overview of the program, most of the kids that they see have fairly broad demographics but the reasons they are there center around past trauma, anger management, and drug or alcohol addictions. It is a hiking/backpacking program where the kids stay in wilderness for weeks/months at a time that he helps lead for two week shifts to keep the kids safe and on track for the program. Periodically, therapists come talk with them and give them tasks to work on. The main goal isn’t really to “cure” these kids but to “set them up with the tools they need to go through life’s challenges”. Greg joined the program because of how beneficial nature has been for him and is passionate about what he does because he has seen kids get a lot better through it. He believes that the wilderness setting is helpful because the kids get to have time with their thoughts with no distractions, being outside in the middle of nowhere just feels necessary to life.

I really liked the goal of the program because I feel like it helps break free of the “overcoming” disability and illness narratives that are very present and popularized in the medical view. It was also interesting to consider how wilderness creates an environment conducive to therapy as well as reinforcing how beneficial being outside is for reducing stress and elevating moods. This is one major reason why improving accessibility to the outdoors so that everyone can reach it is so important.

When I asked him about accessibility, he said that he doesn’t have much experience with it because the admissions team screens out a lot of disabilities that they don’t think they can safely or productively accommodate. Their program doesn’t accept physical disabilities because of all the hiking, intellectual disabilities because it’s outside of their scope, and certain health conditions like diabetes that they worry about being able to safely manage. This was a little bit disappointing but not surprising to hear.

Greg was super interesting to talk to about climbing and wilderness therapy and I hope that you enjoyed this post!