This is your seventh year at Adventure Camp! What keeps on drawing you back to participate year after year?
"The things that keep drawing me back to Adventure Camp are the children and the significant progress they make, year after year! I love watching the kids challenge themselves through using their brave and overcoming their worries. To do the exposure activities alongside them is so inspiring to me to challenge myself when I have to face my own fears! I also love watching the kids support each other as they advance through the week."
How has your experience at Adventure Camp and training in SM enriched your approach as a clinician?
"The training and experiences that I've had with AC have helped me tremendously as a clinician. I use PRIDE skills on a pretty regular basis and I am constantly talking about having to be brave by facing anxiety rather than avoiding it. I use this insight with children, teens, and even adults!"
What excites you most about participating in Adventure Camp?
"There are so many things that are exciting to me about AC. I get excited thinking about who I will meet and who I will see from the previous year (campers and counselors alike). I get excited thinking about the different exposure activities and how much the kids enjoy them every year. I often wonder what will be the same and what will be different, since this has sometimes changed over the years. I especially look forward to reflecting on the bus trips on day 5... The bus is usually pretty quiet on day 1 and by day 5, the bus is buzzing with chatter and laughter (this usually happens in the lunch room too!)"
If you could talk to your camper right now, what would you tell him/her? What would you want him/her to know?
"If I could talk to my camper right now, I would tell them that I know it can be scary to go to camp. Even after 6 years of doing this camp, I experience worries and nervousness too, but we can be brave together! I would let them know that there is so much fun to be had and friends to be made, so much that it will eventually outweigh their fears."
