When Kelly Dunbar, Director of Business Development, joined the team in February, she noted that SUWS is a program of "many layers".  One critical layer of the program has recently materialized, and greatly  enhances the wilderness experience for staff and students alike; in 2015, SUWS began a campaign to create a clinical support team.  One that is comprised of highly qualified individuals and serve as a mentor and coaching staff for the students, as well as a conduit of information from the field staff to therapists. These skilled individuals bring a passion for wilderness therapy, a diverse skill set to serve each niche program track, and the ability to relay information in real-time from our clinical team to the instructors who support our students 24/7.

The clinical support team at its inception was the brain-child of Clinical Director, Daniel Fishburn. Daniel worked closely with teens and families struggling with addiction in the Houston area prior to landing at SUWS, and brings a passion for getting young people excited about recovery to our team. The genesis of the clinical support team at SUWS began with the recognized need for a recovery coach for the boys working in our dual diagnosis, groups focused on recovery. "We needed someone to bridge the gaps between therapists and field staff," Daniel explains.  The idea is not to replace the therapists or diminish their role, quite the opposite in fact. The clinical support team is meant to augment the therapeutic interventions deemed appropriate by each therapist, and help the field instructors deliver effective group sessions. We want to process themes and capitalize on realizations that come up within each group more effectively. Due to the nature of wilderness therapy, field instructors work in week long shifts. "That's alot of change," explains former field instructor Dane Cox, "and this can be difficult for students, especially if there have been attachment issues."  The therapists and the support team are a consistent face in the milieu. Each group continues to have the expert field guides overseeing day to day group function, but there is one more layer of oversight added with the weekly visits from the specialists.

Our first member of the clinical support team was Recovery Specialist, James Skelton. James was added to the team in March of 2015 to work with the Phoenix groups. His presence proved to be a valuable asset, as the students found him easy to talk to, and expanded the concept of living a happy healthy life without using. James incorporated daily meditations, and mindfulness training as a key piece to his morning routine for the boys. He also facilitates recovery meetings in the groups in order to expose them to the 12-step model thus ensuring access to a positive peer group almost anywhere in the world, post-graduation. In addition, each student in Phoenix has the option to join James for a 12 step meeting in town two nights prior to graduation. "It's amazing to see these guys look around the room and finally get the fact that they are not alone and there are people in the real world living their lives and having fun." The benefits of having a member of the clinical team with the group five days a week in addition to the two day sessions with therapists were evident, and soon the notion was passed to bring added support to every group at SUWS.

 Cameron Allen, qEEG specialist, was already working with the Phoenix groups to deliver neuro-psychological education during their regular visits to base camp every other week. Cameron's expertise in neuro-psychological evaluation is vast, and his work has been documented in the Journal for Post Graduate Medicine. His process consists of a pre-treatment and post-treatment qEEG brain scan, as well as ongoing bio feedback sessions where we can actually show students the neuro pathways that have been opened during the course of treatment. "We are using neuro science to increase students self-awareness, to understand their behaviors and give them language that allow them to access their behaviors and understand how their brains are contributing to these behaviors. And this is not to point out or show that there is something wrong with them, but rather to show them that that these behaviors are adaptive." states Allen. By highlighting some of the dominant behaviors we can help students critique whether or not their behaviors are moving towards their values in a sustainable way, or just a short term reaction. We expand upon the neuro-feedback to include some mindfulness exercises where students can visually evaluate their emotional responses through bio feedback.  "Allowing them to see how they can calm themselves down and communicate their emotions is far more important," states Allen. Cameron's duties expanded to working with our female adolescent groups when he came on board full time in June but any student has the availability to participate in the qEEG readings as part of their program.

Sara Baicich, experiential support specialist, was already working with SUWS in the capacity of a Logistics Coordinator when she made the transition to her current role. Sara is a Board certified Art Therapist, and works primarily with the boys and girls groups in the SUWS program. Sara holds weekly group sessions that include art therapy work, but she explains most of her work is based in mindfulness education.  She states many students have the perception that they are bad listeners or bad at trying to concentrate so therefore they are going to be bad at mindfulness exercises. Sara shared that she gets great pleasure in helping students de-mystify what mindfulness is, and that anyone can quiet the mind long enough to take inventory of what is going on around them, and how that is affecting them internally. Helping students navigate social pressures of being a teenager is always a big piece to address when working with adolescents. Sara has implemented several unique activities to help her students understand the healthy formation of friendships and the appropriate use of social media. Sara's office is filled with beautiful pieces of art work from her students, and words of encouragement from one student to the next are displayed in many pieces around the room. She states she knows her work is having an impact because her students are excited to see her and tell her what they have been successful with since their last session.

Dane Cox, is the behavioral support specialist for the Approach and Seasons groups.  The students in Approach are often diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, thus social skills are a focal point for his students in this group. Dane works predominantly with the instructors to help process the social and relational components so students can come out of the wilderness experience feeling successful connections and understand that they have tools to engage rather than isolate. With Seasons, the middle school age group, Dane works with the students primarily through games and group activities in order to help them gain the ability to identify their emotions and express them in ways that others can receive them. Many seasons students express that they have a wide array of emotions but are unsure of how to deal with them. Dane explains that consistency is one of the major strengths he and his team bring to the table, and students begin to develop relationships with all the members of the treatment team, but the consistency helps the structure of the program  for each student. Equally important, there is a constant flow of feedback between the specialists and the therapists with what's going on in each group. Dane meets with each therapist at least two times a week to brainstorm outcomes for each student. While Seasons students may respond better to hands on activities, the students in the Approach program are in a great place to participate in psycho-educational groups about the structure of conversation, breaking things down to basic levels to help them understand the nuances of what makes a positive conversation. In addition, Dane is engaging the students in groups about bullying and teasing, with an emphasis on the dynamics of electronic communication.