Family therapy

In partnership with the Wilderness Foundation

Family Wilderness Therapy addresses the needs of parents and their children together. Working with a solution-focused model in a wilderness setting, FWT takes a parent and young person away together to an uplifting outdoor environment where they are given a unique opportunity to address the problems in their family.

For many families, quality time together is rare, and even more scarce is the opportunity to learn to address issues of conflict, poor communication, and failing relationships in a safe and secure environment. Members of the family are supported in their work towards a preferred future.

FWT provides specialist staff who not only guide parents and youth through their problems and the positive futures that lie within their reach, but also through the wilderness on a trail, where they learn about their strengths, take a break from the turmoil of daily life, and find new perspectives with which to come home and start fresh.

Once we have received a self referral form from both a parent and young person, we will meet with the family in the weeks building up to 8 days away at our base in the Scottish mountains. Families will meet the team at Edinburgh Airport from where we will travel to our lodge. Two days are spent together within group and individual settings working towards preferred futures for the family, and getting ready for the wilderness expedition.

The next four days will be spent in the wild in separate groups of young people and parents where each learn about their strengths, take a break from the turmoil of daily life, and find new perspectives. Once back at our comfortable base time is spent planning a way forward. After this residential stage there will be a further home visit, ongoing telephone support, parent forum, and a menu of outdoor activities to keep your love of the wild and being together alive.

Our experience comes from many years of outdoor engagement working with people from a wide variety of people and problems including youth at risk, young people with learning and engagement issues, offending behavior, family breakdown, drugs and alcohol misuse. The programme can simply help families who are not getting on with each other as well as they would like. The programme facilitators share a love of people and wild places and believe that within each and every one of us lies the potential for positive change and futures that one can take control of and feel satisfied with.