Wednesday, March 9th at 1pm (Central Time) on Critical Thinking in the Real World

Tune in here.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 9th Tim Murphy, a Senior Field Guide at Open Sky will be on the show Critical Thinking in the Real World discussing the unique holistic wilderness therapy model at Open Sky and sharing success stories of former students.

Tim Murphy began his career at Three Rivers Montana in 2004 ascending to field leadership positions as a Senior Guide and Team Leader.  He has worked with hundreds of students, including adolescents, young adults and families.  After a few attempts to do other work, the meaning and purpose of wilderness therapy led him to join the Open Sky team in 2007.  At Open Sky,  in addition to being a senior in each of our teams at one point or another, he has served as a guide trainer and field manager.

The show will give listeners a glimpse into the day and life of field guides and students at Open Sky. Open Sky maintains the most-qualified field guide team in the industry. Open Sky guides average just under 30 years of age with more than 50% of them having worked for a previous wilderness therapy program prior to joining Open Sky. A guide’s highest priority is to foster emotional and physical safety for each and every student at all times. Open Sky maintains the most extensive hiring and training requirements in the industry, demanding each applicant be a certified Wilderness First Resonder and successfully complete the rigorous 12-day field guide training process and 24-day apprenticeship prior to becoming a full-time guide.  Learn More about being a field guide.

Field guides work hand-in-hand with the clinical therapist overseeing each student’s treatment. In addition, guides run daily group process sessions, teach curriculum, and oversee the varied program activities. Field guides are really the heart and soul of the Open Sky program, providing ongoing mentorship, guidance, and leadership to the students every day of their tenure. Seven of Open Sky’s nine owners were field guides prior to starting Open Sky in 2006.

If you miss the show, get the free podcast here.

Aired on LA Talk on Monday, March 1^st, 11am PST.

Listen to Archive here.  Suggestion: Fast forward to the 4-minute mark to pick up where the interview starts.

Open Sky’s Research Director, Joanna Bettmann, PhD, LCSW was interviewed on LA Talk Radio’s Answers for the Family. Dr. Bettmann discussed the type of teens and young adults that are helped by wilderness therapy, what makes wilderness treatment considerably safer than many believe, and why it is often a more effective option than many conventional therapies.

Dr. Bettmann is a licensed clinical social worker and Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, College of Social Work.  In addition to teaching, she serves as Open Sky’s Research Director researching outcomes of the program’s effectiveness as well as attachment issues as it relates to treatment in a wide range of settings.

“Open Sky conducts research with each and every student and family. We believe that empirically evaluating our students’ outcomes, in addition to their satisfaction with treatment, is critical to conducting an effective and powerful program,” says Dr. Bettmann. Most programs conduct satisfaction surveys at the conclusion of treatment with its students and families.  These surveys are an important measure for customer service but not for determining if the program actually works.

According to Dr. Bettmann, “Our research suggests that Open Sky is successful at helping both adolescents and young adults. Our use of standardized measures shows us that our clients make significant reductions in mental health symptoms while they are with us and maintain those gains for at least a year after treatment.”

Despite the positive outcomes thus far, Dr. Bettmann believes it is important to continue researching wilderness therapy “because there are so many questions still left unanswered; (such as) what is the exact mechanism of change, what makes wilderness therapy effective and specifically which interventions are useful for which clients?”

Hear the March 1st archive.

Open Sky’s holistic wilderness therapy program is the most comprehensive and clinically sophisticated wilderness therapy program in the industry, and the only program in the country to continuously conduct empirically validated research to measure the success of its students. Open Sky sets the standard in the industry and employs the widest range of empirically supported interventions for young adults and adolescents in crisis.

The session was entitled “What is the Evidence for Effectiveness of Wilderness Therapy Programs?” and included Open Sky’s three year research results. Dr. Bettmann’s presentation explored the evidence for wilderness therapy programs’ effectiveness and intended to provide participants with a solid understanding of the research base that underlies wilderness therapy programs and also which programs and for which types of children and young adults such programs are most effective.  Participants in this session also learned how we effectively evaluate Open Sky’s outcomes and what the industry still needs to learn about wilderness treatment’s effectiveness.

Open Sky is the only wilderness therapy program that conducts research outcomes on each and every student.  Several programs claim to be “research-supported” but the truth is that Open Sky is the only program that is currently conducting research and has been doing so since the inception of the program in 2006.  Research at Open Sky is intended to guide the treatment approach so as to have the most effective treatment possible in the industry.

The research is a longitudinal one-group design, following every student and family for two years after graduation. We ask adolescents to complete four questionnaires six times: at arrival, graduation, three months after graduation, six months after graduation, 12 months after graduation, and 24 months after graduation.  We ask our adult students to complete four questionnaires six times: at arrival, graduation, three months after graduation, six months after graduation, 12 months after graduation, and 24 months after graduation.

Research results prove that Open Sky works. Our research shows that our adolescent and young adult students are getting better across multiple dimensions and maintain these improvements well after departing Open Sky. Most of our adolescent and adult students make behavior, interpersonal, and mental health gains while overcoming substance abuse and addiction issues.

Most importantly, these gains made while at Open Sky are maintained well beyond graduation. We will continue to research the effectiveness of Open Sky to measure the impact of what we do, so as to continue to refine our program in order to best serve our students and their families.

Download a copy of Dr. Bettmann’s presentation here.

To learn more about empirical research being conducted at Open Sky with teens and young adults, check out this section of our website: www.openskywilderness.com/why-open-sky/research

The panel is being assembled to discuss the current trend in clinical treatment settings towards incorporating mindfulness-based practices concurrent with clinical treatment and the ramifications for the field at large.  In particular, the discussion will explore the treatment efficacy of mindfulness-based practices and also debate what constitutes a mindfulness-based practice and what does not.

Since its inception in 2006, Open Sky has been incorporating a daily reflective practice of meditation with its students and has noticed an increase in student’s self awareness and ability to more effectively manage difficult emotions.  In addition to a daily meditation practice, Open Sky also leads students through yoga each morning.  Yoga is a body-centered mindfulness practice that has many proven scientific benefits for the mind and body.

Norman Elizondo began working in wilderness therapy in 1998 after a head long venture into the restaurant industry and a stint doing financial consulting.  After losing his mother to cancer, he set about to devote his life’s work to assisting people reduce confusion and suffering in their lives.  Norman has studied and practiced yoga since the mid-nineties and is a devote meditation practitioner as a member of the Dhyanasangha community of the Dharma Ocean Foundation, a Buddhist community based in Crestone, Colorado. Norman provides the Open Sky team with regular training and guidance in these practices so as to better serve our students and families.

Learn more about meditation at Open Sky here.

Learn more about yoga at Open Sky here.

Learn more about the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) here.

Open Sky Wilderness Therapy’s Emily Demong, LCSW and Heather Menzie, MA, LPC-I will present a lecture entitled “The Comprehensive Treatment of Disordered Eating: How to be Effective in Therapeutic Programs” at the annual conference of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) in La Jolla, California on Friday, January 29th, 2010.

The lecture will be an interactive, educational and experiential program targeted to mental health professionals that work in clinical settings similar to Open Sky.  The presentation will be about how a comprehensive approach to disordered eating similar to what Open Sky employs can be highly effective in a variety of treatment settings.

“Body image issues, poor relationship to food, and unbalanced nutrition are impacting our students more frequently than ever.  We have seen an increase in this trend with both our male and female populations.  Our students are bombarded with negative marketing and media influences all the time and I feel we have an obligation to help them reconnect with a deeper sense of themselves.  At Open Sky, we have found that education around how food choices influence their physiological and mental functioning can be a springboard to deeper discussions regarding the importance of self care,” says Emily Demong, Open Sky’s Clinical Director.

The lecture will discuss the latest research findings for treating disordered eating along with Open Sky’s successful experience treating it in a holistic wilderness therapy setting. The lecture will begin by reviewing the myriad of ways that disordered eating can manifest clinically.  With this foundation, Emily and Heather will then focus on how to identify emerging disordered eating patterns and discuss the clinical interventions that are most effective for the varying populations that suffer from it.

Heather, an adolescent therapist at Open Sky hopes the NATSAP lecture will be informative and will also have immediate practical application for the professionals in attendance, “We hope they will leave the session with a concrete understanding of what disordered eating is and how to best treat disordered eating through the use of comprehensive clinical interventions in both wilderness and residential settings.”

Emily Demong is a licensed clinical social worker and serves as Open Sky’s Clinical Director.  In addition to disordered eating, Emily’s areas of clinical expertise include depression, anxiety, grief and loss, trauma, self-harm, and adoption and attachment issues.  Her clinical approach is informed by cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, family systems, and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) theories. Heather Menzie is a master’s level therapist who serves as an adolescent therapist working with both boys and girls. Heather supports her students in healing from past traumas, anxiety, and depression through mind/body-based practices and experiential therapy. Heather encourages her students to empower themselves through learning and practicing stress management skills and assertive communication tools.

Open Sky has been a member of NATSAP since its founding in 2006.  To Learn more about NATSAP, go to their website www.natsap.org

Dr. Kettle is a licensed naturopathic doctor with a BA in International Health from Brown University and a doctorate from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. Dr. Kettle is dedicated to addressing each person as a whole, believing that the key to health is discovering the obstacles to wellness and learning how to overcome them. In her role as Wellness Director at Open Sky, she combines her enthusiasm for introducing people to natural medicine, the benefits of whole foods, and the healing power of nature.

Since founding Open Sky in 2006, Dr. Kettle has presented nationally on the importance of nutrition in mental health treatment, utilizing mindfulness to aid the therapeutic process, and the role of nutrition in treating addiction.  She is currently researching the literature on disordered eating in preparation for the annual conference of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) in January.

Open Sky’s holistic wilderness treatment program integrates the best of contemporary clinical modalities, naturopathic medicine, and awareness practices with wilderness therapy therefore providing the most comprehensive treatment program available in the industry.

To learn more about this unique and effective approach successfully treating adolescents and young adults, tune in to KDUR or listen to the archive here soon.

In other field news, eight guides on the Open shift recently completed a two and a half day vision fast in the mountains north of Bayfield. This was a powerful experience and speaks to the commitment Open Sky guides have to the work we do here both in and out of the field.  The next guide vision fast will take place in the late winter or early spring and will provide an opportunity for Sky shift guides to participate.

As well, Open Sky has seen a few guides depart this Fall: Andy D’Acquisto (June 2006) and Buddy Gurnari (January 2008).  We hope to see them both back next year!  Andy has worked for us since our first summer 2006 and is a stalwart for the field department!  He can be found up at the local ski area working at Performance Ski Shop at Durango Mountain Resort.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle.

But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.

Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes.

All is a miracle.

Thich Nhat Hanh

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“You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till 
you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars: and perceive
yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world…till you more feel it than your 
private estate, and are more present in the hemisphere, considering the glories 
and beauties there than in your own house.”

Thomas Traherne

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

Mother Teresa

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“A weed is no more than a flower in disguise.”

James Russell Lowell

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What is rooted is easy to nourish

What is recent is easy to correct

What is brittle is easy to break

What is small is easy to scatter

Prevent trouble before it arises.

Put things in order before they exist.

The giant pine tree

Grows from a tiny sprout.

The journey of a thousand miles

Starts from beneath your feet.

Tao Te Ching, Verse 64

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“Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep-blue sky…seems to impart a quiet to the mind.”

Jonathan Edwards

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“It is a marriage of the soul with Nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination.”

Henry David Thoreau

Open Sky is proud and excited to announce that on July 15^th Derek Daley reached 500 days in the field at Open Sky.  Derek has been with Open Sky in the field since the first day in 2006 when this program began.  He worked with our first student ever.  Derek worked in the field as a guide for the entire first summer.  In September of 2006, he and an old guide Jason Blomquist became the first Assistant Field Directors (now known as Field Managers).  He still holds that position in the field today!

Derek has seen every single challenge, success, and level of growth and change that Open Sky has gone through.  Derek continues to be a solid rock of humor, positivity, and passion for this work. He continues to be a mentor for the field guides and an advocate for the future of Open Sky.  Please extend your congratulations to Derek on this monumental achievement.  We think we can all safely say that we hope to never see Derek leave this place.   Thank you Derek for all the time, energy and hard work that you have put into your work in the field! It is truly an honor to get to work so closely with you.  We are consistently impressed with each new idea that you have.  Be sure to watch out for those wasps in the middle of the night!!!

To check out Derek’s profile, click here.

As a co-owner of Open Sky, Norman provides compassionate support to families and students in conducting our Student Graduation and Family Reunions as well as leading our monthly Parent Wellness Weekends.  Norman also conducts our weekly Parent Support Group Teleconferences.

The family is the centerpiece of the Open Sky program experience. We believe that it is crucial for family members to fully participate in the program while their son or daughter is enrolled with us.  Research has proven repeatedly that a student’s success is proportional to the involvement and growth of the student’s family.  As a result, Open Sky provides the most comprehensive family experience available in wilderness therapy led by our clinical therapists and wellness team.

Listen to Norman’s interview here