The women of Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program made a strong showing at the 2012 NATSAP conference in Orlando, Florida.  The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, known as NATSAP for short, was founded in 1999 and provides annual research in the field of therapeutic programing for youth and a national directory of schools and programs that are licensed and accredited.  In attendance were Suzanne McKinney, MA, Co-founder and Owner, Erin Levine, LCSW, LCAS, and Denise Westman, from the Marketing and Admissions Team, Hilary Moses, MSW, LCSW, Therapeutic Program Director, and Lindsey Baldwin, MSW, Kathryn (Katie) Kasenchak, Psy.D., and Kelly Weld, MFTi, from the Therapeutic Team.

The conference proved to be a flurry of activity, as members of the group attended breakout sessions and connected with friends and professionals from the industry, new and old. Seminars attended included topics such as working with students on the spectrum, internet usage in adolescents, anxiety disorders and executive dysfunction, trauma and the female brain, and internet addiction and intimacy disorders. Hilary and Katie also had the chance to connect with a team of professionals and students who are conducting outcomes research on wilderness therapy programs and are very excited to integrate what they learned into proving that the Pacific Quest wilderness therapy model is truly successful and sustainable.

Perhaps most exciting was the “Relaxing Retreat and Hospitality Suite,” co-hosted by PQ and Carlbrook school. We collectively held three blocks of open house hours, during which professionals could stop by to meet the team and/or conduct individual meetings in a less pressured environment, complete with complementary chair massages! This was clearly a big hit, we even had people waiting at the door!

No trip to Orlando is complete without a trip to the Magic Kingdom. Thus, on Saturday, after the conference wrapped up, a few of us headed to the park for a day of magic and fun, which was definitely had by all.

Every week at Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program we discuss and engage in the five pillars of health. This week we discussed the pillars of health and how they contribute to strengthening the immune system.

The pillars of health are:

1. Diet/ Nutrition

2. Mind/ Body Connection

3. Sleep

4. Breathing

5. Exercise/ Movement

At Pacific Quest all five of these pillars are reinforced daily leading to healthier and happier students.

What can weaken the body’s immune system?

Stress, sugar, poor sleep quantity and quality, eating processed food and junk food, not exercising, suppressing your emotions, smoking, alcohol, and recreational drugs

What can you do on a daily basis to keep your immune system strong and healthy?

Move: move your body daily, work in the garden, exercise, take a walk, stretch, take the stairs.
Eat well: eat whole foods and plenty of fruits and vegetables, stay on the periphery of your supermarket, the middle contains processed foods and the periphery contains the fresh produce, dairy and meats.
Sleep well: sleep at least 7 hours per night and do not use substances to induce sleep as they can disrupt your sleep architecture, meaning quality of sleep.
Breathe: take deep breaths to calm your nervous system and detoxify, breathe fresh air, use a HEPA air purifier in your bedroom if you live in a city.
Water: drink a lot of filtered water, drink half your body weight in ounces daily, for each alcoholic or caffeinated beverage consumed add another 8 ounces of water.
Calm the mind to moderate stress: talk about your emotions, reserve at least 10 minutes of quiet time daily to clear the mind and breathe, some people call this meditation.

I have found myself recently focusing on how to articulate the Pacific Quest wilderness therapy model. I know intimately what we do, day in and day out; I know the roles that everyone plays and how they contribute to a very full spectrum of services; I know that we are not wilderness and that we are a hybrid model and I know that I love what we are doing. I recently shared an invigorating conversation with an educational consultant, and while I sought out ideas to make sure that we were providing for our students what the populations needs, he reminded me to keep doing what we are doing.

We exchanged philosophies, both personal and professional, about having intentional focus on how we “show up” in our world and the importance of helping students, families and ourselves to connect with our individual core intention. Core intention not defined as a goal that we want to achieve in life but rather as the core of who we feel we are and what we want to offer to the world. We exchanged metaphors, one Michelangelo and one arrow head, about how we are not working to create in ourselves or others, something that does not exist. Rather, there is a true form that rests in side each of us and our work is to chip away at the muck that builds up and keeps the true form from shining through. This is the basis of our work with adolescents, young adults and parents. Remember who you are and who you have always been, journeying back through the stories of your life. Identify the obstacles that have thwarted the true form and know that, as my colleague stated in our conversation, “failure is the inability to shed what you no longer need.”

The day began with a discussion of the history of the site and the anticipation of witnessing some of the most diverse coral reef habitats on the island. The group geared up with snorkels, masks, and fins and eased their way into the crystal clear blue water where they floated above the coral, and watched the colorful reef fish drift with the moving tide. Students identified sea urchins, hermit crabs and eels, and everyone became excited when they saw a green sea turtle surface for air. After exploring the underwater sights, students made their way out of the water, and gathered around a nearby picnic table for lunch. As students shared the highlights of their underwater adventure, a humpback whale breached in the distance, leaving the group pointing at the horizon and shouting with excitement. It was a great day of fun in the sun, swimming in the ocean, and exploring the ancient history of Hawaii!

This weekend, several people from the Pacific Quest team volunteered at the 4th Annual Keiki Fishing Tournament at Punalu’u Beach Park, which is a famous black sand beach approximately 11 miles from our camp. The event was hosted by ‘O Ka’u Kakou, and Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program was one of many sponsors. Volunteers arrived as the sun rose over the ocean; just in time to help with registration and set up for the day’s activities. Approximately 300 kids, between the ages of one and fourteen participated in the catch and release tournament where all the children left with a prize. To get things started, the game warden announced the rules over a microphone along with a brief statement about the importance of spending time with family, being responsible stewards of the land and ocean, and the meaning of aloha. He called it “having the attitude of gratitude.”

Then the kids were given a bamboo fishing pole with bait and a bucket, and they set out with their families to find a fishing spot along the coast. Excitement filled the air! Special volunteers in charge of documenting the catch were scattered along the beach and coastline wearing yellow reflective vests. Each time someone caught a fish, a volunteer would verify the size and species and then help with the release. After two hours of fishing, lunch was served for everyone, and there was even shave ice and a local band. After the volunteers huddled to compare results of the day’s catch, awards were given for a variety of categories including biggest fish, most caught, most colorful, and even the ugliest fish! Pacific Quest wilderness program looks forward to continue promoting family events like these, and we are grateful to all the staff that took time to help make this a lasting memory for the kids.

Imagine: You’re feeling so depressed that you visit your doctor and request a prescription for a mood elevator. Instead of writing you a prescription for Prozac or a similar antidepressant, she advises you to get dirty. While you consider changing doctors, she describes how getting dirty changes your brain chemistry. The microbes in dirt, she says, tweak the same neurons that are stimulated by Prozac. Your options, she explains, are an expensive drug plus its possible side effects, or gardening, yard work, or a romp in the park. Your doctor, it turns out, hasn’t gone round the bend. She is actually up-to-date on the latest scientific findings about how the natural environment affects our brain function.
The dirt-and-Prozac connection surfaced a couple of years ago from Dr. Chris Lowry and his colleagues at the University of Bristol and University College London. They exposed lung cancer patients to a common, inoffensive microbe called Mycobacterium vaccae, found in soil. The patients unexpectedly reported increases in their quality of life, including a brighter mood. The researchers wondered if this effect was caused by stimulation of neurons in the patients’ brains that produce serotonin, a feel-good chemical.
Taking the next step, they broke up M. vaccae into fragments with sound waves and injected them into the windpipes of anesthetized mice. When compared to controls, the mice exposed to M. vaccae had more activity in serotonin-producing neurons and higher levels of serotonin in several areas of the brain. “[The bacteria] had the exact same effect as antidepressant drugs,” Dr. Lowry said. The scientists said that one might derive dirt’s benefit directly by rooting around in a vegetable garden, or by eating lettuce or carrots picked from that garden. Popular media ran with the findings. “Is Dirt the New Prozac?” asked Discover magazine.
The dirt-and-Prozac connection fits with a recent idea in medicine called the “hygiene hypothesis.” According to this concept, exposure early in life to the bacteria, fungi, and viruses found in common, everyday dirt is necessary to stimulate our immune system. When children are exposed to the stew of microbes in dirt, their immune systems become stronger. The immune system also learns to ignore substances like pollen or the dandruff of pets, which can trigger asthma and allergies. Researchers have shown, for example, that kids who grow up in dirty environments such as farms have a lower incidence of infections, asthma, allergies, and eczema later in life, compared to kids raised in urban environments in which parents try to keep them squeaky clean.
For a century and a half we have waged merciless war on filth through public health measures such as public sanitation systems and water purification programs. These developments have been enormously successful. The increase in lifespan in modern societies is due largely to the reduction of death rates from diseases such as typhoid and cholera, which in nineteenth-century America were called “filth diseases.” 

We have to wonder, however, if we have gone too far in our obsession with hygiene. Throughout our evolutionary history our ancestors lived in intimate contact with dirt, and its influence, we now see, was not all bad. We evolved in the outdoors, and we are beginning to glimpse the price we are paying for shutting ourselves off from nature.
Don’t worry. Nobody is suggesting that we never bathe or clean our bathrooms. Neither is it necessary to inject M. vaccae into our windpipe. If we merely go for a walk in the woods, grub around in our vegetable garden, or weed our flowerbeds, we get a dose of the good bugs simply by inhaling.
“Nature deficiency disorder” has been proposed as a term for the problems we create when we build a wall between the natural world and ourselves. I am highly susceptible to this malady. When I spend too much time indoors, I become increasingly moody and morose. There’s only one cure: take a hike, go camping, or root around in my veggie garden. These activities are more than a hobby; they have become an essential part of my life and an important element in my personal health plan.
What about kids? Not so long ago, play and getting dirty were pretty much the same thing — frolicking in a sand box, making mud pies, romping in parks. Now many parents are horrified by dirty play. Keeping kids spotless and unsoiled, however, may be setting them up for trouble later on, because without exposure to nature’s medley of microbes our kids can grow up with confused, weak immune systems. Can we rethink the prohibition on dirty play for the sake of our children’s health?
Antidepressant medication can sometimes be a treatment of choice. It can work wonders, and in some instances can be life-saving. But if your doctor advises you to get dirty instead of taking a pill to perk up your mood, don’t look at her strangely. Pride yourself on having a physician who is on the cutting edge. Our students learn that living sustainably means giving back as you take, and it is a cycle of living in balance that will ideally sustain itself.
Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program is the only outdoor program that utilizes a ®Sustainable Growth Model. Our students live on an organic farm and participate in a curriculum that focuses on the mind~body~emotion connections. Our approach is unique, innovative, and cutting edge.

References:

Lowry CA, et al. Identification of an immune-responsive mesolimbocortical serotonergic system: Potential role in regulation of emotional behavior. Neuroscience. 2007; 146(2):756-772. Doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience. 2007.01.067.
Glausiusz J. Is dirt the new prozac? Discovermagazine.com. http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/raw-data-is-dirt-the-new-prozac. June 14, 2007. Accessed August 8, 2009.

I think a good many of us know what Ohana means from the movie “Lilo & Stitch.”
Essentially, Ohana means family. Though I am Hawaiian and I often used the word
ohana growing up, the words of Lilo from that movie have always stuck with me.
“Ohana means family, family means no one gets left behind, or forgotten.” Many of
us also know that the Hawaiian word mahalo means thank you. At this time of year
during the holiday season, many of us are thinking of our families and that for which
we are grateful. This is part of the reason I enjoy this season so much, because
people seem to be focused more on both of these things – family and gratitude. The
same is true for the students and staff at Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program.

Though many of the students feel a natural sense of sadness at not being home with their Ohana, they generally are able to feel a sense of connectedness to their temporary PQ Ohana comprised of the other students and staff that they live and interact with here. Family is important in the grand scheme of things with
respect to all that can be learned to help an individual become more effective and independent in his or her life. It is not coincidental that our final phase of PQ is
called Ohana. It is very purposeful. We seek to create an environment where the students will learn to depend upon each other and support each other through good times and difficult ones. As with all families, the personalities do not gel perfectly and there is often conflict and stress to work through. Over and over again, I see students work through conflicts and confront their own problems in ways that truly promote significant personal growth for themselves and regularly remind me of important truths.

This week we celebrated the holiday season with a big feast in the camps. It was a nice way to spend time with the students in a different way than usual. I personally enjoyed the feast and the time with students even more than usual because I was able to share my personal Ohana with them as my wife and three young boys were able to join us in our meal. It was wonderful to see the students open up and teach my children about the garden and take pride in their work and in their PQ Ohana. It was also great to see their faces light up and moods lighten as they spent time with visitors, especially children. As we began to eat the wonderful meal prepared for us by the students we began our meal as we begin all our meals at Pacific Quest, with a “round of thanks,” where each person at the table is given the opportunity to express gratitude for some or many things in his/her life. The feeling around the table that day with the feast, the visitors, and the extended gratitude was quite heartwarming to me, as I imagine it was for most. It was a reminder to me that when we combine gratitude with family and the connectedness within a family system, it is a powerful way to work through frustrations and improve our moods.

At this time of year may we each reflect on how these two important things – ohana(family) and mahalo (gratitude) – are powerful agents for change in each of our lives. As we think of and express gratitude for each other in our various families, may we each experience the power that comes from recognizing the blessings we have in each other despite our imperfections. As Stitch so aptly stated near the end of the movie, “This is my family. I found it, all on my own. Is little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good,” I am reminded that each of us has much to be grateful for despite the fact that our family relationships are not perfect. May our gratitude for each other and our individual blessings help each of us move more effectively through the difficult times and enjoy the wonderful times more fully. Mahalo, for the opportunity to include each of you and your children in our PQ Ohana.

Due to the varied cultures and religions of our staff and students at Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program, we held our winter holiday celebration in honor of the solstice. Our celebration included creative games and activities and of course a holiday meal. A highlight of the celebration was the “imu,” a traditional Hawaiian underground oven. To make an “imu” a hole is dug in the ground and rocks and wood are placed inside. A fire is started, creating a bed of coals and heating up the rocks. Next, banana leaves and other plant material are placed in the pit in order to create steam. The foods to be cooked are then placed inside, and more plant material is piled on top, followed by water soaked burlap sacks. Finally, the whole thing is covered with a plastic tarp and weighted down with rocks and dirt so that no steam will escape. The food steams in the “imu” for hours, until it is moist and tender.

In our “imu” we cooked ham and fresh caught Opakapaka fish. We also prepared lau lau, purple sweet potato pie, traditional mash potatoes and stuffing, apple and cranberry sauce, and salad. The groups worked all day to decorate and prepare for the feast, then shared the fruits of their labor with PQ staff and staff families.  I joined one of our Ohana groups for the afternoon and helped prepare the meal. The students talked about their family traditions, and of course their favorite holiday foods, while working together to get everything done. Each student took pride in creating one dish as their personal contribution to the meal, then served that dish out to the visitors. At dinner, we each shared what we are thankful for and enjoyed getting to know one another better. The holidays can be an extra difficult time for our students to be away from their own families and so it was exciting to see them working together as an Ohana and enjoying a unique holiday celebration with our Pacific Quest family.

The following are two recipes we used in our holiday meal that were a great success.

Vegetarian Lau Lau
Serves: 6
9 ounces sweet potato
7.5 ounces tofu
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons onion
1 tablespoon salt
12 leaves lu’au (taro leaves)
6 leaves ti

Wash and drain lu’au and ti leaves, removing stem and fibrous parts. Place lu’au at one end of ti leaf. Sprinkle with a little salt, then top with ingredients and cover with more lu’au until vegetables and tofu are completely wrapped. Roll ti leaf up tightly. Wrap another ti leaf in the opposite direction to form a flat bundle, and tie with string. Repeat process for additional lau lau. Steam 2-3 hours, making sure to add more water when needed.

Apple Sauce Hawaii Style – an original recipe from one of our students!
Serves: 6
10-12 apples
3 oranges juiced

Peel, core, and cube apples. Place apples in sauce pan with orange juice. Simmer on low for 20 minutes or until soft. Stir frequently to make sure the sauce doesn’t burn and add a little water or more orange juice if needed.

Enjoy!

Our focus on maintaining a high quality of care is always in motion and is invigorated every Monday morning in a meeting with the field supervisors, the therapeutic program director and the staff supervisor; it also includes a drop in visit from Al, PQ’s RN. During this meeting, the field supervisors review the time they spent with the students and field staff in each camp between Thursday and Monday (our field work week is from Thursday to Thursday). During our weekly meeting, the supervisor team reviews therapeutic outcomes and strategies that are being implemented in the field. The goal of the meeting is to assess what has been useful, and which strategies need to be “composted” to make room for new ones to be planted and cultivated. The supervisors review the peer group dynamic, healthy and unhealthy relationships that are budding and ways to utilize such observations for ongoing development. The field staff help students develop insight into how these relationships mirror ones at home, how they benefit from the relationship and how they are negatively affected. Additionally, we review apparent “roses and thorns”(strengths and struggles) observed in the staff, we identify what students the staff work best with, how they can work together as a team, and what are their growth areas to be reviewed during weekly training, etc… This is such a great collaborative experience that I am so excited to be a part of!

As the Therapeutic Program Director, I get to have a hand in the strategies that are implemented by field staff, field supervisors, and clinicians in order to best serve every student that comes to our program. My role at PQ really plays to my strengths of taking abstract goals, varying personalities and situations and developing hands-on, concrete and creative interventions for teaching. Being involved in the Monday meeting allows me to participate in a weekly growth experience, and to learn from four smart and creative people with lots of experience. I am continually challenged to get out of my typical “go to” strategies and to think of pros and cons of different ideas.

A piece of best practices includes ongoing assessment and review of the services delivered and of those who are delivering the services. As a result of our weekly meetings we get real time feedback and the opportunity to implement real time interventions for our staff and students. Knowing that this is part of the ongoing process of the program, we have learned that we tend to invite staff who are open to and actively working on their own growth; personalities that are more guarded and less open to role modeling the ongoing need for growth tend to be weeded out of our staff team relatively quickly.

One soapbox that I have carried with me over the years in this industry is the importance of giving equal value, if not more value, to the field department as we do to the clinical department. While the clinician plays an important role and is often the one to whom a student is referred, the field staff role augments that of the clinicians. In a “Rainbow Brite” comic I was recently reading to my kids, one character had a superpower bracelet, but it needed the rainbow power of “Brite’s” belt to give it the extra “umph” to allow it to reach its full potential. The clinicians are the bracelet, the field staff are “Rainbow Brite”, and sometimes vice versa. The fact is that all roles are vital but that the majority of the work happens in the field, in the garden, with the field staff. As a result, I am working in this new role as the Therapeutic Program Director, to develop deeper ties and a stronger bridge between the clinical and field departments.

Another fact is that most parents are unaware of how comprehensive a Sustainable Growth™ program like ours is with all of its members. We are frequently asked why we only see the students for therapy twice a week, or rather, why they are paying so much if we are not seeing the students more frequently. What is integral in understanding the breadth of what we offer is what happens day in and day out at Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program that leads to this quality of care.

Aloha! I am Alicia Goldman, and I am the new Director of Alumni and Family Services at Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program. My role is two-fold…one role being a resource to assist families and bridge the transition from PQ back into the home environment. For many families this can be a fragile and trying time, and my goal is to help facilitate as smooth a transition as possible. The other piece of my role is to reach out to the alumni families and help them stay connected to their experience at PQ. All of us at Pacific Quest feel that our past students and families play an important and essential role in our Ohana. We want to help our past students and families to remain connected to their experience and journey at Pacific Quest after they leave Hawaii. Our hope is for past students to possibly reconnect with the friendships they found at Pacific Quest wilderness program, for parents to find resources and support from one another, and for prospective families to have a place where they can begin to feel that hope and healing are possible. While this is a new role for PQ, I see it as an integral piece of the journey, and what helps to make the Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program experience so unique.

Over the past 8 months I have reconnected with hundreds of former PQ students and their families, and the experience has been extraordinary!! It is wonderful to hear about how students are doing now, both their triumphs and continued challenges, and how they are still utilizing the skills and philosophies they learned while in Hawaii with us. I am also moved by how incredibly grateful families are, and their strong interest in staying connected to PQ and to other families, as well. I am thrilled to report that there has been PQ alumni gatherings in Boston and Northern California already, with an upcoming one in the NY area and others to follow around the country!

On a recent visit to Hawaii I was lucky enough to visit with students and participate in what constitutes a “normal day” in the field. A few students taught me about the process behind planting new seeds. They were able to make connections of how being at PQ has helped them plant the “seeds” to start their new stories in their own lives, as well. I was lucky enough to witness a group of students and staff getting ready to harvest a huge amount of bananas from a tree in their camp. I watched as they worked together to figure out the best way to get the bananas down, without damaging a nearby hale (small hut each student has at camp) or the bananas. They talked through several different scenarios. It took patience, cooperation and communication and they worked together to harvest the fruit successfully. Everyone felt very accomplished and happy. I asked everyone to guess how many bananas were harvested in the bundle, which became a fun contest (I guessed 64, but there were 144!).

I told the group about my role and asked them if they thought they would want to stay connected to their peers post PQ. One student stood up and said, “Absolutely. I mean, how often do kids like us get to harvest a big bunch of bananas?? It’s definitely a bonding experience.” We all laughed. Others spoke about how connected they feel to the work they are doing at PQ, to each other, how they have learned about themselves, and about how to be in healthy relationships. I challenged them to think about how getting back to the routine of their lives might diminish these feelings. A student said, “That’s why we need to be able to stay connected to our friends from PQ. So when we need a reminder we can just reach out and ask for help.” That about said it all.

The students at Pacific Quest wilderness therapy made a valuable contribution by providing an interactive garden experience for the preschoolers, which allowed our students to demonstrate how our food comes form the Earth and benefits our body. The PQ students decided to set up three stations each with a fun learning activity.  At the first station, PQ students helped the preschoolers plant a bean seed into a small pot so that the kids could take a plant home with them.  At the second station, our students taught the preschoolers how to harvest, and then they had the opportunity to pick salad greens and cherry tomatoes for a snack.

At the third station, PQ students setup an arts and crafts activity where the preschoolers and their caregivers painted their hands and left their hand-prints on a sign for our camp as well as a Pacific Quest t-shirt so that Tūtū and Me could take home a souvenir.  It was a day full of learning and singing songs in Hawaiian.  We are grateful for their visit and hope they come back soon!

Have you heard? The McRib is back at McDonalds!!!! Well if you hadn’t heard it yet,
you have now.

Fast food chains are extremely effective in marketing to the populous, especially
youth. In fact, I didn’t learn of the re-emergence of the McRib from television
or radio, I learned of it from a teenage boy in a wilderness program. While it is
common for teens to drool over their favorite foods while in wilderness, it is scary
when the foods they dream of are very low in nutritional value, high in fat and
processed up the wazoo. I commonly hear teenagers in wilderness talking about
Taco Bell, McDonalds, and Jack in the Box. American youth are the targets of huge
marketing efforts to maximize business profits, creating a health epidemic that our
social systems and hospitals are failing to mend.

I read an article in the newspaper yesterday that focused on a dilemma that
one family and community in particular is facing right now. An 8 year old boy
weighing in at 216 pounds is being taken from his family by social services and
placed in foster care. Social services have been working with the parents of the boy to implement healthy eating and exercise routines that curb weight gain. The family has not been in compliance and in effect has been neglecting their son. After 20 months social services have deemed the parents as unfit. Stories typically portray neglect pertaining to malnourishing kids through starving them, however, neglecting to set limits and teach children about health seem like neglect too right? Is it up to parents to help kids make responsible choices surrounding nutrition and lifestyle? Government growth charts indicate that 8 year old boys weigh an average of 60 pounds. 1/3 of American youth are over weight. Obviously we have a problem.

As adults, we have a responsibility to ourselves, our families, and our communities.
We must work together to educate our youths of the value of eating healthy and
exercising. We must model this behavior by practicing healthy decision making,
even if it inconveniences us. Yes, there is absolutely an argument for moderation, as we all like to indulge in things that aren’t always healthy for our bodies. But it is just that – moderation – that allows us to find a balance in our lifestyles that allow us to stay healthy throughout life.

Our hospital beds are full of heart disease and diabetes, stemming from poor eating habits and limited exercise. There is a nasty cycle here where we are poisoning our youth and then straining our resources to clean up the mess. Why not treat the issue at the root – educate your family and friends.

Fun Fact:
Did you know that it takes 2-3 years to grow a single pineapple? The pineapples our students enjoy today were planted by students almost three years ago. This can be a powerful life lesson for our students who are so used to instant gratification. In life, many of the gifts we enjoy today are the result of our own hard work or the hard work of others. Likewise, the fruits of our labor today will manifest down the road to be enjoyed in the future.

Family Workshop:
I was a guest at a recent family workshop. We were in the middle of a demonstration, one of the students was teaching us how to gently take a plant from a seedling container and transfer it into its permanent home in the garden bed we had prepared. As she was describing this process, she told us how this transition was very tricky and the time the seedling was most likely to encounter difficulties and “not make it”. She began to cry and those of us who were present, including her parents, knew that something special was happening. She went on to explain that she finally “got it”. In discussing her pending transition from the program prior to that very moment she had been very cavalier in her attitudes and certain she “was ready to take on the world”. Now, she finally realized that she was going to be very vulnerable when she left Pacific Quest wilderness program. She resolved to be more of an active participant in the planning of her discharge and after care to ensure that she had a solid plan and support system in place to help her continue on the path she started here.

Everything we do at Pacific Quest has a practical and a therapeutic intention/benefit. This is just one story about the magic that takes place in our gardens every day. Working with living material gives our students an opportunity to have an experiential shift in their perceptions and to integrate the change we talk about everyday into their lives during and post treatment. That’s the heart of our Sustainable Growth model.

November 21, 2011

Dear Pacific Quest,

I thank you for the opportunity to attend the community visit and information session on November 19, 2011. This letter is to Whom It May Concern and if desired you may post it. As a current member of the Ka’u community working with the youth of Hawaii Island and the district of Ka’u, I had an interest in what your organization was about. I had been to your web site and spoke with various people I know, but in all honestly I had no idea what to expect, for I am one of those who want to see for myself. Your site is informative but truly doesn’t scratch the surface of what your staff and directors and clinicians do for these youth…

As a martial Artist of 45 years and an instructor of 35 years the benefits to the youth I’ve taught were not only obvious but almost too numerous to mention on a personal level. However across the board, respect to others as well as respect to one’s self, humility, etiquette, physical and mental health, self confidence, and the ability to be environmentally aware carried through to all.

Having said all of this I would have never imagined that tasks as simple as planting, gardening, and environmental clean up could instill such a great level of pride, education, and an awareness of their own lives, community, and environment in these kids. I found the students at Pacific Quest to be extremely polite, courteous, communicative, informed, and downright pleasant to be around. The staff was caring, well selected for their tasks and all have a sincere desire and aptitude for working with the young people of our world. In my opinion Pacific Quest is a top draw organization that continues to develop and is willing to research and check every avenue for the good of these young men and women, I commend them on their success and continuing efforts and it’s a joy as well as a benefit to have them in our community. Kudos to them for what they do so well!

Sincerely,

Gordon B.

We also have two new additions to our clinical team and growing ohana! Dr. Katie Kasenchak and Kelly Weld joined Pacific Quest wilderness program in October as Primary Clinicians. Kelly Weld comes to us from SUWS Idaho, where she served as a primary wilderness therapist for two years. Before that, Kelly was Assistant Dean of Students at NAWA Academy, and a counselor at Mount Bachelor Academy. Kelly holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology and expects to complete licensure requirements in Hawaii for Marriage and Family Therapy shortly. She is also a certified secondary School English teacher. Kelly has experience in individual, group and family therapy, utilizing cognitive-behavioral, Gestalt, strategic and humanistic-experiential techniques.

Dr. Kathryn Kasenchak joins us after five years with Psychological Solutions in the San Francisco Bay area, where she provided assessment services for an educational consulting firm and wilderness therapy programs. She earned a BA in Psychology from Pepperdine University, and her doctorate from the Wright Institute. She has been working with at-risk children and adolescents since 1994, with experience in residential treatment centers, inpatient hospitals, and specialized academic settings. She has provided psychotherapy and psychological assessment for children and adolescents who struggle with a variety of difficulties, including such issues as learning disabilities, emotional disorders and trauma. Dr. Kasenchak has received specialized training in trauma, attachment, psychodynamic theory, high-conflict divorce, bereavement and projective testing.