Paths of Resiliency

On August 29th, eight women journeyed into a remote wilderness area and began an unknown adventure towards both trust and healing. Included in the eight were Chelsea Van Essen, Karly Buer, and myself; the three founding directors of Logos Wilderness Therapy and the leaders for this trip.

After months of planning and building trust within the trafficking survivor community, we launched our first wilderness therapy trip with five women who dared to risk journeying into the wilderness for deeper healing, restoration, and further freedom.

For three nights and four days, we base camped between alpine lakes and beneath awe inspiring mountain peaks.

The goal of this trip: To see the fullness of freedom reimagined, restored, and reclaimed for our participants. How? By creating a space where authenticity is held within story and where challenge by choice is lived into and not just said.

Our base camp was at roughly, 10,500 ft and with participants coming from sea level or close to, we gathered a team of volunteers’ pre-trip and hiked in all group gear and set up basecamp.

For four days we lived life together, sitting on the same ground, eating the same food, and working towards the same goal. On our last full day, we hiked a peak nearby and we asked that our participants not dedicate it to someone else but rather to their strengths that have enabled them to be here, to be survivors, and to continue climbing the path towards healing.

Why wilderness therapy for survivors of trauma? Trauma strips away presence and essence in ways that are difficult to name. It is something that is as much now as it was then and therefore distorts safety and hinders wholeness.

Nature alone is a powerful force in creating safety within space, space that is not confining, not trapping, and holds a balance between predictability and complexity that on a neurological level creates a since of safety. This is something science refers to as the power of awe, of natural fractals and so many other things commonly found in nature. Our Clinical Director, Chelsea Van Essen, speaks more about this with writer Florence Williams in her audible The 3-Day Effect.

Our first trip by any measure was a success and affirmed the power of using wilderness as a conduit of healing. Our goal in 2020 is to run six of these survivor trips. Join us by joining the Commit 12 Challenge and experience the power of nature for yourself.

Jessica Roberts