Therapy Goes Wild
By Staff Sgt. Eli Velazquez
USASOC Public Affairs
FORT BRAGG, N.C. – U.S. Army Special Operations Command is providing our teens with an opportunity for personal growth combined with the values, traditions, and structure that Army Special Operations Forces are known for. Leaving the traditional confines of four walls in traditional therapy, this therapy is anything but traditional.
Partnered with a company called Panergic Life, military teens get a week long submersion into nature and wilderness. They will eat, sleep, and live in the woods for seven day in the middle of the hot North Carolina July.
In the Army, schools taught out in nature like, Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, and U.S. Army Jungle Warfare School teach and train our Soldiers to be resilient. To an extent, this will be a similar experience for the teens who volunteer for the life changing experience.
“I’d like to think that this program is like MRT for teens, but better.” said Angela Latham, USASOC’s Family Programs Management Division Director.
Taking a clinical approach to the outdoors, licensed therapists and former Special Forces Operators will work together in the woods, a settings free of modern day distractions, to put USASOC family teens through stages and exercises of healthy habits, teamwork, and growth.
The goal of the program is to empower the teens, and give them a self-awareness to recognize the level of control then have over their actions and reaction. They will be put through exercise and hikes that will teach them how to work together as a team and also individual exercises that will challenge them to work alone.
This type of program is part of a U.S. Army Special Operations Command led initiative, created to aid in the Preservation of the Force and Family. The POTFF’s mission is to build and implement a holistic approach to address the pressure on our force by identifying and implementing innovative solutions across the entire USASOC enterprise.
“When I heard and read about this I thought it would be something interesting and different for kids to do. A lot of times you never know how much you can take until you're put in situations where you have to perform, particularly in support of others.” said Barry Dugan, USASOC’s Family Programs Assistant.
Deployments, Permanent Change of Station, and Training Exercises are only some of the stresses Soldiers families have to endure. Adolescent teens need tools to be able to deal with these stresses as well as their own physical, cognitive, and social stresses.
USASOC family members ages 13 to 17 can contact the USASOC Family Programs Department to sign up at 910-432-9203