Wilderness Therapy Expedition:

Academic Credit

Your child will earn fully-transferable academic credits while he or she is enrolled in our wilderness therapy program. Your child will earn the following credits (based on a 52-day length of stay):

English - half credit
Nutrition - half credit
Physical Education - full credit
Health Education - full credit

The academic over-site is administered by our sister program, Santiam Crossing School, which is accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Commission. Participants will receive an official academic transcript upon program completion.

Our educational program is woven into the treatment program through experiential learning and organized psychoeducational group instruction. We use content standards as a basis for our curriculum; however, students are assessed with considerable attention paid to effort and performance change over time. Although each student must meet a minimum level of proficiency for us to recommend credit, significant changes in a student's attitude and effort toward learning and demonstrated performance often correlates in increased understanding of content material. We assess student proficiency through extensive student journal writing, one-on-one sessions, group sessions, and student performance (including effort, skill accomplishment and success, and application of knowledge).

For more information or details concerning these courses please feel free to contact our office at (800) 390-3983.

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Content Area: Health
Course Title: Personal growth, psychology, and substance abuse prevention
Clock Hours: 90 hours (earned in phase I); 90 hours earned in (phase II); 180 hours for entire program
Recommended Credits: 0.5 (earned in phase I); 0.5 (earned in phase II); total credits recommended for entire program 1.0
Oregon Standards Correlation:

Health Education common curriculum goals:
• Healthy and fit body
• Controllable health risks
• Safe and healthy environment
• Healthy relationships

Course Description

Throughout the wilderness therapy expedition students participate in many psycho-educational and process groups. These groups occur daily and range in time from one to three hours per group. Sample topics include:

• Values and beliefs
• Feelings
• Defense mechanisms
• Family roles and family traits
• Grief and loss
• Depression management
• Addictive personality traits
• Anger management
• Levels of drug and alcohol use
• Disease concept of addiction
• Modified 12-steps
• Recovery and relapse prevention
• Tobacco cessation
• Boundaries and assertiveness
• Relaxation techniques for relief of anxiety and stress
• When your parent is an alcoholic/addict
• Eating disorders and body image

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Content Area: Home Economics
Course Title: Cooking and Camp Management
Clock Hours: 45 hours (phase I); 45 hours (phase II); 90 hours for entire program
Recommended Credits: 0.25 (earned in phase I); 0.25 (earned in phase II); total credits recommended for entire program 0.5
Oregon Standards Correlation: N/A

Course Description

Student's responsibilities include managing their food, meals, clothes, and campsites. It is expected that students learn how to ensure that they always have dry clothes to wear each day, prepare nutritious and tasteful meals, set-up their shelter sites, and keep an organized camp.

Students are expected to be responsible for preparing and cooking their own meals throughout their wilderness experience. Each week students are given a ration of food, which must last them one week. Their responsibility is to manage their food supply accordingly while preparing appropriate meals each day. Students are encouraged to be creative in making their food using the ingredients provided. Staff may direct students in preparing a specific meal, but students are often free to compliment or be creative given the specific meal.

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Content Area: Physical Education
Course Title:Backpacking/Camping/Outdoor Education
Clock Hours: 90 hours (phase I); 90 hours (phase II); 180 hours for entire program
Recommended Credits: 0.5 (earned in phase I); 0.5 (earned in phase II); total credits recommended for entire program 1.0
Oregon Standards Correlation:

Physical Education:
• Expressive and efficient movement
• Fitness for lifetime
• Self management and social behavior

Course Description

Students at Catherine Freer spend a large portion of their time (4 - 12 hours per day) learning various outdoor skills, participating in backpacking, and camping. Some specific skills students acquire include:

• Backpacking
• Hiking
• Snowshoeing
• Shelter-building
• Fire-building (when appropriate)/other camp-related skills
• Cooking on stove/fire
• Daily suitable clothing selection

Students also recognize the value and importance of physical fitness in their overall health as well as in their recovery process. As students become fit via increased physical activity, consumption of nutritious foods, and lack of substances in their lives, they begin to gain appreciation and understanding of how these various things affects their lives.

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Content Area: Writing
Course Title: Journal Writing, elective
Clock Hours: 45 hours (phase I); 45 hours (phase II); 90 hours for entire program
Recommended Credits: 0.25 (earned in phase I); 0.25 (earned in phase II); total credits recommended for entire program 0.5
Oregon Standards Correlation: N/A

Course Description

Students are required to keep several different journals while at Freer. These journals have many functions including: 1) a tool for student reflection, 2) student responses to staff assignments from education groups, 3) other staff writing assignments, and 4) student "free" writing.