Success » Hear From Our Graduates
Hear From Our Graduates
Read one participant's account
"Thank you so much for all the help that you all gave me. I attended your program about 4 years ago and I honestly think that it saved my life! Thank you so much!" Chelsea S. (March 2008)
"I just wanted to let you know that I experienced this program 10 years ago and it was the best experience of my life. It truly helped direct my life in a better direction. I am so thankful for this program and hope to help others the way that I was helped as a youth." Cristil D. (May 2007)
"Well, you won't believe what I am doing with my life. I am in the Air Force…I feel better about myself than I have ever felt before and my relationship with my family is so much better too…. I am really happy with this decision I made for my life and the direction that I am headed in." Susan M., Freer Graduate (March 2006)
"This experience with Catherine Freer really touched my heart, mind, body and my soul. I feel that this program saved me from myself."
"Everybody knew that I had more to offer and could do a lot better. All I was doing was setting myself up to fail. The best part of this whole experience is that I have a brand new start at everything."
"I can't explain how thankful I am of what happened to me on expedition. I couldn't have done it without the counselors that I had. Everything at home is going very well. My relationship with my family is much better now."
"It has been over a year since I attended your expedition and I am doing fabulous! I made it! I am doing things I never had a plan to do - just thought about. I owe a lot to you all because you laid it out for me so that I could make the decision to change one thing - everything!"
"At this point in time I have two episodes in my life. The troubled, scared, alcoholic, depressed and suicidal Thomas that only existed in life, and the happy, proud, active and smiling Thomas who is living his life and typing this letter right now. My turning point in between these two episodes was the Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy expedition."
"I was 16 years old and an avid drug user. I had been in rehabs and mental hospitals and to my parent's dismay I was not improving and it was becoming time to try something different. They decided out of desperation to try the Catherine Freer Wilderness Expedition Program. After assessing my needs it was decided that I would go for three weeks with trained counselors and therapists in an attempt to get to the root of why I was behaving "out of control."
When I got there they went through my bags and gave me a backpack and sleeping bag. I didn't sleep well that night because I am from Philadelphia and they had me in the sticks without my mother and without a clue as to what was happening. They took away things that I considered important for survival such as my hairbrush, shampoo, and my watch. I was pretty much stripped down to the very basics: a couple pair of underwear, shorts, shirts, and a toothbrush.
The next morning they did some talking but I wasn't listening because I was upset but I believe it was some type of therapy as to why were there? For three weeks following that day I didn't have a shower or television or human contact of any kind except for the other six kids that were there and the three counselors that were our guides in this endeavor. We walked a certain amount of miles a day. We were given a tarp to set up and sleep in at night, a fuel bottle to cook lentils and beans for dinner, and miscellaneous snacks to eat during breaks throughout the day. We iodized our drinking water that we got from various lakes and streams. At night we had groups and were given assignments like writing down what we had done to get on this expedition and what could be changed in our lives. Then there was a three-day period where we were put in spots by ourselves in seclusion. I think this was to make us really take a look at ourselves without any distractions what so ever.
Well it was a very rough three weeks because most of the time I didn't want to walk the many miles a day in the mountains. At the end of the three weeks I would have told them anything they wanted to hear just so I could get a shower. All the six children and me had to meet back up with our parents at the end and with the counselor's guidance explain what we did wrong and apologize.
Two months later I was back to no good. Looking back, although the results were not immediate, it was exactly what I needed. Now I want to be a wilderness counselor. Fancy that. Unbeknownst to me at the time, it did give me: a love, respect, and passion for nature and a love for myself. Amazing self-confidence follows after these programs I believe. It has to. After what kids have to endure you just have to think to yourself, "I can do anything now" and "What else am I capable of?""
Excerpt from a class paper written by Rebecca M. (March 2006).