Program Leadership and Staffing - Great Staff means Great Results
This Page contains; staff qualifications with pictures, counseling techniques and our approach to discipline.
Director
and Founder, Michael Truitt, BS
Michael founded San Juan Wilderness in 1998 and has been directing wilderness
therapy programs for troubled teens since 1994. He continues to
spend ample time working directly with our students, counseling in the
mountains, teaching vocational skills, and leads adventure courses. He
also has a degree in Business Administration from George Mason University.
When he’s not working, he enjoys time in the outdoors with
his family.
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Assistant Director/Senior Field Counselor: Josh
Flowers, BSW Josh has been counseling at-risk youth in the outdoors
and residential settings for over seven years. Josh is consistent, fair
and approachable with our students, fostering a sense of peacefulness
and safety that students find reassuring. His experience and leadership
in the field further assures quality programming and therapeutically sound
methods on a daily basis. He is also a Certified Wilderness First
Responder. This is Josh’s fourth year with San Juan Wilderness.
Organic gardening is his personal passion.
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Field
Therapist: Karen House-Chambless, MA, LMHC, LPCC Karen completed
her Masters in Counseling and Psychology at Prescott, Arizona in 1998.
She was the director of a small non-profit which provided experiential
education and counseling for troubled adolescents before joining San Juan
Wilderness. She has been the counselor for the Taos Charter School
in New Mexico and has years of experience facilitating experiential courses
for struggling young people. In her off-time she is an avid whitewater
rafter, guiding trips down the Grand Canyon.
Education Director: Shannon Wright, BS-Education
Shannon is a Licensed Physics and Science Teacher in Colorado . She develops
and teaches the hands-on/experiential curriculum for our students. Her
enthusiasm for creating independent learners and thinkers has been both
effective and contagious. In her personal time, Shannon teaches
Tai-Chi and enjoys outdoor pursuits with her husband.
Field Therapist: Jaysen Clark, Ph.D., Transpersonal Psychology Jason has been with San Juan Wilderness for three years. He is the former Clinical Director of San Cristobal Ranch Academy in Taos, NM. He spends ~15 days per month in the field and believes strongly in the benefits of wilderness therapy.
Senior Field Counselor: Nick Citriglia, B.A. Psychology
Nick has been with the program for four years. He is currently pursuing
a Masters in High-School Counseling. In addition, he is studying
to become a Certified Addictions Counselor. As avid tri-athlete
and a certified swim coach, Nick applies a high level of enthusiasm in
his work as a wilderness counselor.
Jeremy
Hough, E.M.T.
Jeremy has worked in both traditional and wilderness based Residential
Treatment Centers and has been with San Juan Wilderness for three years.
A former Marine, he guides the students with a wealth of experience
and provides them with a brilliant combination of compassionate firmness
and welcoming approachability. Jeremy and his father are avid “mountain
man rendezvous” enthusiasts, where participants re-enact life in
the Rocky Mountains in the mid-1800s. He teaches these primitive
skills to our students in the field much to their enjoyment.
Abigail Ward, B.A. Psychology and Sociology
Now in her second year, Abby began work as an intern, quickly proving
her self to be a caring, tolerant, and flexible counselor. She received
her B.A. from Western State in Gunnison, Colorado in 2004. She brings
a unique perspective, though her own life experiences to the students.
As a snowboarder and runner, Abby enjoys sharing the wonder of the outdoors
with others.
Jesse Ward, B.A. Business Administration
Jess believes in the superiority of the outdoors as a therapeutic setting-
having worked with at-risk youth in both wilderness and traditional Residential
Treatment Centers - and strives to bring a calming influence and an element
of humor to the lives of the students. He’s been with the
program 3 years. He has been accepted into the US Air Force Officer
Training Program and will be leaving us at the end of the 2006 season.
We will miss him and wish him luck.
Anna Murphy, BS, Education; She has been teaching special needs children for over ten years. She has worked with all grade levels in both regular and alternative settings.
Counseling Techniques
Reality Therapy = Involvement + Feedback + Teaching better Ways
1. Involvement (a completely honest human relationship).
Quickly build a firm emotional relationship with persons who have failed
to establish relationships in the past. We must open up his life, talk
about new horizons, expanding their range of interest beyond his troubles.
Because he must act responsibly now, we must stay in the present. Be Here
Now. One’s history must never be made more important than one’s
present life. We never blame others for past or present irresponsible
behavior. We learn responsibility from involvement with fellow responsible
human beings.
2. Rejection of unrealistic behavior, but acceptance
of the individual.
The major difference between therapy and common guidance is intensity.
Discipline says "I care about you because you are a worthwhile person,
because I respect you and you respect me, as well as yourself. I care
enough about you to discipline you to act in a better way, so that you
will learn from experience, as I have, and what I already know is the
right way." Discipline is tempered with Compassion."
3. Teach better ways to fulfill needs.
Therapy is teaching or training which attempts to accomplish in a relatively
short time or during an intense period, what should have been accomplished
during normal growing up. We are judged first by what we do, then by what
we say. Furthermore, it’s devastating to a child to be let down,
disappointed or lied to by an adult.
Wilderness Counselors
Our field counselors are positive role models for teenage boys who need guidance, discipline, support and instruction. Potential counselors are hired based on the following criteria: verifiable experience in the back-country with troubled teens, related college degree, competency performance during our training sessions, criminal background check and regular drug screenings, and they must complete nonviolent crisis intervention training, medication dispensing training, and wilderness-based medical training (WFR or EMT).
Supervised by a licensed therapist, individual and group counseling is provided to each student by wilderness counselors who work from a model integrating teaching, coaching, and mentoring. Students receive feedback and appraisals of behavior from both peers and staff. Wilderness Counselors teach coping and social skills, problem solving, relaxation and stress management, rational living, and journaling. Counselors also facilitate our achievement-based level system, which correlates attitudes and effort to metaphors and analogies with nature. Residents progress through the level system individually and as a group. Evaluations of behavior, attitudes, and effort are conducted every week.
Compensation and benefits are favorable to those offered at the most respected programs in the country.
Field Staff live with students in the back-country for seven days at a time. Each of three field staff will begin working with 9 students, early each morning and throughout the day. Field Staff must uphold San Juan Wilderness program standards, as listed in the field manual. In addition, they offer instruction to their students, in the following ways:
- practicing the disciplines of honesty, respect, positive thinking, study and exercise, all while confronting negative behaviors.
- relating empathetically as they develop.
- coaching students through the program with positive reinforcement.
- teaching academic lessons and life skills, including philosophy, values and ethics.
- informing our students of our expectations for mutual respect and cooperation.
- fostering a commitment to safety standards, and promoting the emotional and physical well-being of students in the back-country.
- knowing and facilitating ‘field standards’ at all times.
- addressing and confronting negative behaviors consistently when they occur.
- attending to their personal needs efficiently as possible.
- always being mindful of their responsibilities, as student success and safety depend upon one’s professionalism.
Expectations for student behavior are straight forward: get an early start, use time wisely to accomplish goals and stay on schedule, complete chores and assignments, maintain sobriety, all with honesty and respect. Above and beyond these expectations, students often develop a supportive attitude towards their peers, developing leadership and a sense of community along the way. While staff keep a full schedule moving forward, they ensure they are meeting individual student needs to successfully meet challenges. We are not a boot camp and do not aggressively enforce structure at any cost.
Discipline of students is constructive or educational in nature and may include talking with the child about the problem situation, praise for appropriate behavior, diversion, separation from the problem situation, and withholding of special privileges. Punishment is not the objective. We strive teach of self-discipline and a gut-level sense of personal responsibility.
Discipline policies are explained to all students, parent(s), guardian(s), staff, and placing agencies. These policies include and emphasize reinforcing/rewarding responses to a child's appropriate behavior and constructive/proactive responses to inappropriate behavior. This is a strength-based program where residents are regularly reassured and shown the evidence that they have the capability to succeed in the program and in life. Staff and peers point out effective behaviors, wise decision-making, and examples of resident's best efforts.