WEPs. Technical skills instruction may be an integral part of a WEP, but such activities are secondary to the developmental goals. The ways in which programs work to develop human potential are varied but all involve activities such as climbing, ropes courses, or expedition travel, and post-activity discussion, which is usually facilitated by instructors or guides. Such discussion is commonly referred to as processing, debriefing, transferring, or applying meanings to “real life” issues and experiences.
Historical Development of WEPs The early WEPs, such as the Outward Bound-type programs that emerged in the United States in the 1960s, emphasized the benefits of overcoming reasonable challenges away from the securities of civilization to build character and cure helplessness (Newman 1980). The challenging activities and confidence-building goals of Outward Bound became a model for wilderness programs. By the 1980s, another type of program emerged, which focused less on challenge and adventure and more on the contemplative and stress-release benefits of wilderness. These programs were based on a longstanding and widely held belief that wilderness experiences enable an escape from the stresses and complications of civilization (Nash 1992). Many of these programs borrowed on the vision quest or rite of passage rituals of indigenous people, seeking to heighten participants’ awareness through extended solos, fasting, or ritual behavior in natural settings (Brown 1983; Foster and Little 1984). Although some of the activities of challenge and vision quest programs were different, the goals and instructional methods were often similar. Both program types had personal growth as a primary aim and active experience processing as a method. WEPs have evolved from several philosophical backgrounds. For example, the early Outward Bound program philosophy was that the “mountains speak for themselves,” which implied that the developmental benefits were inherent from the course experience, such as climbing a peak, without secondary debriefing and processing by instructors. Later, the Outward Bound philosophy came to embrace
briefing and debriefing course activities to enable greater transfer or application of the experiential lessons. Students were encouraged to think about the accomplishment or teamwork metaphors related to the climb. This technique of processing is termed the “conscious use of metaphor” (Bacon 1983 and 1987). In an attempt to better understand current WEP organizations, Friese (1996) proposed that there were three primary aims of WEPs: (1) personal growth—expanded fulfillment of participant capabilities and potential, including empowerment, spiritual renewal, motivation, self-esteem, confidence, teamwork, or social skills; (2) education acquisition of knowledge, skills, and experiences to change behavior, increase and enhance understanding, enjoyment, appreciation, or preservation of nature; and (3) therapy and healing— participant therapy or recovery from addiction, disability, illness, abuse, or socially unacceptable behavior. Friese (1996) proposed a WEP continuum (see Table 1) from “wilderness is a teacher” to “wilderness is a classroom” based on three primary WEP program aims and nine reported program methods used in 1995. This continuum is helpful in characterizing the diversity of WEPs.
Management Considerations for WEPs WEPs providers use state and federal wilderness areas, as well as other primitive
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