心理学的花样疗法

瑞士心理学家荣格说：“心理治疗的主要目的，并不是使病人进入一种不可能的幸福状态，而是帮助他们树立一种面对苦难的、哲学式的耐心和坚定。”心理学对于很多人来说是个神秘的领域，心理医师也通常被人们赋予许多传奇的色彩。然而对于心理治疗，我们第一反应总是这样的场景——“说说你的童年，”治疗师看着躺在沙发上的你，缓缓吸一口雪茄……实际上，心理治疗可不都是这个样子。

By Samantha Popp

木沐 选注

When most people think of psychotherapy, they picture patients relaxing on a sofa and spilling all of their emotions. “Tell me about your childhood,” the therapist says, taking a drag of his cigar. In reality, therapy takes place in all kinds of settings.

Wilderness Therapy 荒野疗法

When the campsite is set up and the fire is lit, the doctor is in. Wilderness therapy is a successful, and sometimes controversial, way to help troubled youth by teaching life and social skills on the hiking trail. Intensive group therapy and one-on-one sessions are coupled with outdoor activities like mountain climbing and fly-fishing to teach self-reliance and responsibility. Programs promise to reform even the most wayward of offenders, including juvenile delinquents and teens with depression, anger management issues, or eating disorders.

While wilderness therapy can be effective, certain methods have come under fire for using unethical, and sometimes downright abusive, techniques to help struggling youth. Wilderness programs are loosely regulated, so not all programs are staffed by qualified professionals. Upon closer examination, some “therapy” groups seemed to be just military-style boot camps with little mental health benefit.

Even legitimate wilderness therapy groups have been criticized for partnering with teen escort companies to forcibly remove unwilling participants from their homes to attend the program. While controversy and risk exist, wilderness therapy might be a creative way to teach life skills when other methods have failed.