Jake Frasier - Outside Reading 3

I was looking for articles for my chemistry class one day when I stumbled across the article "Power Of Wilderness Experiences As A Catalyst For Change In Young Offenders" in ScienceDaily. In this article researchers were involved in a 9 month project that used nature and wilderness experience as a means of therapy for young people. Several wilderness trips were made throughout the project which required the young people to act as a team and to develop self confidence. The researchers observed the psychological health of the participants before and after, as well as throughout, the wilderness trips. It was found that after the wilderness trips participants exhibited a higher amount of trust and self esteem than had previously been noted. I thought that these findings were extremely fascinating. This article helps to show how therapeutic the wilderness can be. Many people experience self reflection and realization when in the wild, and this can help to promote self confidence/self esteem, as exhibited in the article.