Outdoor Growth And Leadership

This outdoor leadership training seminar is designed for aspiring or experienced outdoor instructors and any others who desire extensive skills instruction and experience with an emphasis on experiential learning, group process, communications and counseling skillsology and ecopsychology, and the use of ceremony and ritual to enhance transformation and growth in the outdoors.

This course is a continuation and further application of the skills and process introduced in the Fall Session of our training program but is open to select individuals as space permits.

The Outdoor Growth And Leadership Seminar is uniquely designed to create an experiential setting in which participants can learn new skills, practice trip planning and logistics, explore instructional approaches, and examine leadership styles among a group of peers.

Weekly classes explore communication, examine learning models, discuss group process, problem solving, and conflict resolution. Other topics explored include deep ecology, ecopsychology, and nature ritual.

Participants begin to make decisions and take responsibility early in the program for planning and logistics, and are encouraged to assume leadership roles at an early stage.

Body awareness and centering, including instruction in Tai Chi, is an integral part of our training and is applied to learning such skills as rockclimbing and skiing.

Weekend field sessions include training in rockclimbing, ropes course and group initiatives, backcountry skiing, snow and ice climbing, avalanche safety, and other technical topics.

Longer trips and training sessions involve wilderness backpacking, canyon exploration, mountaineering, snow camping, whitewater rafting, and a vision quest. Expeditions planned and led by participants will go from the Colorado Rockies to the canyons and rivers of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Small group sessions offer the opportunity to explore personal issues and practice using communications, counseling, and group facilitation skills. You will be encouraged to explore your personal values and self-imposed limitations--mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual--and reach beyond them.

You will be asked to establish goals for your training experience and develop a "personal growth" contract to be shared within the group from whom you will be encouraged to solicit feedback and support.