Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors

312: Healing Trauma in Adolescent Girls: How ROOTs Transition Blends Nature, Family, and Residential Care

May 19, 2026

What happens when a clinician decides that traditional residential treatment isn't enough for adolescent girls struggling with trauma? In this episode Will talks with Kami Black, founder of ROOTs Transition in Park City. Founded during the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic, ROOTs Transition was built around a bold idea: combine the healing power of nature, intensive family systems work, and trauma-informed residential care into one integrated model for adolescent girls ages 15–18. Kami shares...

311: 30 Years Later: How Summit Achievement Was Built to Last

May 12, 2026

Thirty years later… What happens when one of the earliest outdoor behavioral healthcare programs refuses to follow the trends of the field? In this episode Will sits down with CEO Nichol Ernst to reflect on the 30-year evolution of Summit Achievement — a program Will co-founded in 1996. Together, they explore how Summit survived massive shifts in the wilderness therapy world: the rise and fall of therapeutic boarding schools, the influx of venture capital into behavioral healthcare, the smart...

310: How Venture Capital Grew Wilderness Therapy… and Then Ran Away

May 05, 2026

What happens when a field built on healing becomes shaped by money? In this episode, Will revisits a 2020 exploration of the business of wilderness therapy—tracing its evolution from nonprofit, mission-driven roots to a rapidly expanding, privately funded industry. From early non-profits programs to the rise of private-pay models in the 1980s and the explosive growth fueled by outside investment, this episode examines how financial forces didn't just support wilderness therapy—they fundamenta...