Teen Journey goes far beyond...an ordinary teen camp experience. While incorporating many of the fun activities that we have long come to associate with summer camp, including the opportunity to create deep, long-lasting friendships, there is also an invitation to truly look into who they are and what it means to be a human being.

At this pivotal point in their lives…
Teen Journey provides young people with new tools and perspectives that will support them on their most important journey…discovering and expressing who they really are so that they can feel whole, happy and able to contribute to the greater community.

Accepting one’s own unique essence...experiencing interconnectedness with all living beings inevitably leads us to an understanding of our own soul’s purpose. While many of the experiences during this week will be transformational in nature it is first important to understand the psychological process of being an adolescent.

There are two major forces that drive us…as human beings we experience both the pull towards togetherness and belonging, and the push outwards for autonomy and freedom¾the desire to decide for ourselves who we are and what course our lives will take.

As children we naturally choose…togetherness with our family and tend to unconsciously accommodate to fit into the family rules and beliefs of what is good or bad in order to belong. Every family has a different set of rules both spoken and unspoken of what it means to be a member of that family. Because our very survival depends on the contact and care from our family, we may repress aspects of ourselves that may not be accepted in order to feel secure. Children will always choose the force of togetherness and belonging, adapting themselves to fit in with the larger group.

Yet the force for autonomy...for the freedom to decide who we are and what we stand for can only be submerged for so long. The stages in our lives when the clash of these two forces is most apparent at two years old and again in adolescence. The two year old begins to say NO and wants to do things themselves as a demonstration of their independence from their caregivers. The same task appears again in adolescence. The teen pushes back so they can define themselves as a separate and unique individual.

Whether this natural task goes smoothly...or not will often depend on the parent’s response to it. It is the teenager’s job developmentally to test the family boundaries and themselves in their personal discovery of who they are. This is often a time of collision between parents and teens. Much of this chaos can be brought into harmony when we understand what is actually helpful and supportive, what aligns with this task and what does not. Fight the flow of this drive and you are in effect upping the ante in terms of the teens needs to act out or act in.

Teen Journey includes the parents...and other members of the family in a closing day workshop. Before reuniting with their teens, they too undergo some of the processes the young people have experienced during the 7 day camp. They learn both how to better communicate with their teens and increase their understanding of themselves and how this time can actually be an expansion in awareness for the whole family.

Teen Journey invites teens…into an understanding and a place for expressing who they are through intimate sharing in small group circles with teen mentors. A trained Assistants Team will oversee these groups and ensure that each teen is cared for and not pushed, but invited, into a sacred expansion of their humanity, spirituality and unique purpose.

Through the creativity of ritual…meditation, visualization, dance and intention, a safe and familiar container is formed that allows for stepping into the unknown to learn to trust one’s inner guidance and accept oneself.  

Various internationally acclaimed leaders…come to the camp to work with the teens, helping them to a experience seeing themselves in new and deeper ways. They inspire the young people to creatively determine their place in the larger community from the perspective of what they are called to give.

Each person is unique…and each has much to contribute to this community, just as the community will become a safe and solid container to hold the teen in their personal exploration and questioning. Once this level of confidence and purpose is reached then the teen can decide what their particular gifts are that they can offer back both globally and to their community.

The beauty of this program…is that it does not end after seven days. Ongoing gatherings will take place throughout the following year. Monthly meetings focus on various themes and offer a supportive environment of learning and sharing reminding the young people of the practices learned in the summer camp.  Various workshops and group work will be available to parents in order to facilitate healthy parenting and personal exploration.

Sign up today!