Why Lone Star Expeditions Uses A Ropes Course

Lone Star Expeditions is a therapeutic wilderness program for teenagers ages 13 to 17 years old. Students live in small groups with their therapists and field instructors, who work with them on a twenty-four hour basis. They spend five days a week on camping and hiking expeditions in the Davy Crockett National Forest near Houston, one day a week at Lone Star's permanent camp base, and one day a week on a ropes course.

It is this ropes course that makes Lone Star unique.

Ropes courses were invented in the late 1960s as a way to provide adventure sports to urban youth in indoor settings. However, counselors working with young drug addicts in the nation's ghettos soon discovered that ropes courses provide more than just the physical and mental challenges of navigating through difficult obstacles. Researchers beginning in the 1980s were proving that ropes-course therapy offered many positive benefits such as improving self-esteem, cooperative behaviors and communication skills.

Professional and amateur sports teams now employ sports psychologists who use ropes courses to teach players better communication, sportsmanship, and a deeper appreciation of teammates. Corporations send sales teams and other groups for ropes course training to improve morale and team functioning.

Mike Bednarz, Executive Director of Lone Star Expeditions, says they were thrilled to find a wonderful ropes course that they could use for this challenging part of the curriculum. The director of the ropes course, Doug Douglas, had been working with ropes since he was eight years old. Douglas' experience and skill led Bednarz and his staff to try out this form of experiential therapy.

Lone Star's ropes course, one of 15,000 in the USA, is the second largest in Texas. Strung between telephone poles, it has a 45-foot tower, a giant swing, and both low and high elements. Students start on the low course and work up to more difficult challenges on the high elements.

At the beginning of each ropes session, Douglas provides each group with a story line. It may be something like "You are a group of scientists who must transport a bottle of medicine from here to there without touching the ground." They must plan a strategy that does not "break the story line."

The strategy must include each individual member no matter what his or her skill level. Lone Star does not allow students to bully or belittle each other during ropes or any other part of the program. Because there is 24-hour supervision, therapists teach students to be respectful of one another at all times. "Challenge by choice" is a big part of ropes philosophy, according to Douglas. This means a student has the right not to participate, but the idea is to encourage people to move out of their comfort zones. Timid students who are afraid of heights may meet a first challenge simply by touching a ladder. Gradually they find out that their fears are unfounded because everyone wears belts and safety harnesses that prevent dangerous falls. Timid students learn to perceive not only ropes but also the other risks in life in a more realistic manner.

Ropes provides many other useful metaphors that prepare students to face challenges at home and at school. There is a story about "Purple Poison Peanut Pushers" who want to pull you into their pit. You can't get too near them or they will pull you under. During relapse prevention training, counselors use the "Peanut Pushers" as a metaphor for the old crowds at home who want you to resume your drinking or drug using.

Douglas says that ropes is a very subtle form of therapy that brings things to the surface in an indirect way.

"There's no place to hide in ropes," Douglas says.

Students always reveal their characters and attitudes as they work ropes course. For example, someone who is overly dominating and does not allow others to speak may be doing similar things at home or school. When such students have to brainstorm with their groups, they may realize they do not allow others to speak, insist on their own way, and constantly argue. This can be the start of personal growth and change.

Watching students work ropes course is one of the best ways to find out about a student's character, personality and communication skills, Douglas said. He attends all meetings of Lone Star's therapeutic staff and shares what he observes about each student during ropes courses.

Ropes is part of a movement known as "Experiential Therapy or Learning." There is much educational research indicating that teaching through experiences works much better with troubled teenagers than conventional "talk therapy."

Experiential learning has three parts: planning, doing, and reviewing. In every ropes course session, the group must plan their experience, work their plan, and then go back and analyze how they can do it better next time. Discussing and analyzing group and individual behavior is a big part of teaching and helping people to change for the better through experiences.

One quote that experiential therapists often use is from Confucius. The great Chinese philosopher said it all in 450 BC:

Tell me and I forget,
Show me, and I may remember.
Involve me, and I will understand.