Second Nature (Wilderness Program)
382 W Main St, Duchesne, Utah, 84021
Second Nature Footsteps is a licensed, clinically driven wilderness intervention designed to meet the needs of younger teens, ages 11-14. The treatment team uses a variety of wilderness and experiential interventions to assist students along their individual path towards personal awareness, responsibility, improved communication healthy relationship skills, and strengthened self-esteem. Footsteps staff further assist each child and family with supportive stabilization and assessment for students whose behavior has reached crisis level.
Facility Highlights
- Academic Curriculum
- Adolescent Services
- Adult Services
Specialization
Remote - Free of Distractions
What you'll realize when you enter the wilderness is that the distractions you've adapted to your lifestyle are not as easily present. The remoteness of the backcountry provides little to hide behind. This will empower you to focus directly on your issues without distraction. Although you may demonstrate high functioning in several areas of your life, the richness of the wilderness environment will evoke the unhealthy patterns of behavior that brought you to this point in your life. Additionally, your group experience facilitates engaging with your peers and field instructors without using familiar escape routes of shutting down, running away, or other responses you may have used to avoid confrontation and accountability. You are provided with a safe and patient environment to confront what you may be avoiding.Empowerment
Nature is unrelenting; it cannot be negotiated with or manipulated. Parents, teachers and therapists can all be emotionally manipulated. A towering cumulus cloud cannot. There is no negotiating the weather. A mountain will not feel guilty and step aside for a hiker. You will experience the natural lessons that life has to offer by living in the natural environment. Your therapist, Field Instructors and peers will help hold you to appropriate boundaries and create natural and logical consequences that mirror the achievements and challenges in the broader journey of life. Your experience becomes a life lesson of how ineffective past coping strategies were, while equally supporting your insight in adapting your actions into successful and valuable tools.
Facility Settings
- Mountains
Meet the Staff
Cheryl Kehl, LCSWFounderCheryl has supervised social work interns, designed and implemented in-service curriculum for field staff, and taught in the Masters Degree Program in Social Work at Brigham Young University. In 2003, Cheryl was elected by her colleagues throughout the United States to serve as a board member for the National Association for Therapeutic Schools and Programs. Having received her CSW degree in 1993 and her LCSW license in 1995, Cheryl has a long history of practicing therapy and working with adolescents. Prior to founding Second Nature, she was the Clinical Director at Aspen Achievement Academy (a therapeutic wilderness program in southern Utah) where she worked as a wilderness therapist and staff supervisor for five years. Her experience also includes serving as the Clinical Director at Aspen Ranch (a residential treatment program for adolescents in southern Utah), as a therapist at the Comprehensive Clinic at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Wasatch Mental Health and the American Psychological Association in Salt Lake City, Utah. Cheryl completed her studies at Brigham Young University where she received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Sociology and her Masters Degree in Social Work. Her clinical training included working with homeless and mentally ill clients, providing individual, family and marriage counseling, etc. Cheryl is the oldest of ten children and has two adult children of her own, a daughter and a son. Her interests include water sports, photography, and spending time with her family and friends. She loves house-boating on Lake Powell, but her current favorite pastime is spending time with her adorable grandsons Warren and Wyatt.
Brad Reedy, Ph.D., L.M.F.T.FounderBrad began his studies at Brigham Young University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Family Science. Next, he attended Loma Linda University where he received an M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy. He returned to B.Y.U. and completed his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy. Brad's clinical experience includes working with sexually abused children, domestically violent offenders, adults/adolescents with substance abuse and children suffering with grief and loss. Research and clinical interests include treatment with sexual abuse victims, family trauma and associated processes, chemical dependence, personality disorders, sexual perpetrators, and developmental psychology. Brad works with a variety of populations that often include students with dual diagnoses and gifted intelligence. In the public sector, Brad worked with young victims of physical and sexual abuse at Loma Linda University Hospital, domestic violence victims and perpetrators at Riverside Family Service Agency, and sexual perpetrators at Center for Family Development. In private practice, Brad has also worked with individuals and families with eating disorders and other addictions. Brad worked as a field therapist and Clinical Director with Aspen Achievement Academy and Aspen Ranch. Born and raised in Orange County, California, the middle of three boys, Brad was raised by his mother. He grew up surfing, listening to Bob Dylan, and causing his mom a great deal of grief. Brad is married and has four children. He enjoys golf, wakeboarding, and is a passionate triathlete. He is an avid fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Angels and can be easily engaged in a debate on any sports-related topic.