Blog

By Lauren Meyer – Assistant Program Supervisor This past Friday, a few of our Malama students took a break from camp to set out into the community of Na’alehu with a purpose. With a trunk full of tools, and smiles on our faces, we took off down the road to a neighbor’s house. In this house lives …

The “Dirty Work” of Transformation: Horticultural Therapy & Rites of Passage Presentation to be held Saturday, August 29 in Park City, Utah at the OBH Wilderness Therapy Symposium PQ’s Horticultural Therapy Director, Travis Slagle and Adolescent Field Manager, Clementine Wilson invite you to join them as they present: The “Dirty Work” of Transformation: Horticultural Therapy …

June is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month, and here at Pacific Quest, we offer horticultural therapy as a form a therapy for clients who may be struggling with trauma and/or PTSD. Horticultural therapy has long been used to help people with these conditions. In the 1940s and 1950s, American war veterans — many of …

  Tom Jameson, MS, NCC PQ Therapist Many of the students who come to PQ present with anxiety, depression, impulsivity, emotional regulation issues, and may have difficulty distinguishing between thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness practices teach students to begin to slow down their busy minds, see the difference between thoughts and emotions, and pause before reacting …

Tom received his Bachelor of Science in English Literature from Radford University in 2003 and his Masters of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Western Carolina University in 2012. Tom is a National Board Certified Counselor. Prior to joining the Pacific Quest clinical team, Tom was a Primary Therapist at Chrysalis School Montana. From …

By Travis Slagle, Horticultural Therapy Director Changing the world is not an easy business, and for mental health providers, changing a life can be just as complicated. Many people enter the field of outdoor therapy because they want to change lives. For students at Pacific Quest, the most basic therapeutic task is to literally practice …

By: Mike Sullivan, Primary Therapist & Lori Armbruster, Communications Director PQ staff members were honored and humbled by the overwhelming turnout of alumni, students and families who gathered at the San Francisco Children’s Garden in Golden Gate Park for an inspiring day of service to the community! PQ alumni spent the day working side by …

By Lori Armbruster, Communications Director In the Hawaiian culture, the word “Ohana” means family, which can be blood-related, adoptive or intentional. The concept emphasizes that families are bound together and members must cooperate and remember one another. When a young person enters Pacific Quest, they become part of a larger Ohana. As they discover the …

Written through the voices of incoming Pacific Quest staff and their stories of arrival… (Through the lens of Kenny) As we fly into Hawaii the feeling of nostalgia wouldn’t wear off. I have left my family in the midst of winter to join a group of strangers in the field of troubled youth reform. There …

By Jody St. Joseph, Adolescent Program Director It wasn’t two very large strangers who woke me in the middle of the night, but it was close enough.  My alarm screamed me awake at about 4 am and before long I was at the airport about to leave behind my doggie, my home, and my family.  …