By Travis Slagle, PQ Land Supervisor Last week, parents came to the island for a two-day workshop where they worked side by side with their sons and daughters, rotating between discussion groups and land projects, experiencing first-hand what it’s like to be at Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program. The question I asked the families was …
Blog
PQ Featured On LA Talk Radio
By Yvette Slagle, Outreach Assistant Pacific Quest was recently featured on LA Talk Radio with Lon Woodbury focusing on “Parent Choices for Struggling Teens”. Pacific Quest’s Land Supervisor Travis Slagle and Dr. Katie Kasenchak were guests on the show and highlighted some of the key aspects that set Pacific Quest apart from other wilderness therapy …
Horticultural Healing: Processing the Process
By Hilary Moses, Clinical Director Over the past few months I have been working with our Land Supervisor, Travis Slagle, to produce what we hope will be a great 3-hour presentation for the upcoming Wilderness Symposium in Boulder. Travis’ energy about horticultural therapy and life in the gardens is infectious. As we sit and banter, …
Planting Seeds of Growth
By Grant Helmus, Field Manager At Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program, we strive to serve all our students as unique individuals. We understand that they are here for a variety of reasons and we strive to work with them all differently. Pacific Quest is an outdoor therapy program using a Sustainable Growth™ treatment model as …
PQ Welcomes Visitors From Australia
Pacific Quest Wilderness Therapy program recently hosted two key leaders from the Horticultural Therapy Association of Victoria, Australia. Karen and Paul Delamotte joined Pacific Quest’s Land Supervisor Travis Slagle for an interactive tour of the 8 acre wilderness program in Hawaii that has provided life changing experiences for hundreds of youth from around the world. …
The Flow State
By Mike Sullivan, Therapist This is fascinating – and you will likely be able to relate to this. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi and colleagues in Italy pondered the mental state of artists while in the act of creating art. Through phenomenological studies, Csíkszentmihályi, maintains that people can basically become absorbed into an activity and reach a particular …
Pictures Worth A Thousand Words
By Erin Levine, Clinical Admissions Director Every Friday evening when I am winding down my week, I take some time to view the slideshow of pictures that catalogs the activities the students participated in that week. I scroll through hundreds of pictures of busy and smiling faces in the different camps, at different phases of …
“Aloha Aina”- To Love the Land
By Travis Slagle, Horticulture Therapy Director To love the land is the oldest and most essential way of life in Hawaii. The people who care deeply for the land know what it means to be “pono” (to have integrity); they respect the ancestors by continuing their work, by planting the seeds, cultivating the “kalo” (taro), …
What Does Growth Look Like?
By Travis Slagle, PQ Land Supervisor Last week, parents came to the island for a two-day workshop where they worked side by side with their sons and daughters, rotating between discussion groups and land projects, experiencing first-hand what it’s like to be at Pacific Quest wilderness therapy program. The question I asked the families was …
Taro Harvest Festival
Recently the Ohana has been hard at work harvesting Taro in the garden and creating new ways to spice up an ancient plant. Taro, also known as “kalo,” is one of the original “canoe plants” that the Polynesians brought to Hawaii to propagate and sustain a new civilization. An interesting fact that students at Pacific …
PQ Nursery Order
“We are excited about the garden developments in our newest camps,” said PQ organic garden specialist Patrick Leatherman. Patrick completed a large scale order from a local big island nursery last week. He seems very enthusiastic about the tropical fruits that the plants will provide. Patrick ordered 5 Tahitan Lime trees, 5 Pink Eureka Lemon …