Coming of Age:
Nature-Based Programming for Teens
Coming of Age:
A 5-month adventure of connection with self, peers, & the living world.
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who truly are.”
-Carl Jung
Emotional Literacy & Communication Skills
Supporting the development of relational resilience and wellness through skills supportive of connection with self and other, as well as practices for presence.
*Conflict Transformation Skills
*Compassionate Communication Skills
*Mindfulness & Emotional Regulation Skills
Folk Crafts, Artistic Expression, Story & Song
Supporting young people in the practice of coming to know and express self authentically through the arts and making with one’s hands.
*Crafting with natural materials
*Songs & stories around the fire supportive of connection
*Creative expression
Nature Connection, Homesteading, & Wilderness Skills
Resourcing young people with skills to deepen connection with and stewardship of the natural world , as well as supporting the development of self-efficacy & self-confidence through homesteading & wilderness survival skills.
*Homesteading skills: maple-syrup making, growing food, animal husbandry
*Wilderness Survival Skills: fire starting/tending and safety (including primitive fire making), food storage in the wilderness, shelter bundling, etc.
We believe adolescence is a sacred passage and mysterious adventure of walking into a wilderness of the self that asks deep and stirring questions like, “Who am I?”, “What is my purpose?”, “Where do I belong?” For many teens, a disconnected modern culture has only increased teens’ struggles with loneliness, anxiety, depression, self-doubt, meaninglessness, feelings of being unseen and unheard, and a turn towards substances, social media, video games, or other injurious means to cope with the pain of it all.
Our experiences working with young people has made clear to us that too many teens trek this path all alone, which risks an unnecessary treacherousness as teens look to distractions and risky behaviors to cope with what is for many, a very challenging developmental passage. We envision a world in which adolescence is a journey supported and held by guides who facilitate therapeutic spaces where teens can receive the support of a community of peers who so too, are grappling with the same challenges. We envision an emotionally safe container that also resources teens with the practical skills to navigate their present and future life passages resiliently, meaningfully, and reassured of their belonging in the great web of life.
This program is the synthesis of our 8+ years of guiding and mentoring teens, education and training in adolescent mental health, and our deep shared passion for teens being intentionally resourced through a passage that we recognize lays an essential foundation impacting the rest of their life.
Our Approach
We are excited to be moving towards a long-time dream of nature-connected coming-of-age programs on the farm. These programs will be specifically designed to support the beautiful, often difficult, passage that is the teenage-years.
We recognize this passage holds an immense opportunity for adults in teens' lives to support them as they deepen into questions about life, relationships, their emotional worlds and changing bodies, meaning, purpose, and identity. We are committed to contributing to the creation of a vital cultural fabric within which this potent developmental time of self-inquiry, change, depth, identity formation and individuation are held with soulful and attuned mentorship and presence. We believe the teenage years to be a sacred portal meant to ready young people for a thriving young adulthood.
Working with adolescents in a therapeutic capacity over the years has highlighted the modern-day cultural tragedy of far too many young people spending their teenage years largely feeling lost, purposeless, lonely and without positive role models and mentorship. We believe this important time of transformative potential deserves, instead, to be held in community-- with connection, resourcing, creative expression, self-discovery, heartful sharing and witnessing, and experiential learning that supports young people along the journey of maturing into their authentic selves.
Meet the Guides
Shae Keane, LPC-A, Wilderness First Responder
Shae’s commitment to supporting teens in the pivotal, often difficult passage that is adolescence grew from her years guiding adolescents and young adults in the field of wilderness therapy. Over and again, she heard teens express how lonely, isolated, and unseen they felt in their lives and in their families as they did their best to navigate the coming of age trials in modern-day times.
Through these experiences, Shae witnessed young people share and confront their sufferings in a context that offered the resourcing and support of the natural world, skilled mentors, and a caring community of peers. She witnessed, through this intentional context, teens turning their pain into a claiming of their own story, agency, and lives. In the words of one teen, “I realize, now, I am on a quest.”
These experiences led Shae to pursue a degree in Clinical Mental Health from ETSU and to partner with Dr. Novotny in the development of a Nature-Based Therapy Graduate Certificate.
Shae brings to this program a love of the developmental passage that is no-longer-child, not-yet-adult, and years of practice supporting young people in their journey of becoming through therapeutic nature-based arts, songs, myth and storytelling, emotional literacy, creative expression, conflict transformation skills, psychoeducation, and the creation of a safe container to hold it all.
Kevin Spindler, Wilderness Guide & Therapeutic Mentor
As a therapeutic mentor, group facilitator, and rites of passage guide, my offerings bridge the space between formal therapy and older, more embodied ways of finding healing. For those seeking a therapeutic journey beyond the four walls of an office, I offer something more expansive: the trusted therapeutics of time spent in nature, of finding depth and authentic connection with community, of learning ancestral skills, of myth, ancestry, and dreams explored for what they reveal in us, of somatic and emotional regulation, of self-generated ceremony and rites of passage, and of fun and camaraderie! It is no surprise that in these contexts an enchantment with life and the world are rekindled, and one’s unique challenges reveal themselves as treasuries of meaning, purpose, and vitality.
My approach grows from a foundation forged by my own healing journey through childhood adversity. In adolescence and young adulthood, I practiced meditation and yoga, traveled the world, homesteaded, and explored various healing experiences and modalities. In my 30s, I settled down to deepen and train in men's work and psychodynamic process-work with Mankind Project, myth and story-telling, rites of passage guiding with the School of Lost Borders, and mentoring youth in nature connection, rites of passage and ancestral skills within various public and private school programs. All of which has left me full in heart, vitalized in purpose, re-enchanted with life, and dedicated to offering my attuned presence and mentorship in support of the adventure of healing, pscyho-spiritual renewal, and living with meaning and purpose.
I have recently taken the academic plunge and am studying Rites of Passage at East Tennessee State University through the disciplines of depth psychology and anthropology. I also mentor youth with Journeymen in Asheville and lead wilderness rites of passage, experiential therapeutics, and psycho-educational groups for men in recovery at Red Oak Recovery in NC.