Interview with Robin

Q: Why do you work in wilderness therapy?
A: I believe in making the emotional and spiritual connection to our natural world. In so doing, the relationship between our mind and body becomes more complete. This is particularly important when dealing with chemical dependencies and behavior problems in teen and adults. People need to be challenged physically, emotionally and cognitively. So much emphasis in our culture is on passive entertainment. This can take the form of violence on television, movies and video games. This causes a separation from one’s own inner process and then as a result each other.

Q: Why do you think the wilderness works?
A: By becoming more aligned with the natural world and its immediate consequences, adults and young people learn problem solving skills that easily transfer to everyday life. Young people yearn for some sort of transition into adulthood. As result, we see them coming up with their own unhealthy rites of passage. This sometimes includes the use of dangerous drugs, unprotected sex, and/or violence. Wilderness offers healthier alternatives to this practice.

Q: What are your unique gifts, experiences that help our students?
A: What I bring to Open Sky is my own experience of the healing potential of nature. Our technologically-based culture tends toward separation of humans from the natural world. This alienation has caused great suffering as we are forced to detach from our own emotional and spiritual process. This further separates us from each other. Through nature, I build a relationship between my body, my mind, and my community.

Q: What do you do for fun?
A: I play guitar and harmonica, ski, rock climb and enjoy spending time with friends and family.

Q: Who is a person that has inspired your life?
A: One of my inspirations is Fay Fuller, one of the first European-American women to scale Tahoma (Mt. Ranier). She did so in 1890. She wore heavy flannel underwear, a thick blue flannel bloomer suit, woolen hose, heavy calfskin boy's shoes with caulks, and a small straw hat. Another inspiration is the musician Woody Guthrie. He didn’t start playing the guitar until he was 25 years old. I started at 19.

Q: If you could meet anyone, who would it be?
A: I’d like to meet Fay Fuller, George Burns and Indira Gandhi.

Q: What is one of the defining moments in your life? 
A: I have traveled all over the world, and I’ve worked at everything from taxi driver to professional musician to outdoor educator. I learned to rock climb in my thirties and learned to ski at age 40. When I completed my first series of linked telemark ski turns, I was enormously proud. When I walked across the Mekong River into China from Viet Nam, sharing a compartment on a train with coffee smugglers from Greece into Yugoslavia, I was fascinated. When I started graduate school, I was excited. Ask me again in 6 months.

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