Featured Team Members: Emily D. Fernandes, MSW,
Open Sky Executive Director & Co-founder Emily Fernandes was recently featured on the podcast, “Stories from the Field: Demystifying Wilderness Therapy”.
In this podcast episode, Emily speaks with podcast host Dr. Will White about her early years and her journey to the field of wilderness therapy. Emily shares stories from more than 1000 field days as a field guide at Aspen Achievement Academy and her experiences as a clinician, clinical director, and co-founder of Open Sky.
While reflecting on everything she has learned and experienced throughout her career, Emily shares that for guides and other staff, “it’s about walking the talk. Part of the challenge and the beauty for [the students] is they can’t “hide”; they are seen by the group and their stuff comes up. It’s such a parallel process and I talk about this all the time with guides and actually everybody at Open Sky…because everybody is part of that extended treatment team: We have to do our own work. And we have to walk the talk of the skills that we’re asking the students to practice.”
“Stories from the Field: Demystifying Wilderness Therapy” is a podcast that educates listeners on the history of wilderness therapy and various trends related to outdoor therapeutic treatment. Dr. White interviews wilderness therapy researchers, program founders, field guides, clinicians, and others on a variety of wilderness therapy–related topics. Dr. White has worked in wilderness therapy for more than 30 years, co-founded a wilderness therapy program in the 1990’s, and is a published author.
To access Dr. White’s interview with Emily Fernandes, visit “Stories from the Field” or listen on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts!
September 30th, 2019