Ep 67: My Framework for Planning Summer Therapy Camps
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Therapy in the Great Outdoors, the podcast where we explore the business and practice of nature based pediatric therapy of all kinds. If you're an outdoor loving pediatric practitioner in the fields of occupational, physical, or speech therapy, social work, or mental health, this podcast will help you start and grow a successful nature based practice or program.
I am the ever honest, always a hundred percent real. You'll hear it all on this podcast. Dr. Laura Park Figueroa. I'm a pediatric OT with over 20 years of experience and I run a thriving nature based practice with profitable locations in two different states and multi six figures in revenue. I also host the free online community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.
com to help you pursue your nature based therapy dreams too. Are you ready to take action on those dreams? Let's jump [00:01:00] in.
Hi everyone, welcome to Therapy in the Great Outdoors. Today we're going to talk about how I plan summer camp, the framework that we use in my practice to plan summer camps, and I'm going to share it with you. Maybe it will help you plan summer camps, or you can compare it to how you plan summer camps and see if there are things I should be doing differently, maybe.
Or if there are things that we do that can help you in your practice as well. So before we get started, I just want to say if you're watching on YouTube, yes, I look a little disheveled. I have not showered yet today. I just got back from walking the dog. We're getting ready to go out of town for about a week.
We're going down to St. Louis. I live in Madison, Wisconsin. We're taking our dog because my husband has a, conference there and my son and I and our dog are just going to hang out and see family and friends. I grew up in St. Louis, so I have a lot of people there that I know.
So we're getting ready to leave and I [00:02:00] wanted to get this podcast recorded before we left so that I wouldn't have to take my mic and other stuff on the road.
So let's get into all of the details. I developed this framework in 2020. I worked with one of our capstone students and she helped me put into a system the way that we plan for camp. So this is really going to be a two part series really about camp because next week I'm going to do an episode about how to choose really good books to So, you can launch your creativity and treatment planning for specifically summer camps, but really it could even be just nature based treatment sessions with kids therapy sessions.
This is the framework we use for planning summer camp. A quick caveat before I dive into the framework is that we run our summer camps in my practice, Outdoor Kids OT. Monday through Friday from [00:03:00] 9 a.
m to 1 p. m. So that's the time frame that we're looking at when I'm planning for summer camp. And what we did in 2020 when I worked with this capstone student was we really thought intentionally about the emotional kind of ups and downs that kids go through during a week of summer camp. And it's based on my experience running Summer camps for many weeks and noticing there was an ebb and flow to the week that was pretty consistent from week to week.
So let's get into the framework. So what we did when we developed this framework was we thought about the emotions the children may be experiencing each day of the week and then created the activities based on those emotional states. And then we gave of course each day a cute names
so Monday we titled the theme of the day is building bedrocks Tuesday the theme of the day is growing roots together Notice, there's all the nature [00:04:00] themes here Wednesday, the theme is weathering the storm. Thursday, the theme is branching out. And then Friday, the theme is celebrating growth. I'll go through each day and explain the rationale behind each day. Monday is building bedrocks The first day of camp is always a day when you need to really establish expectations and foundations for how that week is going to go. We're building the bedrock foundation upon which the rest of the camp week is going to be determined, essentially.
On that day, we want children to really understand exactly What we expect at camp and what is and is not okay in our camp culture with the values that we want to bring to our therapy experience for the children. We want them to understand safety awareness. We want them to understand the physical boundaries of where we're allowed to be in camp.
And we need to establish clear routines and make sure that [00:05:00] children feel safe and supported. So, this first day of camp, kids don't really know what to expect, unless they've come for multiple weeks. Maybe there are some kids who know what to expect, but in general, it is still a first day of a new group coming together.
The recommended therapy activities that kind of go along with this building bedrocks theme are getting to know you activities, doing name games activities where the kids can parallel play but share materials or supplies. Activities where you might be exploring the area around where you are running camp.
You also on that first day really need to make sure to first thing right off the bat, establish group agreements. We call the rules in our sessions agreements because we try to get all the kids to come to agreement about how we want to treat each other during camp. And then also you as a therapist will be establishing the routine and the structure for the week.
All right, let's move on to day two on Tuesday, growing roots [00:06:00] together. So on Tuesday, hopefully children, if you've done a good job establishing that sense of safety and the understanding of boundaries and expectations on that first day, children come in feeling a little less nervous, maybe a little more comfortable, hopefully.
They may start to feel more free to take some risk and they're going to start developing relationships with the other kids. So we want the kids to learn to be part of the group, build trust with other kids, collaborate with others, and give their best effort really towards the things that we're doing at camp.
And so this is a day to start trying new activities, encouraging the children to start working together. And Discuss, we often on this day look for themes of like perseverance and not giving up, helping the children to learn, have a little bit of grit. So on Growing Roots Together, the activities that we plan to do on Tuesdays, are partner or group games, collaborative activities that bring the whole group together, or team building activities.
Then on [00:07:00] Wednesday, we titled Wednesday Weather in the Storm because Wednesday seems to always be a day that is just challenging. I think it's because kids tend to feel more comfortable by Wednesday. They've been together a few days. There's a reason we call Wednesday hump day and the work week because, you know, it just sometimes can be a challenging day.
So the kids may be feeling more confident in their relationships with others, but that also means that they may feel more free to express big emotions. This is where sometimes. The true colors come out, right? Like you're, when you feel safe, you can sometimes express those big emotions that you may not have felt safe to otherwise.
And kids may feel tired. You know, there's been a week of camp that they've been part of for a few days Yeah, so, on this day, we want to encourage children to try to solve problems with their peers, learn how to work through conflict, learn how to manage their emotions. And this is a great day to have types of activities that where you may be discussing self [00:08:00] regulation strategies or conflict resolution with the kids.
Some act therapy activities for this day may be mindfulness or calming strategies, teaching children coping strategies, or having activities that require problem solving. Thursday we titled branching out and on this day kids Really are, hopefully if you have established this sense of safety throughout the week, they really are starting to take more risk and feel more ease of being their true self.
Okay so on this day children hopefully are becoming more independent, they're building confidence, and I hope that by this day you're really starting to see kids come up with their own play schemas, like things that they are coming up with creatively So this is a great day for imaginative or creative activities Independent activities that the kids can do, and also a day to celebrate diversity and differences within the group.
I think that is something that kids [00:09:00] are ready for on this day, and yeah, so creativity and independence is the theme of day four, branching out. And then finally on day five, on Fridays, celebrating growth. So day five, the last day of camp each week, we try to do something that is exciting and special for the kids to commemorate the growth and the
experiences that they've had this week. So we want to celebrate friendships support kids and confidently engaging in play. Therapists on this day, we want to be identifying accomplishments that the group made and celebrating those and that individual kids made throughout the week. And so this day we tend to do novel activities, which is part of the Contigo approach anyway.
I didn't really speak about the Contigo approach. Contigo stands for connection and transformation in the great outdoors. It is the therapy approach that I developed. I teach a training in it. You can see more at ContigoApproach. com online. And it is the approach that we [00:10:00] use in my practice. It's an evidence based framework for doing therapy with children outdoors.
One of the things in the Contigo Approach is novelty, offering children these novel experiences. And on Friday of camp weeks, we really try to do novel experiences, things like fire building or making a special snack. The ice cream ball is always a hit, making ice cream in the ice cream ball.
Fruit kebabs, you know, special things that kids would enjoy doing. Maybe have a parade, make musical instruments, like those type of celebratory events, parades, parties, things like that. And then also Friday is a day that you might try some more challenging activities if the kids are ready for that an additional challenge.
And you, as the therapist, you know, I always say this is why Therapy is different than a general camp that you would send your child to that may be led by a curriculum or something like that is that you as the therapist are making those in the moment decisions about how to change things based on the needs of the children in your group and the [00:11:00] therapy goals that those children have.
So It would be up to you as the therapist to decide whether or not more challenging activities might be good for the kids to do on that Friday when you're doing the celebration of their growth for the week. So that's it. That is, we call this our therapeutic themes framework because those titles go along with what our therapeutic themes are for the week.
Now, in the flow of this week I feel like I need to also communicate to y'all that In my practice, the kids individually have their own individual goals. You could use this framework no matter what, whether you're offering an enrichment camp or a therapy camp for children. The difference with a therapy camp would be that you are actually every day documenting on the goals that the child has
I always recommend only one goal per kid because it gets confusing in a group setting to have multiple goals per child. But you would be, working with each child on an individual goal throughout that camp week, as well as, you know, planning your activities in alignment. If you use this [00:12:00] framework, you'd be planning your activities in alignment with those daily therapeutic themes.
So if you would like a chart of these daily therapeutic themes, I am going to make that and have that for download. You can go to therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com/camp and get a copy of this chart that we use to basically, it's a summary of everything I've shared with you in this episode. Next week, I am going to do an episode where I talk about selecting books for camp. Because one of the things that we do is use a children's book to help launch our planning for camp.
And you will see these themes in the episode next week when I talk about how we plan camp. So I wanted to start by introducing these themes to you and explain the framework that we use for camp and then next week I will share more about [00:13:00] selecting really great books and how we use the books to plan the actual activities we do in alignment with these themes each week of camp I don't know, you know, I'll have to be honest with you I really don't know that this framework is necessary, right?
I don't know if the linking the activities to the ebb and flow of a camp week, how it typically goes and the emotions children may be feeling and the things that we want to focus on in our therapy camps. I don't know if the framework is actually totally necessary, but I do think it's a good way to make sure that the values that you have in your camp are being used to drive the things that you are planning at camp, right?
I always encourage nature based practice owners to have systems around what you do in your business. And so If you have a framework that you use, it doesn't have to be mine. I'm sharing mine to give you you know, insight into what I [00:14:00] do is what I do. I share what I do. I'm not saying it's the very best way to do it, but , to give you kind of a , some fodder for thinking and you can feel free to use it if you want to, and I would love feedback if it worked for you or not.
Or if you change things about it, it would be really great , to hear that. I Have up until this point only shared this framework inside of. My paid offers. So if you get that download, that is something that is very valuable that I'm giving away for free. I'm not giving away the whole camp manual that we have sold before but the chart may help you to plan your camp in accordance with this framework.
I think my point is to encourage you that you should be having a system that you use when you are planning camp so that you are sure to address the goals that the kids have and address the goals that you have for the services in your business. I think that's it. Next week I will talk about the books and we'll go from there.
And I hope this was helpful to you. I'd love feedback. Reach out to me on Instagram at any [00:15:00] time or inside of the free therapy in the great outdoors community. You can join at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com. See you next time. Bye
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