By Hilary Moses, Therapeutic Program Director
I have found myself recently focusing on how to articulate the Pacific Quest wilderness therapy model. I know intimately what we do, day in and day out; I know the roles that everyone plays and how they contribute to a very full spectrum of services; I know that we are not wilderness and that we are a hybrid model and I know that I love what we are doing. I 
recently shared an invigorating conversation with an educational consultant, and while I sought out ideas to make sure that we were providing for our students what the populations needs, he reminded me to keep doing what we are doing.
We exchanged philosophies, both personal and professional, about having intentional focus on how we “show up” in our world and the importance of helping students, families and ourselves to connect with our individual core intention. Core intention not defined as a goal that we want to achieve in life but rather as the core of who we feel we are and what we want to offer to the world. We exchanged metaphors, one Michelangelo and one arrow head, about how we are not working to create in ourselves or others, something that does not exist. Rather, there is a true form that rests in side each of us and our work is to chip away at the muck that builds up and keeps the true form from shining through. This is the basis of our work with adolescents, young adults and parents. Remember who you are and who you have always been, journeying back through the stories of your life. Identify the obstacles that have thwarted the true form and know that, as my colleague stated in our conversation, “failure is the inability to shed what you no longer need.”