{"id":46872,"date":"2025-12-04T10:20:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/?p=46872"},"modified":"2025-12-04T10:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:42:04","slug":"a-nature-expedition-that-transforms-lives-at-portage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/a-nature-expedition-that-transforms-lives-at-portage\/","title":{"rendered":"A Nature Expedition That Transforms Lives at Portage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Photo : Anne Montplaisir<\/em><\/p>\n

Excerpt from L’exp\u00e9dition : un tremplin vers la gu\u00e9rison<\/em> by Anne Montplaisir on Radio-Canada. <\/strong>Read the full article: <\/strong>https:\/\/ici.radio-canada.ca\/nouvelle\/2208027\/toxicomanie-dependance-aventure-nature-therapie<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Every fall, at the Portage addiction rehabilitation center in Saint-Malachie<\/a>, adolescents and young adults in therapy experience something unique: a canoe-camping expedition on Lake Trois-Saumons, organized in collaboration with Camps Odyss\u00e9e<\/a>. This nature and adventure based intervention approach aims to strengthen confidence, solidarity, and resilience.<\/p>\n

This outing is far more than a simple outdoor activity: it’s an immersive experience that becomes a true catalyst for change. The young participants learn to work as a team, overcome challenges, and discover that they can feel excitement and adrenaline-without substance use. “It had been such a long time since I felt this good, all without using,” confides Keven (alias<\/em>), a resident, in an article published by Radio-Canada.<\/p>\n

During the expedition, the teens had to show ingenuity to face strong winds and reach their campsite. Together, they came up with a solution: tying the canoes together to form a raft and using a tarp as a sail. This challenge, met with good humor, left a lasting impression and strengthened the bonds between participants.<\/p>\n

For Portage’s staff, these moments are invaluable. They highlight the progress made by the youth and help integrate these lessons into the rest of their therapy. As Johanne Marceau, a teacher at Portage for nearly 20 years, points out: “My wish is that we reinvest what we experienced [today] into our therapy.”<\/p>\n

This approach, supported by specialized guides, demonstrates that the outdoors can accelerate the therapeutic process. According to Christian Mercure, professor at the Outdoor Intervention Teaching Unit at UQAC, “The outdoors is a catalyst, in the sense that it speeds up the intervention.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Excerpt from L’exp\u00e9dition : un tremplin vers la gu\u00e9rison<\/em> by Anne Montplaisir on Radio-Canada. Read the full article: https:\/\/ici.radio-canada.ca\/nouvelle\/2208027\/toxicomanie-dependance-aventure-nature-therapie<\/a><\/p>\n\t

Share the article:<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Linkedin\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo : Anne Montplaisir Excerpt from L’exp\u00e9dition : un tremplin vers la gu\u00e9rison by Anne Montplaisir on Radio-Canada. Read the full article: https:\/\/ici.radio-canada.ca\/nouvelle\/2208027\/toxicomanie-dependance-aventure-nature-therapie Every fall, at the Portage addiction rehabilitation center in Saint-Malachie, adolescents and young adults in therapy experience something unique: a canoe-camping expedition on Lake Trois-Saumons, organized in collaboration with Camps Odyss\u00e9e. This… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":46870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-46872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-quebec-news","tag-adolescents"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46872"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46877,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46872\/revisions\/46877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}