{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"310: How Venture Capital Grew Wilderness Therapy\u2026 and Then Ran Away","description":"What happens when a field built on healing becomes shaped by money? In this episode, Will revisits a 2020 exploration of the business of wilderness therapy\u2014tracing its evolution from nonprofit, mission-driven roots to a rapidly expanding, privately funded industry. From early non-profits programs to the rise of private-pay models in the 1980s and the explosive growth fueled by outside investment, this episode examines how financial forces didn\u2019t just support wilderness therapy\u2014they fundamentally shaped its direction, priorities, and structure. And what happens when that money leaves? In a candid reflection recorded in 2026, Will revisits his earlier assumptions and confronts what\u2019s changed: the collapse of programs tied to venture capital, the shrinking of industry organizations, and the loss of research funding that once legitimized the field. As closures in recent years have come faster and more abruptly than in past downturns, this episode asks a difficult question\u2014can a field rooted in care and connection survive the realities of a risk-averse, profit-driven system? This podcast is supported by White Mountain Adventure Institute (wmai.org), offering adventure inspired retreats and coaching for men and facilitated by Will White.   ","author_name":"Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors","author_url":"http:\/\/storiesfromthefield.com","html":"