THE SILENCE OF GOING SOLO: Confronting fear while camping alone for 36 hours

In those early years of self-discovery, between the time a social worker recommended drug and alcohol treatment for Jonathon and the summer of 2006 when I completed my degree in counselling psychology, our family was immersed in the therapeutic world.

We attended group family sessions, personal counselling appointments, and experiential workshops where we pounded mattresses to release pent-up emotions and spent days in isolation to confront our deepest fears. I discovered there was nothing like a deserted island to highlight the profound abandonment and loneliness issues that haunted me.