Camper Program
Typical Day for Campers
- Morning walk to Lake Pinehurst and back
- Breakfast followed by self-monitoring for older campers
- Morning activity: select personal training in fitness center, croquet tournament, or sailing on Lake PInehurst
- Lunch followed by self-monitoring for older campers
- Siesta time in room or yoga/pilates class
- Family Activity time: select from among bike ride, driving range, or Beach Club
- Afternoon snack & tea
- Afternoon Activity: scavenger hunt in Pinehurst Village (or session with Behavioral Coach)
- Family Class: personal training, golf or culinary
- Dinner in Carolina Dining Room followed by self-monitoring
- Family canoe race at dusk
- Movie night
- Quiet time in room
Camper Behavioral Change Program
All campers participate in age and developmentally appropriate programs. Wellspring Family Camp has two distinct tracks to suit the age of the campers: a track for children ages 5-9 and a track for children ages 10-14.
Younger campers at Wellspring (ages 5-9) have group sessions with Behavioral Coaches focused on learning in a playful way. These sessions address emotional health and stress management and help campers understand how to make good food choices.
For younger campers, individual sessions with Behavioral Coaches occur primarily with their parents. At Wellspring, we understand that with younger children, parents dictate more activities and choices. By working intensively with the parents individually and in groups, younger children will have the support and guidance they need to succeed at home.
Older campers (ages 10-14) participate in a more extensive behavioral change program. We start with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to train campers intensively on a set of behaviors that have been proven by research to sustain weight loss permanently. CBT sessions utilize methods such as stimulus control, decision counseling, rational emotive therapy, relapse prevention training, positive focusing, and stress management and improving frustration tolerance.
Many of the campers will take to the new behaviors like fish to water. Others will have emotional or other issues to address and overcome before they can succeed. By meeting twice in cognitive-behavioral groups with Wellspring therapists, and twice in individual sessions, campers begin to become master weight controllers at Wellspring.
Older campers also learn many of the concepts and skills detailed in Dr. Kirschenbaum’s book, The Healthy Obsession Program. Through their experiences at camp, older campers lose significant amounts of weight, improve moods and self-esteem, improve body images, begin improving fitness levels, and become motivated to change their lifestyles.
