
Brave Explorers Camp
5-days, 30-hours, Intensive Treatment Summer Camp for Selective Mutism & Social Anxiety
a robust & intensive treatment approach
At Brave Explorers Camp our goal is to provide fun, dynamic, and trajectory-changing evidence-based treatment for children with selective mutism and social anxiety. Modeled after gold-standard summer intensive treatment programs, Brave Explorers Camp draws upon the foundation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT-SM) from Steven Kurtz, PhD and utilizes graduated exposures in a school setting to help campers use their voice with confidence.
Each camper is matched with a trained camp counselor prior to camp to focus on reducing anxious avoidant verbalizations. This allows tailored and individualized therapeutic interactions for each camper’s unique speaking and social goals. Daily activities that include morning circle, free play, snack, small group, recess, lunch, and behavioral rehearsal in preparation for community exposure activities aka field trips!
Treatment at Brave Seattle is comprehensive. Each campers’ journey with Brave begins with a diagnostic intake and an individualized treatment plan. Brave Explorers Camp is an intensive experience that spans 5 days, preparation for this intensive treatment includes lead-in sessions and optional follow-up sessions.
Who is a Brave Explorer?
They are some of the most courageous kids around!
Being a brave explorer is a mindset: we call it the brave lifestyle. We do brave things–together! We have fun and are not afraid to be silly. We are persistent, even when it is hard and scary. We empower each other. We are all brave explorers! We have LOTS to say!

Individual services with Brave are customized to increase success and efficacy of Brave Explorers Camp
Effectiveness & Efficiency
Brave Explorers joins a select group of intensive treatment camps for selective mutism. Not only does the intensive nature of Brave Explorers provide effective treatment that simulates “real life”, but it also provides a condensed and cost-efficient means to accomplish these outcomes.
Children with selective mutism often require multi-hour treatment sessions to see results and traditional treatment plans encounter a “dosage issue” in terms of needing more hours to achieve gains.
When we increase dosing, and mimic real life situations (in-situ) we are often able to see quicker gains in a shorter period of time because children stop engaging in the negative reinforcement cycle sooner in their lives. This creates more opportunities for impactful change throughout their lives.
Enrollment & Treatment Map
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Your child must complete an initial three-part evaluation by Brave Seattle’s clinical team in order to understand their history, confirm the diagnosis, and create treatment goals with measurable progress.
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Lead-in sessions are a systematic and evidence-based process during which your child becomes verbal with their counselor. Each session looks like a playdate to the outside observer, but it is actually a careful and methodical procedure to get children verbal with novel speakers.
Children must complete lead-in sessions before camp to ensure the effectiveness of camp. Sessions range from 1- 3 hours and may require up to 12 sessions. Your child must progress through sessions and become verbal with 2 camp-counselors to be ready for camp. Lead-in sessions are required to ensure your child will be ready for a successful camp experience. All lead-in sessions occur prior to camp week at our clinic and in the community! Most children require individualized treatment outside of camp, which is why we also offer group sessions, community field trips & individualized treatment before (during!) & after camp!
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The 5 day intensive therapeutic camp is the core of our Brave Explorers Program. Here, Explorers join a group of peers for 30-direct hours of treatment, activities, and exploration.
Brave Explorers Camp is simulated after a school classroom environment to practice speaking goals within the setting that mutism is most entrenched. Campers are divided into two classrooms by age group. School-like activities include morning circle/meeting, free play, snack, small group, recess, lunch and behavioral rehearsal to prepare for afternoon community exposure activties.
Campers are matched with counselors (1:1 ratio) who implement evidenced based strategies to reduce avoidance in selective mutism. Campers rotate counselors every few days to generalize speaking gains with new partners.
Each camper has tailored daily treatment objectives based on specific speaking goals to challenge growth and advancement in speaking. Children engage in these brave speaking adventures in August to increase the generalization of verbal speaking into the new school year.
Parents also receive clinical updates on progress during lead-in sessions and a written report to share with their child’s school team. Selective mutism requires a specific treatment approach that includes iterative exposure to speaking. This enables children to become comfortable speaking with incremental goals. Moreover, children benefit from parent-child interaction therapy adapted for selective mutism (PCIT-SM) with camp counselors that is integrated throughout Brave Explorers.
Activities in camp are designed to be fun and challenging. Beginning with peers and counselors, the activities expand each day to increase exposure to new individuals and exploration of diverse settings. This offers children opportunities to show their bravery and talk within novel situations, which increases generalization of skills.
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Once the intake process is complete, treatment recommendations from our clinicians often include individualized treatment, parent training, group therapy, and school support.
After camp, we offer optional, supplemental clinical interventions that help the transfer of speaking skills to school settings. These include an educators workshop to foster their teacher’s support of your child’s new skills. A summary of treatment success and individualized feedback on supporting your child in their school setting. Providers may organize a lead-in session with the teachers or accompany the child at school to do in-school support if needed.
A strongly recommended option for almost all campers is school observation, consultation, education with your child’s teachers and support staff, and in-school in-vivo exposure work. We offer both pre-camp and post-camp interventions to support our patient’s treatment needs.
Pre-Camp School Observation:
During this time, a member of our clinical team will go to your child’s school to observe their avoidance patterns. This enables us to better tailor treatment. provide support specific to your child, and have a baseline for behavioral change from pre- and post-camp
Post-Camp School Meeting with School Staff:
After camp has ended, we will meet with you, your child’s teachers, and the education team to discuss goals met at camp, provide recommendations to support carryover of skills from camp to school, and provide teacher training regarding selective mutism.
Tailored in-person school support:
The applications of in-person school support are unique to each child. These supportive sessions can include but are not limited to, lead-in sessions at school, individualized support targeting increased verbalizations in the classroom and throughout the school.
FAQs
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Lead-in sessions take place in June and July and families will sign up for the required number of sessions based upon their schedule. Most children will require 6-12 lead in sessions, though recommendations may change based upon patient needs.
Camp 2025 is from August 4th-8th
Camp takes place from 9am to 3pm daily; we do not provide before or after care.
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Camp is located in a Seattle elementary school within walking distance to many fun activities for our Brave Explorers! While we strive for the location of camp to be centrally located between the east-west-north and south ends of Seattle, we ask for some flexibility from our families in the exact location of the camp as many schools and community centers do not offer rental space that is adequate to accommodate the many activities of our camp.
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4-12 years of age.
If your child is currently between 3 & 4, enrollment will be considered on a case by case basis due to the intensity and long days we have at camp. We cannot accommodate naps during camp.
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The cost of the 5-day intensive is $4,200 for 30 hours of therapy ($140/hour).
Lead-in sessions are charged separately. Additional services may be recommended to prepare your child to participate in camp.
Cost of Assessment and Lead-in sessions are billed separately, as they will vary in number of sessions by child and mutism severity. An overall cost breakdown for the additional required sessions is provided in an introductory informational packet that is sent out after you hold your child’s place via the registration form.
All services are out-of-network, meaning we are not contracted with insurance companies. Fees are charged at the time of reservation for camp and at the time of service for assessment, lead-ins, and school support.
Many families are able to get some percentage of out-of-network reimbursement ranging from 20%-90%, though this is not guaranteed and is determined by the insurance company. It is the responsibility of the policyholder to understand your benefits. Upon request, Brave Explorers Camp would be happy to advocate or challenge any denial of reimbursement claim with your insurance company.
Please see our registration form for the most in-depth breakdown of cost. However, on the details page of our camp experiences, there are descriptions of pricing throughout.
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Yes! We welcome out-of-town families and will try to accommodate as best we can with lead-in scheduling.
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We are actively recruiting professionals and graduate students who are wanting to gain more education and training with selective mutism; we don’t allow for current clients’ family members to serve as counselors–but we find additional ways to involve you in the fun!
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We have programs available throughout the year including individualized treatment, groups, school support, and field trips for kids aged 4-12 (with some wiggle room).
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Our team is happy to direct families to the selective mutism association website and to provide resources to provide contact information for other camps in the country.
In special circumstances, we have older children join our camp to practice leadership as a part of their treatment. Our team is happy to answer questions about these options!
Join us at Brave Explorers Camp!
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Join us at Brave Explorers Camp! 〰️ Click below! 〰️
For children
who are struggling with speaking in certain environments or to certain people.
For undergraduates
who are seeking experience in the field of psychology.
For professionals & advanced students
who want direct clinical experience with our team.