Adventure Therapy!! What is it?

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Adventure therapy involves activities that take place in an outdoor setting or natural environment. The activities are adventurous in nature and often push participants outside their comfort zone. It is inclusive of activities such as rock climbing, kayaking, abseiling, hiking and high ropes.

Gillis and Ringer (1999, p.29, as cited in Levack, 2003) provide a definition of adventure therapy as the "deliberate, strategic combination of adventure activities and the therapeutic change process with the goal of making lasting changes in the lives of participants."

Principles of experiential learning underpin adventure therapy. Experiential learning maintains that for learning or behaviour change to occur the individual needs to directly participate in the experience of the activity. This dynamic process involves the participant to get actively involved and requires problem solving, curiosity and reflection (Gass, 1993, as cited in Levack, 2003).

Adventure therapy capitalises on this experiential learning and the largely positive change that occurs when one pushes their personal boundaries and is placed outside of their comfort zone.

Wilderness adventure therapy has been documented with a variety of clinical and disabled populations including at-risk girls and women, at-risk youth, post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis, learning difficulties, spinal cord injury, substance abusers, mental health in oncology, adolescent obesity, eating disorders and traumatic brain injury (Shanahan, McAllister & Curtain, 2009).

So what are the advantages of using adventure as a therapy medium?

Therapeutic benefits and outcomes of adventure include:

• improved self-esteem and self-concept
• change in interpersonal relationships
• increased ability to trust and accept others
• increased development of interpersonal skills
• individual growth and development
• physical benefits
• ability to express opinions and needs
• improved locus of control
• enhanced coping skills
• behaviour modification
• social integration

(Jansen, 1999; Shanahan et al., 2009)

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REFERENCES:

Jansen, S. (1999). New ground to venture? Adventure therapy as a potential therapeutic medium within occupational therapy. Dunedin: Otago Polytechnic.


Lavack, L. (2003). Adventure therapy in occupational therapy: Can we call it spiritual occupation? New Zealand Journal of Occupational Therapy, 50(1):22-28.


Shanahan, L., McAllister, L., Curtain, M. (2009). Wilderness adventure therapy and cognitive rehabilitation: Joining forces for youth with TBI. Brain Injury, 23(13-14):1054-1064.