Adventure Therapy

History

The use of group activities as the primary agent of psychological change emerged with J. L. Moreno's psychodrama innovations in the 1920s, and several modern experiential approaches to psychotherapy emphasize the use of an activity base, including art, music, and play therapies. The therapeutic effects of natural settings were evident in the camping programs developed for troubled youths in the 1930s. Outward Bound, the experiential learning program developed by Kurt Hahn in the 1940s and brought to the United States in the 1960s, effectively inspired self-discipline and self-confidence through physically and mentally challenging experiences in wilderness settings. The principles of experiential learning developed in the Outward Bound schools were later adopted and further developed by organizations such as Project Adventure and the Association of Experiential Education. These and similar organizations adapted the survival challenges of the Outward Bound protocols to nonwilderness settings in schools, recreation centers, and physical and mental health treatment centers by developing challenge courses, high and low ropes courses, cooperative games, and initiatives designed to elicit learning through experience. Today, the principles of adventure therapy are evident across a wide range of programs, including personal growth and enrichment curricula, corporate training and teambuilding efforts, antirecidivism programs for adjudicated youth, substance abuse treatment, and both outpatient and inpatient mental health counseling for families, couples, and individuals.

Nature of Adventure Therapy

The fundamental proposition of adventure therapy involves exposing a group of individuals to a novel setting in which they strive to negotiate a variety of challenging tasks that involve real or perceived risk and where the outcome of their efforts is directly affected by the choices that they make, both individually and in concert with other group members. The settings of adventure therapy often involve the natural surroundings of the outdoor environment and usually entail adventurous activities inspired by such outdoor pursuits as rock climbing or wilderness survival. Confronted by the real or perceived risks—both physical and psychological—inherent in the challenges posed by these activities, clients experience reactions consistent with their preferred or characteristic affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses when confronted by difficult situations in their everyday lives. Thus, they have an opportunity to “catch themselves being themselves.” As clients process their experiences with the group by sharing their experiences and receiving feedback from the other members, they have an opportunity to gain insight about their choices and about the consequences of their behavior. As the activities of the group proceed, they may choose to enact new behaviors that they believe will be more likely to produce the outcomes they desire and thereby they gain an experience of positive behavioral change. The goal of adventure therapy is to assist clients to transfer what they learn from the novel experiences of these adventurous initiatives to the more significant domain of their daily lives.

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