Therapeutic Adventure for Young People
Therapeutic Adventure has been developed to help people deal with their emotional issues in an enjoyable way using outdoor, mild-risk activities. It is led by one or more counsellors or psychotherapists proficient in therapy outdoors.
Therapeutic Adventure for Young People also enables small groups aged from 8 to 18 to enhance their learning and emotional health and wellbeing through short written reflections at the end of each task.
Activities
Therapeutic Adventure offers young people a wide range of outdoor challenges, tests of strength and team activities that can meet specific needs. Most groups of young people will need additional adult supervision.
All the activities can take place in a local park or woods as well as in mountains and wilderness areas. The activities have been designed to use the minimum equipment possible. Most require little more than a strong rope and blindfolds for each participant.
Young people who struggle with class-based teaching may benefit from one-day events focusing on activities to build confidence, increase self-esteem, overcome fear, strengthen relationships or deal with anger.
Young people with less specific needs may prefer to decide their activities by choosing from a set of cards in eight different colours. These colours represent eight different types of activity: Trust; Nature; Working Together; Survival; Confidence; Risk-taking; Achievements; Relaxation and Enjoyment.
A third option is for the leaders to select a range of cards based on the perceived needs of the group. The young people then select from these cards.
Reflection and educational learning
At the end of each activity the young people sit down and spend a few minutes writing about their experience of the activity. In the case of young people with little or no writing ability, this reflection can take the form of small drawings.
They are invited to reflect in three ways for each activity: action (what they did); thinking (their opinion on what was happening); and feeling (what their internal experience and external reaction was to the activity).
Taking part in the activity and reflecting on it in this way can be seen as fulfilling part of the UK government's commitment to promoting students' emotional health and wellbeing (see the document Promoting Emotional Health and Wellbeing Through the National Healthy School Standard).
Therapeutic Adventure can also be seen as fulfilling several of the seven cross-curriculum dimensions identified in the documentCross Curriculum Dimensions: A planning guide for schools:
Identity and cultural diversity Young people work in teams consisting of those with mixed ability and various cultural origins.
Healthy lifestyles Activities take place in the outdoors and involve physical, mental and emotional challenges.
Community participation Many of the activities can only be achieved by working as a team.
Enterprise Participants learn to take initiative in deciding how to complete a task.
Global dimension and sustainable development All the activities are intentionally eco-friendly. Participants gain a greater understanding of the natural world and learn the countryside motto: Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints.
Technology and media Participants learn map reading, use of a compass and/or GPS, how to take photographs in nature and then transfer the result to computer.
Creativity and critical thinking Young people taking part learn how to overcome obstacles, problem-solving and ways to design objects using natural objects.
Requirements
Participants in Therapeutic Adventure for Young People sign an agreement that they will cooperate and take instruction from the leaders. This is vital for the safety of themselves and others in the group.
Parents and carers sign an agreement that the young person can take part and that they are aware of potential risks if the young person disobeys the rules.
Therapeutic leaders have an up to date enhanced CRB check and current professional indemnity and public liability insurances.
Organisers have Third Party insurance for outdoor adventure activities. Individual young people are advised to have their own personal or family travel insurance.
Young people need to be equipped with sturdy shoes/trainers and warm, waterproof clothes.
Facilities in the form of a room, a tent or a minibus need to be available for young people to complete their written assignments in case of adverse weather conditions.
For further information on Therapeutic Adventure for Young People please contact:
Roger Day at Brook Creative Therapy, 16 Burnside, Rugby CV22 6AX. Telephone 01788 541 937 or 07870 737 652. Email: brookcreativetherapy@gmail.com
If you know of a youth club, school, pupil referral unit or education authority that could benefit from this information, please copy this page and forward an email to them. Thank you.