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After learning a lot of about Adventure Therapy, I see a really positive and exciting future for the field itself. Because of the improvements in the field and the recognition it has received I think that it will continue to grow as a common type of therapy. After skyping with Paula Leslie she brought to our attention that she expects there to be more specific types of Adventure Therapy to come along in the next few years, giving each type of AT a more specific set of qualities of a client to cater to.
Another reason that I see a positive future for Adventure Therapy is because of the growing amount of research and experience that people are getting to have with Adventure Therapy. There is a lot of growth that can be made and a significant amount that has already taken place. One of the issues that was brought up during class that may serve as a hindrance or challenge to Adventure Therapy is burn out with the therapists. As we discussed some of the best ways to help prevent that is to continue to have older therapists involved in the training and mentoring of new therapists. Perhaps growing the work force and being able to rotate the therapists into different positions would help prevent burn out and keep the field full of new ideas and energy.
There are a lot of program evaluations and research being done within the field and more specifically within each individual program that is leading to more and more knowledge about what works and what does not work within the field. Because almost 90% of programs contact their clients after completion of treatment, whether it was successful or not, there still is a growing amount of information on these programs (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012). On the other side of the spectrum is a challenge that AT faces that comes down to the costs of the programs. Because of how expensive the programs are there is a limited population that is able to participate in the these types of programs. This can be seen as a challenge and as an opportunity at the same time. The opportunity here is to discover ways to include participants who cannot afford these programs (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012). Through doing so, there will be new ideas and new ways of providing the programs to a wider range of people.
Even though there are a lot of challenges that Adventure Therapy may face in the next 10 years, I see a lot of potential in the field. It is a very positive way to reach people, it encourages health lifestyles and seeks to provide a safe environment for those to develop.
photo from pinterest
Citations
Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Where are the ethical principles of APA most relevant to AT?
"Ethical principles are 'enduring beliefs about specific modes of conduct or end-states of existence that, when acted upon, protect the interests and welfare of all of the people involved.'" Ethical principles still provide guidance for adventure therapists when evaluating potential options the adventure therapist can take (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
According to the American Psychological Association these are the Ethical Principles of Psychologists: Resolving Ethical Issues, Competence, Human Relations, Privacy and Confidentiality, Advertising and other Public Statements, Record Keeping and fees, Education and Training, Research and Publication, Assessment, and Therapy. For the field of Adventure Therapy there is a list of ethical guidelines that are important to follow. Here is a list of the Ethical Guidelines of Adventure Therapy: Competence, Integrity, Responsibility, Respect, Concern, Recognition, Objectivity, Service, Social Justice, Dignity and Worth of the Person, and Importance of Human Relationships (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
To bring together the ones that seem most similar to me from the two lists, I would point out that they both begin with Ethical Issues. It is not the first one in the list for Adventure Therapy, but in the chapter the first part of becoming an Ethical Adventure Therapist is understanding our nonnegotiable values, recognizing our own value systems as well as our clients, knowing the ethical standards of the profession (which are in the list above), practicing ethical decision-making, and continually advancing our professional practice through continued education and receiving supervision and feedback while working with clients (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
On a more list by list comparison, one of the first ethical principles from the APA list that stands out to me the most as being very relevant to AT is Competence. In the last chapter we discussed the importance of being competent in your field in order to provide the most effective therapy and professional relationship with your client. The next is Human Relations. As we were discussing in class on Monday it was brought to my attention how important our relationships are with each other, especially in a therapy type setting. All of these ethical principles really connect with the others because if we start with the human relations it goes right into Privacy and Confidentiality, which reminds me of the example that was given in class. There is a certain amount of privacy that you promise to a client and as your relationship with that client develops more there will also be more that the client will share. It is important to have a balance between the all of these ethical principles. The next from the APA list that is very relevant to AT is Assessment. After all of the AT experiences it is important, as we learned a few chapters ago, to assess the client and see how those experiences actually affected the client so that as a therapist you can better evolve these experiences to the benefit of the clients.
All in all if I had to choose one of the most revenant ethical principles of APA to AT I would choose Privacy and Confidentiality. Without this therapy would be no different than anything else. Clients would not feel protected or like they were in a safe place to open up. This area could be especially tricky when it comes to family or group therapy.
Citations
American Psychological Association, Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2010.) Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx
Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
How do competencies for becoming an adventure therapist compare and contrast with a different method of experiential treatment?
Something that caught my attention from the reading was when the distinction between competencies and skills was made, "As pointed out by Sperry (2010), skills development primarily pertains to attaining areas of competency acquired for training aspects, but not the background knowledge, theory, or value components associated with the learning of skills. Competency refers to the 'knowledge, skills, and attitude components which are necessary for professional practice'" (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
There are many different qualities and skills that can qualify someone to work as an adventure therapist, a music therapist, or any other type of therapist or counselor. With each category of work there comes different experiences that are required before you can actually participate effectively in each of these types of care. For Adventure Therapy, some of the competencies needed are listed through this metaphor: a competent leader of adventure experiences needs to have bricks of hard skills including technical skills, bricks of soft skills including facilitation skills, and mortar of meta-skills.
It it says in the chapter, the development of competencies from the adventure therapy field can be traced to the early 1990's, thanks to Dr. Gillis! These are the different levels of adventure therapy: Recreation, Education, Enrichment, Adjunctive Therapy, and Primary Therapy. Before an adventure therapist would be able to work in all these different areas they would have to learn the appropriate skills that would allow them to do so and gain the experiential knowledge to help the clients.
There are thirty-eight competencies necessary for entry-level adventure therapists, here are the categories that all of those fall under:
A. Personal Component
B. Adventure Component
C. Programming Component
D. Therapy Component
E. Operational Component
Let's take a look at the competencies required for Music Therapists. According to research done by Edward Schwartzberg and Michael Silverman, the education and training of future music therapists is a topic that has received much attention. Researchers have been focusing on the different set of skills each student would have when they entered training, the technological aspects of training, the emotional stages during their internships, and many other factors that would play a role in the learning outcomes for future music therapists. One of the main differences first is the obvious one, with music therapy (different from adventure therapy) you would have to have some sort of understanding of music and experience with that. According to the AMTA Professional Competencies list you have to have completed either a bachelor's degree or its equivalent in music therapy. "The use of competency-based training seems to permeate across many allied health, education, and medical professions, including music therapy." All of these fields are directly and indirectly guided by theses professional competencies outlined in their professional organizations.
Here is a full list of all of the professional competencies needed in Music Therapy. To break them down into the smallest categories we have:
A. Music Foundations (history, composition, different instruments, etc.)
B. Clinical Foundations (terminology, typical human systems, principles of therapy, etc.)
C. Music Therapy (methods, techniques, current technologies, etc.)
Citations
American music therapy association. (2009). Retrieved from: http://www.musictherapy.org/about/competencies/
Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Schwartzberg, E. T., & Silverman, M. J. (2011). Categorization by Competency of Studies Involving Music Therapy Students in the Journal of Music Therapy, 1964-2008. Music Therapy Perspectives, 29(1), 50-64.
Compare and contrast the approach to AT assessment presented in Chapter 7 to at least 2 different approaches to assessment in mental health treatment.
"In the process of assessment, wilderness adventure experiences can be viewed as similar to projective psychological tests..."(Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
There are many different approaches to mental health treatment. Each different approach also comes with a different assessment. According to the book, the macro view of assessment in Adventure Therapy is seen in the CHANGES model (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012). Part of the CHANGES model is made up of the three elements of adventure therapy assessment: Diagnosis and design, Delivery, and Debrief. "We have found the CHANGES model to be a helpful way to organize interactive steps to acquire information and reflect upon it to enable the development of functional client change"(Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
There are seven stages to the CHANGES model (context, hypotheses, action, novelty, generating, evaluation and solutions). I will provide an example from each of theses steps:
1. How long will the client be involved?
2. What behavior might be expected?
3. How involved individuals are in adventure experiences?
4. The use of new experiences to bring out the real self, instead of the "socially proper self"
5. What are specific qualities of the group?
6. Was the hypothesis confirmed or rejected?
7. What is the solution to the problem?
As I was reading a study on Mental health assessment in rehabilitation I learned that assessment in mental health research has evolved from only focusing on symptoms and diagnosis to addressing a broad range of change. Which ironically enough is the acronym for the assessment model used in AT (McQuaid, Marx, Rosen, etc. 2012). To focus in more on a specific type of therapy I will give the details of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This type of therapy builds a set of skills that helps the client to be aware of their thoughts and emotions. This is accomplished by: first identifying how situations, thoughts and behaviors can influence our emotions and what the consequences of those thoughts are. Throughout this process the clients would be able to complete surveys or something of the sort to convey how they are feeling and how their thoughts are changing about the situation.
Here is a video that shows what Cognitive Behavior Therapy is all about:
I found it interesting to explore the type of assessment that is done in Art Therapy. According to Donna J. Betts in her doctoral dissertation, "Art-based assessment instruments are used by many art therapists to determine a client's level of function; formulate treatment objectives; assess a client's strengths, gain a deeper understanding of a client's presenting problems; and evaluate client progress." Since a lot of the work done through Art Therapy is drawings or paintings, there are different analysis' used to examine those parts of the therapy (Art Therapy Assessment). These are all different steps that relate to the steps we take in AT. Learning the client and how they function, coming up with goals, finding their strengths, and evaluating their progress.
We all make assessments during the day about the various experiences we have and the different problems we face. Along the way we will always assess the situation, consider the possibilities, as the questions that need to be asked, and continue forward towards the end goal that will give us a solution to the problem. This is a parallel to the way that different types of therapies go about figuring out how to help people. I can see similarities in many different ways of going about the assessment in mental health treatment, even though each approach has its own particular qualities.
Citations
Betts, Donna, J. (2005). Art therapy assessment. Retrieved from: http://www.art-therapy.us/assessment.htm
Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
McQuaid, J. R., Marx, B.P., Rosen, M. I., Bufka, L. F., Tenhula, W., Cook, H., & Keane, T. M. (2012). Mental health assessment in rehabilitation research. Journal Of Rehabilitation Research & Development, 49(1), 121-137.
Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSFaaChAV8I
Examine psychological support for using metaphor in language to facilitate change.
"Concepts that emerge from people's consistent and repeated use of metaphors end up constituting how and what they live by in the most fundamental ways" (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
Reading through this chapter about practicing adventure therapy and the importance and significance of the use of metaphors through therapy really opened my eyes to the complexity of human interactions and language. As I was reading about metaphors and what they are I came across this blog that defined them as "something that describes the use of a body of knowledge about on concept to understand or comment on a second concept. Metaphors are especially powerful when used to help understand a concept that is unfamiliar or unapproachable." It is sometimes hard define what a metaphor is without using a metaphor to illustrate it.
Using metaphors is a powerful practice because metaphors provide shortcuts to concepts "sometimes a single word can call to a mind a broad and complicated topic. some concepts, ideas, and phenomena are unanalyzable or un-qualifiable in our experience - what is the meaning if life? - and can only be approached through metaphor."(http://philosophe.com/design/metaphors/). To connect this to therapy and how it relates, it would be helpful to be able to come up with a metaphor for a certain therapeutic experience that a client had in relation to a prior life experience and bring them together with the use of a metaphor. This would allow the client to see the connection and hopefully the metaphor would act as the facilitator of change.
I came across an article from the Journal of Counseling and Development that titled: Applying the notion of metaphor types to enhance counseling protocols. This article began with yet another way of defining a metaphor: "the phenomenon whereby we talk, and potentially, think about something in terms of something else." The article went on to say something really big about metaphors and how they are so useful when it comes to therapy. Apart from helping the client to recall important therapeutic moments, building a relationship between the client and the therapist, and allowing the client to openly discuss and talk about their painful memories or struggles indirectly, "the primary value of a metaphor lies in its potential to reveal and alter client's maladjustive conceptualizations with regard to key target domains such as life, love, and family." (Tay, 2012). I would think that if these metaphors are able to change how clients feel and think about different parts of their lives and their experiences they would be able to then change their behavior in those areas of their lives. These metaphors become a powerful tool for altering experiences in ways that promote adaptation and positive self-regard.
Citations
Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Philosophe. Metaphors & schemas in design. Retrieved from: http://philosophe.com/design/metaphors/
Tay, D. (2012). Applying the notion of metaphor types to enhance counseling protocols. Journal of Counseling & Development, 90(2), 142-149.
Pick one of therapeutic benefits of nature and link them to research in one or more of the following areas: Abnormal, Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive, Developmental, Learning, and Social
As I was reading Chapter 5, it was very easy for me to make connections from the reading to my personal life. I also started to wonder how nature and adventure therapy relates to neuroscience and what is happening in our brain when we are exposed to and experience the outdoors and also how it changes the way we feel. I came across an article that talks about how spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, this was found through a series of studies published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Psychology. Richard Ryan, lead author and a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester said, "Nature is fuel for the soul" (Spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, study shows). According to the article there have been numerous experimental psychology studies that have linked exposure to nature with increased energy and heightened sense of well-being. Even more closely related to Adventure Therapy, the studies show that people report feeling more alive and healthy after going on a wilderness excursion.
Here is an excerpt from the article that explains something we were looking at in class...
What is novel about this research, write the authors, is that it carefully tests whether this increased vitality associated with the outdoors is simply the feel-good spillover from physical activity and people-mixing often present in these situations. To tease out the effects of nature alone, the authors conducted five separate experiments, involving 537 college students in actual and imagined contexts. In one experiment, participants were led on a 15-minute walk through indoor hallways or along a tree-lined river path. In another, the undergraduates viewed photographic scenes of buildings or landscapes. A third experiment required students to imagine themselves in a variety of situations both active and sedentary, inside and out, and with and without others.
Two final experiments tracked participants' moods and energy levels throughout the day using diary entries. Over either four days or two weeks, students recorded their exercise, social interactions, time spent outside, and exposure to natural environments, including plants and windows.
Across all methodologies, individuals consistently felt more energetic when they spent time in natural settings or imagined themselves in such situations. The findings were particularly robust, notes Ryan; being outside in nature for just 20 minutes in a day was enough to significantly boost vitality levels. Interestingly, in the last study, the presence of nature had an independent energizing effect above that of being outdoors. In other words, conclude the authors, being outdoors was vitalizing in large part because of the presence of nature (Spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, study shows).
To relate this to a few parts of the reading from Chapter 5, I want to include a quote from the text. This comes from the beginning of the chapter and says, "Going to the mountains is going home...mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as the fountains of life" (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012). Even through my own experience I find that the more separated I feel from nature the more likely I am to feel stressed or anxious. It is interesting and amazing how calming nature can be. As I said in class it is helpful to take yourself out of the situations you are so used to being in and put yourself outside. It gives you a certain clarity and different perspective when thinking about your life. "Nature elicits deep-seated and automatic responses by individuals in the absence of extensive information processing. Restoration derives from the reduction of stimulus and arousal due to nature's calming effect, which elicits positively toned emotional states and blocks out negatively toned feelings" (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
What kind of ways can experiences in nature lead to changes thoughts or behaviors? Do you think people who rarely choose to spend time outside would still feel rewarded by spending time in nature?
Leslie Weaver
Citations
Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
University of Rochester (2010, June 4). Spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 19, 2013. from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100603172219.htm
