Ethics [blog 10]

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.

Adventure Therapy & Music Therapy Competencies [blog 9]

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. 

Assessment [blog 8]

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