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Experiential Therapy for Youths: The Adventure Model

NCJ Number
122306
Journal
Children Today Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: (March-April 1986) Pages: 26-31
Author(s)
R O Kimball
Date Published
1986
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The Santa Fe Mountain Center, a therapeutic adventure program designed for behaviorally disordered youth, substance abusers, victims of sexual assault, sex offenders, families in crisis, and the anxiety disordered, developed its experiential, adventure-based projects in cooperation with State and local social service agencies, psychiatric hospitals, residential treatment centers, community mental health centers, and correctional institutions.
Abstract
Fundamental to the therapy is the development of self-efficacy or empowerment. Using skills learned in extended wilderness expeditions, the therapists seek to instill pride in discipline and accomplishment, commitment to action and goal attainment, trust and compassion toward others, and responsibility. The Mountain Center believes that experience is more therapeutic than analysis, and that people can best learn from their own behavior and actions. The wilderness provides a novel situation in which the youths can gain new perspectives and be open to new problem-solving and coping techniques. The therapeutic community, in which each member's individual strengths and talents are essential, is at the core of the wilderness experience. Group cohesion promotes honest emotional expression and sharing; counseling sessions are extremely open after a long period of trust-building. Adventure programs introduce challenges incrementally; programmed success cultivates each individual's confidence. The instructor/therapist who travels with the group teaches a lengthy curriculum of outdoor skills, creating opportunities for the group members to redefine themselves; the wilderness is a means to the end of therapy. Self-evaluations at the Mountain Center have ranged from classical experimental designs to narrative student accounts, sociograms, and questionnaires. Investigated outcome variables include physical fitness, locus of control, global personality, self-concept and social competency, and data on recidivism and reinstitutionalization.