5thInternational Adventure Therapy Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, 7th – 11th September, 2009.
Monday 7th September.
Pre Conference Walk
The conference began at 11.00am with an optional walk up Arthurs Seat, a small, Volcanic Range situated directly behind Edinburgh University. A number of conference attendees participated in this guided walk and it was an excellent opportunity to discuss what we do and how we do it with people from all over the world. We later found out that 21 countries were represented at the conference and a number of them were here on this first walk. The weather was kind to us, with beautiful blue skies allowing us to see a considerable distance and enjoy the views. We were informed of the history of the area, and how significant discoveries were made in relation to the age of the planet by early residents. The area had two working quarries and stones were gathered from here and taken to pave the streets of London. It was area where Royalty would come to hunt and in the valley was used for target practice.
We visited the ruin of St Anthony’s Chapel which was built in the 1400’s and was thought to be used to keep an eye on neighbouring clans to ensure they don’t cross into their land. Arthur’s Seat is an old volcano and used to stand three times its current height of around 250 metres. Through the shifting of the earth’s plates, the shape of the seat has changed and it now leans on a 30 degree angle. The information we were supplied with on the tour by our guide, Simon, was thorough and informative, but a little bit odd, as Simon was a Canadian who had relocated here 5 years ago, and I think the experience would have been much nicer if we had that fantastic Scottish accent accompanying the information. That being said, a great experience was had by all and prior to the official start of the conference, we had managed to generate a great deal of interest in ONV and a number of people were looking forward to our presentation.
Conference Opening and Key Note Speakers
Thinking About Adventure Therapy as a Profession, was the title of the paper for this keynote speaker, Sally Aldridge (Head of Regularity Policy BACP). She raised a number of points which need to be considered if this were to take place and listed various categories which would need to be addressed in order for title to be adopted. ONV would certainly have fit into a number of these categories but certainly not all of them. Some points were made that there needed to be boundaries around who would be classed as professionals and who wouldn’t and that it would cause a divide within the way we currently operate, not allowing current participants to take part in the field, attend conferences etc. She also posed the questions, does adventure therapy need to become a profession. As far as ONV is concerned, I don’t think it is important. If adventure therapy does become a profession, organisations like ours would most likely find themselves on the outer and not be classed as professionals, which in my understanding, is exactly the opposite of the way it was originally set up and goes against the philosophy of the Australasian contingent, which is that if you identify as facilitating adventure therapy, you are welcome to become a member of AABAT(Australian Association of Bush Adventure Therapists). This presentation was only to provoke thought and no recommendations were put forward.
Evening Presentation
The first evening consisted of welcome drinks and poster presentations. This was an opportunity to mingle with other conference attendees and network as much as possible, made that much easier by the complimentary wine! Posters were around the room highlighting peoples work and attendees were able to stroll around at their leisure and take in what work is being done at their own pace. A pleasant evening was had by all.
“Experiences of Depression and the landscapes of coping”
The photos and associated quotes presented were provided by participants in a research study exploring how people with experiences of depression, engaged with the outdoors to maintain or improve their psychological well-being. Participants met the researcher at a location of their choice and then interviewed at this location regarding how they experienced it as supportive. The researcher invited attendees to consider how they might work with such images and descriptions in our therapeutic practice.
The photos on display were taken by the participants in the study, underneath were their comments on what they observed and how it assisted them. I observed a photo taken of a bridge and surrounding bushland and its reflection into the pond beneath. The quote underneath was expressing how much clearer things were in the reflection and how if the participant looked in a mirror how much clearer things in their life seemed to be.
Operation Newstart regularly has young people participate in the program, dealing with depression and related issues. It is felt we could introduce this concept into our program. It is expected that the young people will take photographs of what they have found significant in their journey (no people) and explain why the place they have chosen is special and significant to them and what that place is. Some students will find the task challenging and perhaps through few words and a purely photographic journey a self expression of thought can be embraced and experienced. It I hoped that this artwork could be on display at graduation.
We will endeavour to source funding for cameras.
Recommendation: To source sponsorship to purchase a set of digital cameras for use by the students for a photographic life reflective journal.
Tuesday 8th September.
Keynote Speakers
It was about this point in the conference, when we had listened to these keynote speakers, when we began to wonder if this conference was indeed for us. As the conference was run by BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy) most presenters were academics, who were theory driven and speaking in language full of jargon, a large proportion of which was hard to understand. We persisted and then headed off to our morning paper sessions.
Paper Sessions
An Integral Systems Theory Approach to Adventure Therapy
This was presented by David Segal and Duncan Taylor from Canada and was probably the session I understood the least. Two academics, who love their jargon and could not connect with the lay person at all. One key point I managed to take from this presentation was that disequilibrium, or putting the participants out of their comfort zone is important, but just as important is allowing the participant some alone time to process what is happening.
Experiential Therapy with Inpatients in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry – Special Settings, Indications, Practicability, Evaluation and Research
This was presented by Ulrich Ruth from Germany who spoke about inpatients in the one particular hospital in Germany. The Hospital has its own indoor climbing wall and patients get regular use of the wall and progress to walking through a creek and finally on to a caving experience. These patients are psychotic and schizophrenic along with a number of other conditions, but the outdoor experiences were assisting in treating the patients. The presenter stated on a couple of occasions, “I don’t know why, it just works.”
Walking as ecotherapy: environmental appraisal and attentional focus during bushwalking, Stewart Dickonson , Australia
In this paper session, the presenter was looking at the way in which clients view bushwalking and how physical condition can determine the outcomes of the individual. In this study researchers were looking at how clients felt through different stages of a hike, e.g. at the top of a hill and what features of a bushwalk gave the greatest psychological outcomes.
Students were given fitness tests and quantitative evaluation questionnaires pre hike and were also measured at prescribed settings during the hike. The results showed that dependent on the fitness levels of the individual, anxiety levels accordingly i.e. the less fit group were more anxious pre hike. The researchers also measured the focus of the hiker to measure whether the individual were looking at the ground concentrating on each step and the terrain at their feet or whether they were able to enjoy the natural aesthetics such as the views. Qualitative results from interviews and journal entries allowed an insight to the pleasantness that each student experienced. There were no real surprises to these results which indicated that those with the greater fitness felt they conquered and enjoyed their surroundings compared those who were less fit and whose accounts talked of rest spots, lunch and going down hill.
What came from this research which is more relevant is the implications that this has for the leaders of such hikes. What considerations should we have when we think about the bush walk as a meaningful experience that impacts psychological outcomes? These include fitness, the planning and design of the hike with respect to landscape, rest stops, rotation of leaders to assist in the motivation of individuals and gender differences. Of greater significance is to capitalise on the peak experience by allowing time for individual reflection.
The Therapeutic Use of Caves Nigel Olsen
The workshop was introduced with the emotive images of photos from inside caves and backed by audio of water dripping. The limestone caves were beautifully displayed and conjured up feelings of security and comfort as well as anxiety and fear because of the dark vastness.
Limestone caves are formed by compressed calcium carbonate which is basically skeletons of marine life. The formations inside a cave are formed by water draining through the earth collecting acid which redeposits calcium inside the cave.
Caving as an activity allows participants a unique experience with respect to the overcoming of challenges. Natural limestone caves have been important places for shelter and spirituality for human history and promote strong biophillic and biophobic emotions in us. Caves remain a constant temperature (16-18 degrees) but usually are damp with water or creeks running through. Experiments have shown that caves a re high in negative ions which has an effect on the way we feel. It is believed that radon gas and water create a high negative ion environment. Waterfalls, rainforests, beaches are all examples of such places and a relaxed, contented state is often associated with feelings of individuals who spend time at these places. With respect to caving individuals who are in a high challenge situation are more perceptive and responsive to the therapeutic experience producing great psychological outcomes.
The workshop explored the idea of the Biophyllia hypothesis which is that human beings have a genetic link to nature. Caves, with its ability to have young people reflect on issues important in their life, have a great therapeutic effect and should take into account the following points when facilitating.
-Inform clients, give information
-Introduce caving with therapeutic intent
-Introduction with risk assessment for understanding and appreciation of risks
-Encourage individuals using senses, quiet time, listening to water/sounds, feeling texture of rocks, darkness and feeling comfortable.
-Allow students to lead, search ahead, keep safe.
Building Bridges – Cross Cultural Perspectives on Using Adventure Therapy to Enhance the Therapeutic Relationship
This was presented by Christine Norton from America. This presentation was presented in a practical fashion and was easy to understand. We were able to discuss and debate topics within the room, rather than just sit and listen to someone speak for 2 hours. The key to what the speaker was saying was about building rapport with your clients and didn’t necessarily have to be in the cross-cultural perspective. We did have an ethicist in the room who wanted to debate her choice of the simplest words, which became a bit distracting, but what she was basically saying was that in any programming we do, the client needs to have 3 things. They need to feel SAFE, to have CHOICE, and for us to have EMPATHY. When working with multicultural groups as we so often do, we need to keep asking ourselves 5 key questions.
Who are our clients?
How do we keep them safe?
How do we acknowledge multicultural factors, issues of power and privilege?
How do we provide them with choice?
How do we demonstrate empathy?
Adventure Therapy and activity based group work: experientially exploring the full range of experiential practice.
This was presented by Christian Itin from the Humboldt University in California. Christian is acknowledged as one of the leaders in the field of adventure therapy.
The session introduced us to a number of group-work activities that were designed to be ice-breakers that we could use with our new groups. Firstly we had to write what we wanted to get out of the session and then we introduced ourselves to the person next to us and tell them what sort of animal we saw ourselves as. It was then that persons’ role to introduce the other to the group. It became quite outrageous when we then had to make the sound of the animal we saw ourselves as. It was a good ice-breaker and the group felt very comfortable afterwards, even though at the time it may have been a little embarrassing.
The main focus of the session was to explore what experiential practices go into making up an adventure therapy program. Christian presented a typology that could be used for mapping the activities that we do and clump them under a series of headings.
A well balanced Adventure Therapy program should offer more than just the traditional hiking, rockclimbing and other outdoors peak experiences to be effective in bringing about change. Christian presented the following as experiential methods that needed to be included in a program that would become a catalyst for change.
Spiritual, Environmental, Action and Expressive elements and these were further broken down into sub headings which could then be used as a map to examine if practitioners were running a balanced program or were focussing in one area in particular.
The model is quite complex and I have included the full presentation as an attachment. The presentation also gives you lots of different ways that you can deliver sessions to the group.
It was a stimulating discussion and one that I got a great deal from and from it I will attempt to add a wider range of experiences into future programs.
Recommendations:
That all programs consider undertaking a ‘mapping’ exercise to investigate the range of experiential methods used on their programs. This could be done at a local level with individual programs first and then across all programs.
That a wide range of methods is both desirable and more effective for the delivery of programs and we should build them into our schedules.
“The thin line between punishment and planned, effective interventions through adventure therapy”
The presentation commenced with the reference of ‘Breaking the Child’, which reinforces the child’s distorted conditions of worth that ‘all adults will harm me’. This notion of breaking down the child reinforces the child’s thought patterns of not being able to trust adults. Often what happens after staff have, ‘broken the child’ they do not have the necessary skills to deal with the issues that are essential in putting the child back together.
Children and young people’s perceptions of adventure therapy are key to their successful engagement in the process. Many children do not want to engage in therapy as this is a ‘scary’ prospect for them as they are not able to consider how life may be different with a changed and more positive way of life. Some children view adventure therapy as a punishment as this usually happens following a major incident within the home and they are removed from the environment.
The discussion then centred on a 13 year old female, case study, who had 13 placements since the age of 8. Her father had sexually abused her which resulted in prostitution and numerous medications for self-harm all with various side effects.
The youth worker, began to build the young girls self-esteem by planned outdoor activities. This was in order to build up trust between the young person and adults. There was a time away period built in via camps. The placements were a choice of activities that the young person wanted to do. Activities were front loaded for example in kayaking if we move the paddle we go forward and in life we can go forward an with a backward paddle sometimes we go backwards. These concepts were explained to the young person. The young person was still absconding from her residential unit and many activities were analogied by using the front loading concept.
During camp a metaphorical rucksack was used and a pile of stones all labelled with the young girls issues were placed inside. She walked on a track and she stopped in places she chose and she would share her issues (by choice) and as she dealt with the issue she threw the rock/stone away and by the end of the walk she was standing upright. In the forest she was able to talk and off load her issues, where she couldn’t be heard, but she off loaded to the worker so strategies could later be put in place.