Adventure based counselling, individual counselling and object relations: a critical evaluation of a qualitative study

Abstract

Adventure based counselling is a short-term experiential psychotherapeutic approach, which utilises adventurous activities and being in natural environmental in order to facilitate therapeutic change in clients. The present paper critically appraises the results of a qualitative study that investigated how clients with self-reported anxiety and depression experienced participating in an innovative counselling intervention with combined individual counselling with such an adventurous outdoor transaction. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, as described by Smith and Osborn (2008), was used in order record and analyse the experiences of four male and six female students who were treated at the Teesside's University Counselling Service. Interviewees perceived the counselling sessions as offering a safe therapeutic space within which they could unveil their anxieties and achieve inner healing, whereas the outdoor transaction as providing an experiential venue for achieving personal change. Interviewees felt that without the outdoor transaction the therapeutic significance of the counselling process would not have reached its full potential. Likewise, without the individual counselling, the outdoor transaction would just have an entertaining event and not a venue for personal change. These findings are discussed in relation to object relations theory.

An Environmental Scan of Adventure Therapy in Canada

“…AT was a frequently used term in the abstracts and papers at six international AT conferences (Bandoroff & Newes, 2004; Itin, 1998; Mitten & Itin, 2009; Norton et al, 2015; Pryor, Carpenter, Norton, & Kirchner, 2012; Richards & Smith, 2003). However, the literature also contains many other related terms such as therapeutic outfitting (Harper & Scott, 2006), therapeutic adventure (Berman & Davis-Berman, 2001; Burg, 2001), and adventure-based counseling (Fletcher & Hinkle, 2002; Kyriakopoulos, 2010). Authors from some countries seem to prefer certain terms given their context (i.e., location, client type, and cultural influence).…”

Long-Term Evaluation of an Australian Peer Outdoor Support Therapy for Contemporary War Veterans

“…Outdoor therapy involves exposure to natural outdoor environments (20) for therapeutic purposes. Outdoor therapy has proven effective in non-veteran populations (21)(22)(23)(24) and in veteran populations (25)(26)(27) but the long-term benefits are unclear.…”