3: Blog, Frog, Eggnog?

         When considering adventure therapy, one can view an approach to AT through the ABC~R triangle.  Basically, the approach meets clients where they are willing to expose themselves through their affect, behavior or cognition instead of fitting them into a existing program.  This in a sense is a co-created experience between the therapist and the client viewing the client through the lens of their environment. The success of this approach is partially how the adventure therapist or field staff connects with the client.  One approach that I appreciate is the fact that the AT primary focuses on increasing positive feelings, actions, and thoughts instead of trying to eliminate negative thoughts, feelings, and actions.

          Another approach to mental health treatment is Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP). EAP is licensed therapist and horse professionals working together with a client to achieve treatment goals.  This incorporates experiential learning, professionals in the health care field and is a co-created experience.  However, this approach is different in the sense that the relationship described in the ABC~R triangle is created between the therapist and client, and this type of therapy also involves a very important four legged friend. Seems cool, huh? Check this promotional video, for more information on EAGALA and what they are trying to achieve.   

           Art therapy is another approach that has similarities to AT.  I was very unfamiliar with art therapy and was fascinated that it was used as a treatment for almost 100 years asking patients to visualize and create the emotions or thoughts they could not put into words.  Art therapy shares the self-discovery part of the AT experience client dig into feelings and actions that they may have felt in the past.  This makes the experience experiential in nature, since it involves the clients discovering treatment for themselves.  The difference is that the relationship here is more discovered primarily by the individual and does not necessarily involve a mental health professional.  Art therapy also focuses more on putting the bad emotions out to the light and focusing on them in the form of the painting rather than just focusing on increasing positive feelings. 

           Sometimes therapy comes in a more natural sounding way, Ecotherapy.  Ecotherapy helps treat people through the great outdoors when we are able to harmonize with the earth.  Once clientele recognize the planetary well-being and personal well-being are not to be separated and in taking care of the earth we are taking care of ourselves they can successfully take part in the treatment. This may be a more literal translations of AT’s philosophy of focusing on the client view the world through the lens of their environment. Similar to AT, Ecotherapy focuses on the positive rather then negative thoughts, feelings or actions one experiences.  This also doesn’t necessarily involve professional staff, as Ecotherapists are there to facilitate sessions for clientele. 

These three differing types can be compared against AT to better understand the approach AT takes, and other therapy’s take.  Hope you learned something!

Citations:

Noah Rubinstein, (2012, August 10) . Ecotherapy / Nature Therapy. Retrieved from http://www.goodtherapy.org/ecotherapy-nature-therapy.html

EAGALA (2010) . What is EAP and EAL? Retrieved from http://www.eagala.org/Information/What_Is_EAP_EAL

International Art Therapy Organization (2009) . Art Therapy and Mental Health. Retrieved from http://www.internationalarttherapy.org/mentalhealth.html

EAGALA. (2012, July 16) . EAGALA In Practice Video Part 1. Retrieved January, 2013, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drm_vK5deFs&list=PL7E2E181689D2B749&index=1

Gass, Michael A., Lee Gillis, and Keith C. Russell. (2012).  Adventure Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Routledge.

2: Timeline

After collecting my PDF timeline of events in Adventure Therapy I went on to conquer the World Wide Web’s version of a timeline for Psychotherapy and Psychology.  To my surprise the connection between Psychology, Psychotherapy and Adventure Therapy was much more fluid than I had imagined.

For the purposes of my intellectual journey I began in 1892, which was the year that The American Psychological Association was founded along with the first camp for girls, Camp Arey in New York.  Secondly I discovered in 1918 a compulsory school began with the result of mass learning of individuals from diverse backgrounds.  Some students showed up to school in good health while some tended to learn slower than peers resulting in physical and mental examinations in schools.  Four years later (1922) Camp Ramapo in New York was founded with the specific purpose to work with delinquent and problem children in a summer camp setting.  Three years after Camp Ramapo (1925), marked the first year that school psychology training programs were offered at New York University at an undergraduate and graduate level.  Following these events other camps such as Camp Wawokiye in Ohio, founded in 1936, would follow Camp Ramapo in its footsteps. 

The 40’s marked a further progression in the AT, Psychology and Psychotherapy relationship.  In 1945 the Journal of Clinical Psychology was founded and a year later a foundation camp was started the Dallas Salesman Club Camp.  The Dallas Salesman Club Camp had the explicit goal of treating boys with emotional problems and serves as the current model for many year-around therapeutic camps in existence today.  Some of theses well-known organizations are the Eckerd Youth Alternatives, Three Springs, Wilderness Road Camping Association and the National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camps. 

In 1963 Lawrence Kolberg introduced the idea for the sequence of morality development.  These stages of self-focused, other focused and higher focused moralities provide a better understanding of how morality is held throughout one’s life.  In The same year the idea of observational learning was introduced in the development of personality. Preceding this event one of the most well known organizations Outward Bound was came to the United States in 1932 and focused on character development in youth.  These psychological developments no doubt had influence on the furthered development of Outward Bound practices.

The 70s and forward really proved to be a time in which youth with disabilities and behavioral issues came to be further recognized in the public eye.  In 1973, VisionQuest formed as one of he first private for-profit organizations that integrated the outdoors for rehabilitation of adjudicated and behaviorally challenged youth.  Two years later, The All Handicapped Children Act was passed requiring all public schools to serve students with a broad range of disabilities, which triggered an enormous growth in the number of school psychologist practitioners.   In the 1980s the Therapeutic Adventure Professional Group (TAPG) was committed to the development of adventure-based programming in a therapeutic setting.  In the 1980’s psychological developments were also occurring as well Howard Gardner introduced his theory of multiple intelligence (1983) and the American Psychological Society establishment in 1988. 

When going through and attempting to shift through the dates, there are broader and more direct lines that can be drawn between the concepts.  Moving forward it will be interesting to see how AT, psychology and psychotherapy influence one another.

Citations:  

Heffner Media Group, I. (2003, August 10) . History of Psychology (387 BC to Present). Retrieved from http://allpsych.com/timeline.html

New York Association of School Psychologists (1990) . History of School Psychology Timeline [data file] . Retrieved from http://www.nyasp.org/pdf/sp_timeline.pdf

Gass, Michael A., Lee Gillis, and Keith C. Russell. (2012).  Adventure Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Routledge.

1: AT and others

Adventure Therapy, a less well-known use of mental heath treatment draws in similarities and differences between more traditional mental health treatments.  As defined by Gass, M.A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K.R. (2012), Adventure Therapy is the prescriptive use of adventure experiences provided by mental health professionals, often conducted in natural settings that kinesthetically engage clients on cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels. With that definition in mind I decided to pick two treatments that I had heard more about and one that intrigued me to compare it across.  The first treatment was the use of medication.  The typical drugs used according to the Mayo clinic staff are antidepressant, mood-stabilizing, anti-anxiety and antipsychotic medications.  The use of these medications is similar to AT in the fact that it affects clients on a cognitive, behavioral and affective level.  I feel like medication is different in the fact it is a lot less of a personal approach to treatment.  Although drugs as a treatment seem to be an appropriate motion in some situations, I feel as if human interaction and personalized treatments seen in treatments like AT sometimes goes undervalued.  With this personalized treatment comes a greater time commitment than a medicated treatment, which some could consider a drawback to the situation.  Another approach to mental health treatment is residential treatment programs. Residential treatment programs use a hands on approach like AT but typically take place in a more structured setting.   They are also similar to residential treatment centers because there is a varied length of stay between the two.  The last form of treatment, which I didn’t know much about, was brain stimulus treatment. According to the National Institute of Mental Health a common form of brain stimulus treatment, electroconsvulsive therapy (ECT) is pain free and has a negative depiction that is often misleading.  This procedure is similar to AT in the fact that it involves mental health professionals but differs in the fact it takes place primary in a medical setting and is generally a faster process.  ECT usually is administered three times a week and the patient is often done with treatment within six to 12 treatments.  Although there are clearly differences between types of therapy I believe that each treatment is best determined on an individual basis.

References:

National institute of mental health. (2009, November 17). Brain Stimulation Therapies. Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/brain-stimulation-therapies/brain-stimulation-therapies.shtml

Hazelden. (2013). Residential treatment centers.  Retrieved from http://www.hazelden.org/web/public/residential_addiction_treatment.page

Mayo Clinic staff. (2010, September 1).  Treatment and Drugs.  Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mental-illness/DS01104/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

Gass, Michael A., Lee Gillis, and Keith C. Russell. (2012).  Adventure Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Routledge.