Have you ever heard of adventure therapy as it applies to 12-step women’s rehab or men’s rehab programs? Have you wondered what is involved in such a therapy or why anyone would want to add to the complex recovery process?
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at adventure therapy, exploring why it’s beneficial, and how you can implement it in your journey.
What Is Adventure Therapy?
Adventure therapy is using challenging excursions to encourage growth and healing. Typical examples of adventures used for therapeutic sessions are camping, hiking, rock climbing, rafting, etc.
These activities may or may not be familiar to the participants, so experienced guides are provided to ensure participant safety. However, that doesn’t mean the challenges will be easy. The point is to take people out of their comfort zones, allow them to have new experiences, and reinforce new, healthier behaviors.
What Does Adventure Therapy Teach?
Connection With Nature
One of the 12-step fundamental principles is connecting with a higher power. For some, that’s connecting with nature. For others, being in nature helps them find an inner quiet that allows them to meditate, pray, and quiet the noise of a frantic world.
Teamwork
Many of these activities need cooperation to succeed. Take rafting, for example. If only one side of the raft paddles, the raft will turn in circles rather than move in the desired direction. If you float through any fast water, you’ll need to work together to avoid rocks and other possible hazards under your guide’s instruction. Success in recovery, as it is in adventure therapy, is a team effort, and learning to work together is a huge step forward.
Problem-Solving
Problems in people’s lives can lead them to addiction. Addiction becomes the solution, but a very poor one because it leads to more problems. A key step to long-lasting recovery is learning how to deal with problems and setbacks without drugs or alcohol.
Adventure therapy becomes a metaphor for life. If you’re rock climbing, for example, and you reach a point where you can’t find a handhold, what do you do? Do you backtrack? Do you try going sideways? Did someone climb the rock ahead of you? What advice can they give? Is someone on the ground with a clearer view than you? What can they tell you? This teaches more creative ways to deal with setbacks than simply reverting to substance abuse.
Tenacity
On your own, you may quit when you get overwhelmed, scared, or unsure how to proceed. In this controlled environment, you can practice working through those feelings. When the rest of your team is counting on you to complete the task, you learn to keep moving forward until the job is done.
Patience
We live in a world where we expect instant gratification that is seldom satisfied in nature. Some processes can’t be rushed, no matter how you want them to.
The hike to camp and back doesn’t get shorter if you complain. The pot doesn’t boil for your coffee any faster than the campfire can heat it. Fish don’t bite every time you put your line in the water. But in nature, you find that the time you spend waiting is valuable. The slower pace lets you catch your breath.
Healthy Expression of Energy
Physical sports are a great way to vent pent-up energy so you can think clearly and act deliberately.
How Do You Use Adventure Therapy?
Ideally, you want to do your first adventure therapy with a licensed therapist who can help you work through any problems that arise during your adventure. Then, look for the following features for ongoing adventure therapy:
- Nature: Try to get away from urban environments. Focus solely on your adventure and leave work, school, and everything else behind for the day or weekend. Give yourself time to meditate, pray, or commune with nature. Connect with something bigger than yourself.
- Time: Go for an adventure that’s a day-long or longer. The more immersive the program, the more helpful it can be.
- Obstacles: The point is to grow and stretch beyond your old limits a bit. That doesn’t mean you don’t need experienced guides on hazardous activities like rock climbing, but make it challenging so you feel like you accomplished something when you’re done.
- Teamwork: Whether you’re a team player normally or not, try to engage in a team challenge to encourage cooperation, empathy, and compromise.
- Fun: Enjoy yourself. Reinforce enjoyment of all sober activities and do them as often as possible.
- Group Therapy: If you’re with a therapy group, you can meet to discuss what you’ve learned during the exercise. If you’re with family or friends, you can do the same thing. Suggest a meeting to talk about how you’ve grown through your latest adventure. Talking through the experience (including the challenges, triumphs, and emotions you faced) will help you make valuable connections to addiction recovery.
Last Thought
Adventures can be a fun way to change your routines, challenge yourself, and have something to look forward to. They’re another tool in your tool belt—one you can use while in the addiction recovery center and for the rest of your life.