Adventure Therapy Collective Podcast

Zoe Jack, LCSW-C is the Director of the Center for Nature Informed Therapy in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the author of the new book Social Work Outside: Evidence Based, Micro and Macro Perspectives. This year, Zoe has been on a "tour" travelling to social work conferences advocating for bringing nature into social work practice. We hope you enjoy the fun episode!

Gary describes himself as "happily retired," so we knew it was time to rope him in for a fun discussion about his productive and meaningful career as both a social worker and leading contributor to adventure therapy knowledge. Gary is the co-author of many impactful adventure therapy articles and numerous books, including the recent Adventure Group Psychotherapy.

In this episode, the team discuss Gary's backyard conversations with Tony Alvarez, his writing, prevention, the experiential wave model, and his mindset: It never rains on adventure. We hope you enjoy!

Welcome to Season 2!

Useful Links

Today we talk with Dr Scott D Miller, the co-founder of the International Center for Clinical Excellence and a leading voice in understanding what works in therapy and how practitioners can get better at doing it. As a practicing psychologist, Scott often provides pro bono services to the financially underprivileged. In this podcast, we discuss Will's average outcomes, how psychotherapy lost its magic, and the role of deliberate practice in highly effective practitioners. Scott provides his views on psychotherapy evidence and why practice-based evidence will always trump evidence-based practice. We will provide links and announcements shortly for the free training in March with Scott Miller (and Will and Dan just kind of hanging out in the background). 

We have started a GoFundMe so you can all chip in and send us to the Himalayas where we can hang out and learn from Tanya. You'll understand why we must go watch Tanya in action after listening to this episode. Tanya Ginwala is a clinical psychologist and experiential educator from India, and the country's representative on the Adventure Therapy International Committee (ATIC). Tanya has trained in narrative therapy, somatic therapies, and buddhist psychology. Before starting her own practice, Qualia Mental Health, Tanya worked for the Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation, an Indian non-profit that aims to use adventure sports to promote social inclusion for people with and without disabilities. There she managed daily operations of an organization with a footprint of over 5,000 individuals with and without disabilities during its founding years, from 2016-2019. 

We caught up with an icon of our field Denise Mitten as she was driving with her daughter across the US to Will’s homeland of Washington DC! Denise is a widely experienced outdoor adventure guide, leading SCUBA and mountaineering trips in numerous countries. Denise started with the Girl Scouts in the 1960s and brought her passion for sharing the outdoors and adventure with people from all backgrounds, including women survivors of abuse, homeless populations, and maximum-security men’s prisons. Denise’s academic work spans ethics, justice, diversity, and equity in adventure therapy and outdoor education. Her writing speaks for itself and we encourage our listening to take a look at her amazing contributions to the literature.

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Russell Chamberlain, LCSW, CADCIII brings over 30 years of lived experience to this episode. Russell is a licensed clinical social worker and certified alcohol and drug counselor. He is also a board member of the Parker Bounds Johnson Foundation and a former chair of the Therapeutic Adventure Professionals Group. In this episode, he shares his knowledge and experience in working experientially in the outdoors with a diverse range of populations. Russell's career working therapeutically outdoors began in the early 1980s, despite previous outdoor recreation experiences beginning in the previous decade. He has worked for Outward Bound, NOLS, and many other programs. Russell was born and raised in Kentucky, he is now based out of Portland, Oregon. Russell established LifeSTREAM Therapy LLC to deliver services for youth and families, and provide consultation for many adventure outdoor therapy organizations. His organization's mission focuses on how relationships can be central to adventure and outdoor therapy practice. Russell has been training in trauma informed therapy, attachment, collaborative problem solving, polyvagal theory, and equine assisted psychotherapy. 

Relevant Links

Like camping? Like food? The two join forces in today's podcast with backcountry food guru Stephen Javorski. Stephen brings over 20 years of experience working with youth and young adults to the ATC podcast. He currently teaches Child and Youth Care at  Vancouver Island University. Stephen has worked in a range of settings including schools to challenge courses to multi-week canoe expeditions in Canada’s North. The nearly Doctor Javorski is wrapping up a PhD in Outdoor Experiential Education with a focus on Outdoor Behavioural Healthcare (OBH) with the team at the University of New Hampshire. 

Did you know our guest, Dr. Terry Williams, has traveled over 15,000 miles by bicycle, 8,000 miles running cross-country, and has earned the ear of U.S. presidents, politicians, and community leaders? The foundation she founded has helped numerous non-profit's build sustainable adventure-based practices across the United States. Terry joins Daniel and Will to discuss her passion for leadership, thoughts on collaborations and important milestones across her amazing journey. If you want to start a non-profit or adventure therapy business, don't miss this episode! 

“Therapy was a dirty word” for Doug until an external evaluation of his wilderness therapy program found he was delivering a service that was, in fact, therapeutic. Doug joins Will and Daniel to discuss his private practice, Gippsland Adventure Therapy, and how extensive engagement in his community has helped the practice thrive in such a short period of time.

Senior Constable Mark Cartner is a police officer of more than 20 years. Most of that experience was dedicated as a child abuse detective of a major investigations unit before transitioning to school-based policing. Upon doing so, Mark put in the grassroots efforts to develop a highly recognized adventure therapy program for disengaged, traumatized youth. Daniel and Will talk with Mark about connection to country, how trauma impacts the brain, the metaphors he brings to his adventure therapy work from his many years as a detective, the importance of collaboration, and his Walk of Life program’s recent trip to an Indigenous dance festival in Cape York. Throughout the episode, Mark breaks many stereotypes about safe and effective policing, making many inferences on how adventure therapy practitioners can base their practice on the best available evidence. Mark is current the co-deputy chair of the Australian Association for Bush Adventure Therapy.

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What if we told you adventure therapy, despite being more experiential or maybe outdoors, has more in common with every other therapy than you think? Join Daniel and Will for an overview of research, the best available evidence, and the debunking of some common myths around psychotherapy research. Make sure to let us know on social media what you think! What challenged you? What seems common sense and not that revolutionary? Let's engage! 

Happy Episode 10! Thanks for your continued support!

Have an idea for an episode?! Do you have interesting case examples worthy and appropriate for sharing? Get in touch! 

Today's guest is psychologist Alexander Rose. Alexander is a trailblazer for adventure therapy in Spain, recently publishing the first adventure therapy book to be written in Spanish! The book is titled: Terapia a través de la aventura: Cuando la montaña nos hizo grandes. He is one of two representatives for Spain in the Adventure Therapy Europe network. Along with Will and Dan, Alexander shares his passion for adventure therapy and how he implements Gestalt and Experiential therapies into his work. This episode shows how cultural context truly informs adventure therapy from all around the world!

Dr Lee Gillis, co-author of Adventure Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice (2nd Ed.; 2020) and whose research has contributed to the foundation of outdoor, wilderness, and adventure therapy research, joined Daniel and Will for an awesome discussion. Take a listen to hear about the promise of future adventure therapy research, Lee's experience with adventure-based group work, and more! 

This episode is an interview with Tuesdey Spangler who is the chair of the Therapeutic Adventure Professional Group (TAPG). Tuesdey is a clinical social worker with many years of experience using adventure therapy techniques. She has worked at Camp Mary Orton in Columbus, in private practice, and in other settings. Tuesdey came on the ATC podcast to tell us about TAPG, the TAPG preconference at AEE, and her experiences working in adventure therapy. If you don't know about TAPG, you definitely want to check this episode out to learn about one of the most important groups in adventure therapy in the U.S.

In this episode, Daniel sits with Jessa Lytle and Kallie England from the University of Michigan's Adventure Leadership/Social Work program to discuss university education in adventure therapy techniques. Together they explore their use of high and low ropes course initiatives, how to conduct adventure-based field supervision for social work students, and their unique model for training practitioners to work in the outdoors. This episode offers a glimpse of one of the few graduate-level adventure therapy training programs in the United States. 

In this episode, Daniel and Will begin by discussing Tony's new co-authored book, Adventure Group Psychotherapy (available in the link below) and Will's experience being interviewed by Dr Will White on the Stories From The Field podcast. What follows is an additional 30 more minutes of Daniel and Tony where they talk about professional pathways into adventure therapy and Tony's experience in working with young people with Autism. 

This two part episode is with adventure therapy field guru, Tony Alvarez, LMSW. Tony is an educator, therapist, mentor, consultant, and expert in adventure therapy. Tony has been practicing in this field longer than many practitioners have been alive. We we're lucky to sit down with him in his kitchen on a cold winter afternoon to pick his brain and absorb his wisdom. 

This episode comes from our archives, it was recorded a year and a half ago when this podcast was still in its early brainstorming stage. 

After the episode, check out the links below and pre-order the new book on Group Psychotherapy that Tony and his colleagues have just finished.

Today's interview is with Associate Professor Nevin Harper from the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria. Nevin shares his journey to the adventure and outdoor therapies, which includes loads of adventure travel and years of experience working in residential care. 

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