Adventure Therapy for Addiction Recovery

Adventure therapy is a form of psychotherapy originating in the 1960s. The therapy combines nature, community, and daring exercises for therapy. The intent of adventure therapy is to improve an individual’s physical, social, spiritual, and psychological well being through the healing power of the wilderness with evidence-based, experiential therapy, recreational activities, and wilderness expeditions. When you and your family are researching the appropriate substance addiction programs for your young adult, you may encounter references to adventure therapy and wonder what role it can play in assisting your loved one back to full health and well-being. 

Adventure therapy assists individuals, groups and families as they overcome behavioral issues, substance abuse problems, or various mental health concerns. Adventure therapy is a highly effective method, and the adventure therapist seeks to actively stimulate clients with different tools. For example, some adventure therapists encourage healing by allowing patients to use ropes to build trust while enjoying outdoor activities.

Benefits of Adventure Therapy

  • Adventure therapy is a powerful treatment approach for anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD, grief, loss, eating disorders, and substance use disorders.
  • It is an exciting and productive element of family or relationship therapy.
  • Adventure therapy has shown to be beneficial for schizophrenia treatment.
  • It is highly beneficial for adolescents, teenagers, young adults, and individuals with various mental health concerns.

How Does Adventure Therapy Work?

Effective adventure therapy is not simply temporary escapism from problems that are simply returned to as soon as the patient leaves the treatment program. Adventure therapy promotes rehabilitation, growth, development, and enhancement of an individual’s physical, social, and psychological wellbeing through the application of structured activities involving direct experience. Adventure therapy includes the use of activities supported by traditional therapy.

Empowering activities utilized in adventure therapies include:

  • Canyoneering
  • Mountain Biking
  • Rock Climbing
  • Backpacking / Hiking
  • Alpine Skiing
  • Snowshoeing
  • Primitive Skills

This is why adventure therapy and experiential therapy are avenues everyone on the road to recovery should explore. If you want to find out more, be sure to give us a call at Oak Forest Recovery on 1-888-597-6257.

[contact-form-7 id=”2392″ title=”Free Consultation”]

Recovery Through Experiential Therapy in Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills, North of Los Angeles, California

Experiential therapy provides hands-on activities to help you recover from a drug or alcohol addiction. In this treatment method, you’ll experience these life-changing therapies, learning about yourself and your addiction through physical pursuits. In addition, this type of therapy helps you work through your feelings and emotions while enjoying new ways of keeping yourself focused and healthy.

Throughout the rehab and recovery process, people often find themselves wrestling with complicated thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. To help them succeed, addiction treatment specialists use a combination of medical care, talk therapy sessions, and skill-building. When we think about treatment, we tend to think of things like 12-step programs and cognitive behavioral therapy. These are powerful methods that consistently get results, but there’s another method that can be extremely valuable called experiential therapy.

How Does Experiential Therapy Work?

Overall, experiential therapy helps young adults struggling with drug or alcohol addiction work through their feelings and emotions. Fortunately, you’ll feel like you’re not even going through therapy. This is because experiential therapies take place in comfortable environments like the outdoors or a creative studio. Oak Forest Recovery in Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village provides experiential therapies for addiction recovery. These include:

  • Nature or Wilderness Therapy
  • Art Therapy
  • Music Therapy
  • Animal Assisted

There are therapies that can enhance a treatment program through dealing with these challenging emotions and issues. Experiential therapy can help draw out and process memories or issues that may contribute to the person’s substance abuse without the person’s awareness. Experiential therapy can be a beneficial addition to a treatment program for people who are having trouble expressing the feelings behind addictive behaviors. 

If you or a young adult you love suffer from addiction and to learn more about experiential therapy at Oak Forest Recovery, call 1-888-597-6257.

[contact-form-7 id=”2392″ title=”Free Consultation”]