Islands of Healing. a Guide to Adventure Based Counseling. INSTITUTION Project Adventure, Hamilton, Mass
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 356 917 RC 019 085 AUTHOR Schoel, Jim; And Others TITLE Islands of Healing. A Guide to Adventure Based Counseling. INSTITUTION Project Adventure, Hamilton, Mass. REPORT NO ISBN-0-934-38700-1 PUB DATE 88 NOTE 322p. AVAILABLE FROMProject Adventure, Inc., P.O. Box 100, Hamilton, MA 01936 ($20.50). PUB TYPE Books (010) Guides Non-Classroom Use (055) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adventure Education; Elementary Secondary Education; *Experiential Learning; *Group Activities; *Group Counseling; Group Dynamics; Individual Development; Leadership; Outdoor Education; Program Descriptions; Resource Materials; *Self Esteem; Socialization IDENTIFIERS *Project Adventure Inc MA ABSTRACT Based on techniques of experiential learning, outdoor education, and group counseling, adventure-based counseling aims to improve the self-concept of participants by enhancing trust in others and confidence in self. Groups move through a sequence of carefully orchestrated activities, including trust exercises, games, problem-solving exercises, ropes courses, community service and learning projects, and expeditions. This sequence combines practical physical activities with a responsible and responsive group process. Adventure-based counseling may serve learning-disabled students, physically disabled persons, at-risk students, psychiatric patients, court-referred youth, and healthy intact students. This book explores the theory and practice of adventure-based counseling. Section 1 outlines the origins of adventure-based counseling and explores how its key elements are supported by leading theorists and practitioners. Section 2 discusses objectives, training issues, intake procedures, considerations in group formation, curriculum development and planning for specific groups, briefing the group and establishing group and personal goals, leadership strategies, conflict resolution, and debriefing and terminating the group. Section 3 describes specific applications of adventure-based counseling in schools, hospitals and treatment facilities, and programs for court-referred youths. Appendices include results of program evaluations, charts for activities selection, and descriptions of Project Adventure services and publications. This book contains 59 references and resources and an index.(SV) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** A IOW A A a 44. 0 a Si 4 I ca U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office or Educahonst Research and improvement "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATICN MATERIAL HAS BEEN GR TED BY CENTER (ERIC1 This document has Peen reproduced as received from the person or orgaruzatior ongrnahng it 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this docu meet do not necessarily represent °Mc's CE 41 position or policy TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" ABLE ISLANDS OF HEALING A Guide to Adventure Based Counseling by Jim Schoel Dick Prouty Paul Radcliffe Project Adventure, Inc., Hamilton. MA 01936 R.' 1988 by Project Adventure, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Second Printing 1989 ISBN 0-934-38700-1 This book is dedicated to the memory of Georgia Irene Schoel teacher, social worker, counselor, mother who liked to do things with her charges, and talk about what it all meant. fl Table of Contents Foreword vi Introduction ix SECTION 1 BACKGROUND Chapter 1 History 3 Outward Bound Origins 4 Adaptation to American Schools 5 Origins of Adventure Based Counseling 6 Supporting Literature 7 Project Adventure, Inc. 7 Chapter 2 Theoretical Perspectives 11. Improvement of Self-Concept 13 Trust Building 14 Goal Setting 16 Challenge/Stress 17 Peak Experience 19 Humor/F'un 21 Problem Solving 21 Theoretical Overview 24 Conclusion 26 SECTION 2 THE ADVENTURE WAVE Chapter 3 Bedrock: 29 The Foundation of Adventure Counseling Definitions 31 Goals/TheEssence of Adventure 37 Developing a Proposal 39 Leadership and Training 41 Program Resourcos 46 Intake Procedures 50 Group Formation Considerations 53 Conclusion 63 iiIslands of Healing Chapter 4 Sequencing: 65 Developing Curriculum for the Adventure Experience Components of the Adventure Wave Plan 67 Forming the Adventure Wave Plan 73 Adjusting the Adventure Wave Plan 77 Conclusion 85 Chapter 5Briefing: 87 Preparing for the Adventure Experience Authority 89 Framing the Experience 90 The Full Value Contract 94 Goal Setting 103 Conclusion 120 Chapter 6 Leading: 123 Implementing the Adventure Experience Leadership Voice 125 Common Ground 128 Challenge 130 Instruction 136 Intervention 137 Empathy 139 Readings, Fantasy and Journals 143 Competition 150 Centering 153 Co-leadership 155 Conflict Resolution 157 Conclusion 160 Chapter 7 Debriefing: 163 Processing the Adventure Experience Dealing with Resistance 165 Listening & Observing 167 Sequencing the Debrief 170 Termination of the Group 182 Conclusi in 185 Table of Contentsiii SECTION 3 APPLICATIONS OF ADVENTURE BASED COUNSELING Chapter 8 Schools 189 Youth Challenge 191 Manchester Public Schools, Manchester, MA Bud Carlson Alternative School 195 Rochester Public Schools, Rochester, NH Adventure Based Counseling 202 Gloucester Public Schools, Gloucester, MA Chapter 9 Hospitals and Treatment Facilities 225 The TREC Adventure Program 227 Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA Chapter 10 Programs for Court-Referred Youth 243 Project Quest 245 Sussex County, New Jersey Project Challenge 257 Atlanta, Georgia, Project Adventure, Inc. APPENDICES Appendix A Evaluations 268 Appendix B Activities Selection Chart 279 Appendix C Project Adventure Services and Publications 297 Bibliography 299 Index 302 ivIslands of Healing Acknowledgements To the many students, workshop participants, practitio- ners, community members, all the family and friends who shared in the work, to those who gave suggestions, honest feed back, enthusiasm and support, you form thr essential part of the "bedrock" of Adventure Based Counseling. We extend our appreciation and gratitude to you. You kncm who you are. A special thanks to those people who have had a direct impact on this book: Cindy Simpson, BillCuff, Tim Churchard, Joanne Maynard, Mark Murray, Dr. Dwight Webb, Rick Thomas, Beau Bassett, Rich Maizell, Barry Orms, Dr. Steven Bacon, Nicole Richon-Schoel, Doris Prouty, Herb Wostrel, Dr. Donald Nichols, John Spindler, John Elliott, John Amos, Mac Bell, Howard Richardson, Geoffrey Richon, the late Philip S. Weld, Lee and Robert Natti, and Bill Greenbaum. Credits Illustrations Nick Thorkeleon Editing, Design and Production Conrad Willeman Foreword Most people who pick this book up will already know that experience is the only true teacher. Even when you read something or hear it for the fii st time, it really only resonates with you if you can imagine it in your own experience. In that sense you already know that at some level what you are reading or hearing perhaps for the first time is both familiar and believed. We have known for a long time that human expressions of support, caring, and encouragement build strength. These are fundamental components of how we show our love and respect for each other. We hk;ve also known for a long time that challenge and risk, in a supportive environment which values effort, create an opportunity for humans to discover and develop their potentialities. Adventure Based Counseling (ABC) takes the best of what is known in the psychology of human behavior and makes the principles come alive. Trust does not remain just a word with an abstract definition; it becomes experience with personal meaning grounded in tested reality. ABC takes the initiative to structure psychological experience. To experience is to cope, to learn, and to integrate for future performance. While all counseling is based on trust, ABC creates pur- poseful experience of trust in an environment of challenge and support. Experiences designed to be rich in responding to a wide range of human needs, such as a sense of belonging in a caring community, create a multitude of opportunities for personal challenge and growth. The essential focus through- out is the development of a sense of total self in relation to others. Responsible interaction with others and self-confron- tation in a supportive environment become the means for gaining personal meaning and self-per3pective. Self-esteem is the ground from which the potential of human behavior will develop. All the daring, the freedom, and the joy of expressing aliveness are rooted in the esteem we hold for ourselves. Islands of Healing brings this aliveness ti viIslands of Healing into focus with documented and demonstrated rationale for specific interventions. Attention to quality leadership issues and clearly articulated activities and applications encourage the reader to translate and adapt these exercises and concepts into their own setting and experience. This book synthesizes the body of knowledge from experi- ential learning in deliberate psychological education and provides case studies and curriculum guides in a format of vital pragmatism. The authors have distilled their consider- able wisdom from experience into a useful resource book. It is an important process tool, and a landmark of healing in the sea of human experience. Dwight Webb, Ph. D. University of New Hampshire Durham, New Hampshire January,