Adventure Therapy

By Peter Hicks

Skiing the incline of the mountain at high speed, sailing leisurely on calm waters, hiking arduously over perilous terrain, or kayaking on a mild-mannered rising and falling sea… These and other pursuits are a demanding trial for most people, but for some people with disabilities, it can become an enticing passion, a therapeutic adventure.

Confronting your fears is a bona fide approach to enhancing your spirit. Attempting to do what you have never done, to go where you have never gone, to see what you have never seen, are all challenges that can take your life to greater heights. Adventure therapy (AT) allows people with disabilities to do, go and see, thus bringing a new dimension to their lives.

I speak from the heart. I use a cane to assist with balance as a result of a series of brain tumour operations. Prior to these medical interventions, I had been involved in many outdoor activities. Like many people who develop a mobility disability, my world was forced to adopt new limits. Then a friend introduced me to sailing. Initially, I was concerned. What had I gotten myself into?

My first sailing session took place on a beautiful west coast day. At the dockside I met a middle-aged woman who was quadriplegic. She gazed out at the smooth-surfaced waters of Esquimalt Bay, just outside of the picturesque city of Victoria, B.C. I asked her if she knew where the Recreation Integration Victoria (RIV) sailing program was held. (RVI provides accessible recreation in the city of Victoria for people with disabilities). She replied, “Yes, they meet right here! That’s what I’m waiting for.” There was a marked tone of pride in her words.

We only spoke briefly, but I was struck by her enthusiasm. When questioned, she smiled and said, “It’s the sailing. It’s the first time in many years where I am in total control, leaving my chair behind.”

Watching her being picked up in the canvas sling of a hydraulic lift, manoeuvered to the position over the pilot area of the Martin 16 sailing vessel, then lowered into the boat surrounded by mechanical devices to operate the rudder and sails, I was dumbfounded. How will she do it? I thought. Then I saw someone place a straw in her mouth. Later, Doug Netting, executive director of RIV, explained the sip-and-puff system. The sailor bites the straw to change functions and blows out or sucks in air to control the direction of the rudder and sails.

Adventure therapy is the union between a person with a disability or other pursuit such as a life-threatening illness, addiction or trouble with the law, and a specific outdoor interest. The activity can be hiking, downhill or cross-country skiing, kayaking, climbing or any other outdoor challenge – and it generates impressive results. Adventure therapy is thought to impact directly on a person’s psyche. The AT practitioner believes that the mind and the body are one, and by involving a person with challenges in outdoor activities, this has significant benefits for their psychological makeup, thus their self-esteem, level of confidence and generally all aspects of their life.

This past April, beautiful Victoria was the site of the Third International Adventure Therapy Conference. The event attracted people from all over the globe. The conference was the brainchild of AT enthusiast Tim Cormode, Director of Power to Be Adventure Pursuits, a Victoria-based AT agency.

The conference featured keynote speakers from all over the world, and some 60 or more workshops. The academic aspects of AT are fascinating – a sound psychological explanation for the effectiveness of adventure therapy is both interesting and powerful. The philosophy, theory and risk management of AT are also thought-provoking. The theme of the four-day conference was “Ethical and Quality Practice in Adventure Therapy: Defining Commonality while Honouring Diversity.” Lofty ideals indeed, yet it is this idealistic, academic, framework from which the AT insurgence began.

Although Cormode was the driving force behind the conference, his true passion for AT is the pragmatic application of various outdoor activities to individuals who can benefit from them, whether they are teenagers with learning disabilities or adults with spinal cord injuries. According to the Power to Be website, a person becomes “a participant rather than a spectator… Participants are provided with a richer therapeutic environment for change.”

Power to Be offers its participants opportunities to get involved in rock climbing, downhill skiing, ocean kayaking and wilderness trips. Tim Cormode loves his work and finds it extremely gratifying to see individuals embrace AT.

Sandy Richards has been an AT devotee for several years. An 18-year-old impaired driver smashed into Richards’ car one evening in October of 1994. Richards sustained a major brain injury. Today, he has significant weakness on his right side. “The initial months following the collision put me in a terrible downward spiral, into the darkness of depression,” says Richards. “I used to be full of zip, I played hockey and I was an active downhill skier.”

In 1999, Richards’ caseworker referred him to Tim Cormode. “Power to Be was the best thing that could have happened,” says Richards. “I love it. I’m skiing again, kayaking and rock climbing. I’m happy. My life has really become special. I am one lucky person.”

Richards now provides peer support to other people coping with brain injuries. He says that working with others “has really opened my eyes to just how lucky I was.” He is also involved as a Power to Be volunteer, assisting as a kayaking instructor. “Kayaking is for me so wonderful, alone on the water, away from the hectic pace of the city,” he says. “The views are breathtaking. It is so peaceful.” Richards has grown out of depression and into a dynamic survivor who is making a real difference.

RIV and Power to Be are just two organizations from which people can emerge with new and positive attitudes. Most major cities and towns across Canada have agencies providing adaptive outdoor activities for persons with disabilities.

Richards has nothing but positive things to say in regards to his experiences. “With the brain injury, I was relegated to being a homebound disabled person,” he says. “Now AT has once more put me where I want to be: outdoors, enjoying life to the fullest.”

(Peter Hicks is a freelance writer and professional speaker in Psychology. He resides in Victoria B.C. He can be reached by e-mail at: peter@peterhicksproductions.com.)


RESOURCES

Power to Be Adventure Pursuits
Victoria, BC
Toll-free: 1-800-375-2363
www.power2b.com

Adventure Therapy Web
http://fdsa.gcsu.edu:6060/lgillis/AT/
Includes books, links and history of adventure therapy.

Warren MacDonald, Adventurer
www.partanimal.com
Inspiring adventure stories and photos from a motivational speaker with a disability.