What is Adventure Therapy?

The practice of adventure therapy is the use of adventure experiences provided by mental health professionals, usually in natural settings. The encounters are meant to engage individuals, families, and groups on physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral levels. 

Have you ever wanted to go on an adventure trip of a lifetime, but didn't have anyone to go with you?

Have you ever wanted to go on an exciting travel adventure that did not include lots of drinking and partying but, rather, getting high on life and nature?

Are you feeling lonely, bored, or stuck in your life currently—craving a new, fun, healthy way to meet and connect with others, and check things off of your bucket list?

As an addiction psychologist, world traveler and lover of adventures, I have been looking for new ways to bring people together and create deep, meaningful, life changing experiences, while also building friendships that last a lifetime. 

Almost all of my clients, whether they are in their 20s and 30s, or their 60s and 70s, talk about how lonely they are and how hard it is to make new friends without engaging in harmful behaviors like binge drinking.  Having worked in the residential mental health treatment world for the past 15 years, I watched how clients would come in over and over again, doing well while in treatment, but then quickly slipping back into old, unhealthy habits and routines when they returned to their lives back home—usually because they have no real meaning or purpose in their lives. 

Everyone these days wants to be rich or famous. What they don't understand is that if you are not happy before money or fame, you will not be happy once you receive it. Furthermore, when it comes to alcohol and drug addiction, there is a saying that "the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, the opposite of addiction is connection."

We live in world where there is an epidemic of loneliness, meaning and purpose in most people's lives.  My colleagues and I want to change that...

I decided years ago that one of my bucket list items would be to travel to every country in the world.  At last count I have reached 107—many of which I have returned to multiple times. 

If we are going to heal ourselves and our world, we need to start by re-connecting with ourselves, nature, and other's in a deep, meaningful way.  

Some of the past adventures we have done include:

Getting scuba certified in Belize at some of Jacque Cousteau's favorite dive sites 

Bungee jumping at Victoria Falls, on the border bridge of Zambia and Zimbabwe 

Skydiving out of a helicopter in Switzerland 

16 day trek up and around Mt. Everest Base Camp

Motorcycle ride up the California coast to Big Sur

Scuba diving at various islands around Fiji

Scuba diving in the Galapagos and hiking in the Amazon Jungle 

Our next adventure coming up this Spring:  Trekking and cultural immersion in Tibet and Bhutan

Future Trips:  

Trekking in Patagonia 

Outdoor adventures in New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and African Safari

Exploring Madagascar and Africa