An Outdoor Adventure Counseling Program for Adolescents

Abstract

The following “integrative outreach” program was designed to meet the developmental needs of adolescents in the Maine state child welfare system. Its design integrates the experiential education of a wilderness-based outdoor adventure program with the psychosocial counseling of a community-based human service agency. The program is structured to contribute to the state's permanency planning efforts and to represent an adaptation of generic outdoor adventure and traditional summer camp models. The program activities mirror and promote the adolescent transition from acting-out behavior to emotional verbalization and, therefore, may provide an intermediate step between traditional recreation and traditional clinical treatment—a step developmentally appropriate for the abused and neglected adolescent.