Adventure Therapy Collective Podcast

In his free time, Dr. Cian Brown enjoys mountain biking, rock climbing and bouldering, despite not being a huge fan of heights. In this episode, we talk about specific activities in adventure therapy, Cian's passion for getting outside with students, and nerd out on a little research.

Lots of letters follow Dr. Brown's name! He is a licensed counselor, Certified Clinical Adventure Therapist (CCAT), and Board Certified in Neurofeedback, Fellow (BCN-Fellow) with a Ph.D. in Counselor Education & Supervision from the University of Arkansas specializing in Adventure Therapy. Cian is also the co-founder of the Center for Outdoor Therapy and Education at the University of Oklahoma.

Relevant Links

Center for Outdoor Therapy and Education

Cian's Website

Cian's Google Scholar Site

Zoe Jack, LCSW-C is the Director of the Center for Nature Informed Therapy in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the author of the new book Social Work Outside: Evidence Based, Micro and Macro Perspectives. This year, Zoe has been on a "tour" travelling to social work conferences advocating for bringing nature into social work practice. We hope you enjoy the fun episode!

For those interested in painting there office like Zoe's, here you go: Laurel Tree Behr Paint

Useful Links

Social Work Outside

Zoe's New Book

Center for Nature Informed Therapy

Dr. Heidi Schreiber-Pan

Zoe's Instagram

Center for Nature Informed Therapy Instagram

Gary describes himself as "happily retired," so we knew it was time to rope him in for a fun discussion about his productive and meaningful career as both a social worker and leading contributor to adventure therapy knowledge. Gary is the co-author of many impactful adventure therapy articles and numerous books, including the recent Adventure Group Psychotherapy.

In this episode, the team discuss Gary's backyard conversations with Tony Alvarez, his writing, prevention, the experiential wave model, and his mindset: It never rains on adventure. We hope you enjoy!

Welcome to Season 2!

Useful Links

⁠Adventure Group Psychotherapy⁠

⁠Power of One: Using Adventure and Experiential Activities within One on One Counseling Sessions⁠

⁠Power of Family⁠

⁠Musings on Adventure Therapy⁠

⁠Gary's AEE Member Spotlight⁠

Before we begin, everyone should head to this link and get professionally connected with Max!

Max joins the podcast to share how his international experience in the United States, Scotland, and Spain - as well as many other adventures - informs his work with adolescents in the outdoors. The group talks about field siestas, Camino de Santiago routes, and running individualized expeditions. Max is a representative for Adventure Therapy Europe and brings experience from outdoor education, wilderness therapy in the United States, and residential care to his current practice. Together with Daniel and Will, Max discusses how every day with clients is an adventure.

Useful Links

Adventure Therapy Europe Roundtable Representatives

Madrid Outdoor Education

Here is Max's LinkedIn Account...Again

Today we talk with Dr Scott D Miller, the co-founder of the International Center for Clinical Excellence and a leading voice in understanding what works in therapy and how practitioners can get better at doing it. As a practicing psychologist, Scott often provides pro bono services to the financially underprivileged. In this podcast, we discuss Will's average outcomes, how psychotherapy lost its magic, and the role of deliberate practice in highly effective practitioners. Scott provides his views on psychotherapy evidence and why practice-based evidence will always trump evidence-based practice. We will provide links and announcements shortly for the free training in March with Scott Miller (and Will and Dan just kind of hanging out in the background). 

Contact Us to Join the ATOM 

Complete the Adventure Therapy Education Survey

Useful Links
Scott's Website
Scott's Amazon Books Page
How Psychotherapy Lost Its Magick
International Center for Clinical Excellence
Scott's Keynote at the Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference
Saving Psychotherapy by Ben Caldwell
Daryl Chow's Doctoral Research
Information on the Gloria Films
K Anders Ericsson Wikpedia Page

As you listen, we'd love you to complete this survey! 

Welcome Bernie Rupe from Chicago Voyagers to the podcast. This is such a unique program working with youth in the greater Chicago Area. With over 25 years of experience working with at-risk teens, Bernie remains the guiding star of Chicago Voyagers and he joins Daniel and Will to discuss how Bernie has used research to seek funding and grow and evolve this innovative program. 

Thanks for a great year everyone. We hope you have a happy and healthy new year.

Marmot's PR team: Please email [email protected] for incredible opportunity. Will is a Medium and Daniel Xtra Xtra Medium.  

Useful Links
Chicago Voyagers
Therapeutic Adventure Professionals Group
Marmot

We have started a GoFundMe so you can all chip in and send us to the Himalayas where we can hang out and learn from Tanya. You'll understand why we must go watch Tanya in action after listening to this episode. Tanya Ginwala is a clinical psychologist and experiential educator from India, and the country's representative on the Adventure Therapy International Committee (ATIC). Tanya has trained in narrative therapy, somatic therapies, and buddhist psychology. Before starting her own practice, Qualia Mental Health, Tanya worked for the Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation, an Indian non-profit that aims to use adventure sports to promote social inclusion for people with and without disabilities. There she managed daily operations of an organization with a footprint of over 5,000 individuals with and without disabilities during its founding years, from 2016-2019. 

Tanya is a trailblazer for adventure therapy in India. She established an Adventure and Nature Based Therapy - India Study Group which has grown over the years and has included international presentations, workshops, and training opportunities. In her free time, Tanya enjoys spending time in the pine forests by her home in Dharamshala with her wonderful dog Ziggy, reading, napping in the sun and discovering new music.

Useful Links
Tanya's Website
Adventures Beyond Barriers
LinkedIn Page
India's International Adventure Therapy Representative
Tanya's Psychology India Page

To stir the pot, Will's mother sent him Alan's book, Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science, last year. Alan's book examines the meaning of "natural" and argues that modern Western culture has divinized nature. That seemed like a worthy conversation to unpack. Alan is an associate professor of religion at James Madison University. His work focuses primarily on the relationship between religion, literature, and science, with particular attention to classical Chinese thought and comparative ethics. In this episode, we talk a lot about psychotherapy, religion, cults, pseudoscience, wellbeing, and ritual. 

Useful Links
Alan's JMU Page
Give Alan a follow on Twitter
Alan's Washington Post Page
Interview with Alan about "Nature's Goodness"

We caught up with an icon of our field Denise Mitten as she was driving with her daughter across the US to Will’s homeland of Washington DC! Denise is a widely experienced outdoor adventure guide, leading SCUBA and mountaineering trips in numerous countries. Denise started with the Girl Scouts in the 1960s and brought her passion for sharing the outdoors and adventure with people from all backgrounds, including women survivors of abuse, homeless populations, and maximum-security men’s prisons. Denise’s academic work spans ethics, justice, diversity, and equity in adventure therapy and outdoor education. Her writing speaks for itself and we encourage our listening to take a look at her amazing contributions to the literature.

Useful Links

Denise’s Page at Prescott College

Follow Denise on Twitter

Denise’s Google Scholar Page

Book: The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Outdoor Learning

Join us to talk to electronic social emotional entrepreneurs Kendra Bostick, LCSW, PhD candidate, and Bryn Lottig, M.S. They visited Will and Daniel to teach us why we should all immediately download Kikori, the app they have developed that is a digital encyclopedia of experiential activities. This episode goes far beyond adventure therapy because Kikori is a tool that is useful for social emotional learning, experiential education, outdoor education, and any form of experiential learning. Come learn about Kendra and Bryn and the award-winning app that they have developed that can help expand your bag of facilitation tools and techniques!

Kikori App

Kendra Bostick

Bryn Lottig