Adventure-Based Group Therapy to Promote Social Skills in Adolescents

Abstract

This article presents adventure-based group therapy as one type of activity-based group treatment that can be used to promote social skills in adolescents. Adventure-based therapy groups are a blend of experiential education, outdoor education, and group therapy. Key components of adventure-based therapy groups include activities that provide immediate and concrete consequences of behaviors, reliance on problem solving, their use of novel and unfamiliar environments, and the use of physical trust. The article includes practice examples of how these factors can be used to promote social skills and discusses limitations and implications for social work group practice.

KEYWORDS:

• adventure-based group therapy
• wilderness groups
• social skills
• novel environments
• adolescents
• teenagers
• group work