“The world is a beautiful place – I want to explore that a bit”: the experience of taking part in an adventure therapy sailing project by a group of individuals who have experienced psychosis

ABSTRACT

Aims

This paper aims to provide an overview of the lived experience of a group of individuals who participated in an adventure therapy project, as an adjunct to their routine clinical care with an Early Intervention Service (EIS) for psychosis. We hope it will support the growing literature in this field as well as encourage other services to adopt these approaches within their settings.

Method

A group of individuals who had experienced a First Episode of Psychosis (FEP) participated in a programme of outdoor activities, culminating in a six-day residential sailing adventure (N = 5). A semi-structured interview was used to explore their experiences, and an inductive thematic analysis was undertaken to identify themes.

Results

Four key themes emerged from the analysis of the transcripts. The themes centred around what people learnt about themselves from taking part in the project: “enhanced self-perception”; “building friendships and being part of a shared experience”; “navigating and overcoming new challenges”; and “working together as a team”.

Discussion

Adventure-based approaches offer the opportunity to enhance standard treatment outcomes in EIS, and the unique context in which they occur provides a platform to support social and occupational recovery from psychosis.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychosis
• adventure therapy
• early intervention
• social recovery
• outdoor activities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).