Crossing the threshold mindfully: exploring rites of passage models in adventure therapy

Abstract

Rites of passage models, drawing from ethnographic descriptions of ritualized transition, are widespread in adventure therapy programmes. However, critical literature suggests that: (a) contemporary rites of passage models derive from a selective and sometimes misleading use of ethnographic materials, and (b) the appropriation of initiatory practices and motifs out of the cultural contexts from which they emerged may be both unethical and ineffective. This paper explores the origins and applications of rites of passage models in adventure therapy, and discusses some of the central critical questions around their use. It challenges the simplistic use of complex cultural processes and offers some guidelines for the ethical and practical integration of such models in service of therapeutic outcomes.

Keywords:

• Adventure therapy
• Wilderness therapy
• Rites of passage
• Ritual
• Young adulthood

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 5th International Adventure Therapy Conference, September 7–11, 2009.

Notes

1. I use the term adventure therapy inclusively in this paper to include wilderness therapy and outdoor behavioral healthcare as well as the diverse spectrum of outdoor, experiential and adventure-based approaches to improving mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.

2. Stigliano (2002), for example, argues that much of Eliade's work was both fictive and profoundly ideologically driven, linking his research interests to his active membership of the Romanian Fascist Party.

3. Such solos are still referred to as ‘Seton watching’ by some environmental educators (Van Matre, 1972).

4. The Jumping Mouse story is a traditional teaching story from the High Plains. Variations are found amongst the Cheyenne and Lakota/Dakota Nations amongst others. The story was popularized by Storm (1972), and Foster and Little adapted the story (1989) as a framework for the contemporary vision quest. In some ways the use of the story by experiential educators is almost a case study in the perils and possibilities encountered when attempting to draw on indigenous traditional knowledge to inform practice. Storm's work—and in particular his writing about coming of age ceremonies—has been formally and repeatedly rejected by Cheyenne spiritual leaders as being an inaccurate and deeply offensive parody of Cheyenne tradition (Moore, 1999).

5. If we subscribe to Andrews’ (1999) view that the transformational potential of a wilderness journey is related to the liminal inversion that takes place, then practitioners must pay far greater attention to this aspect of the experience. The liminal experience of communitas—the term used by Turner (1969) to describe heightened states of community feeling that occur during ritual transition—may allow for an extra-ordinary experience of community that has transformational potential, and that is largely unavailable in other social settings.

6. Vizedom is also the person who originally translated Van Gennep's Les rites de passage into English.

7. Such groups include Lakota spiritual leaders, the Hotevilla Priesthood assembly of the Hopi Nation, various chapters of the American Indian Movement, the Northern Cheyenne and the Cherokee Nation. Particular concerns include: the sale and commodification of ceremonies; fraudulent claims regarding indigenous heritage, adoption and authority; blending Indigenous ceremonies with other practices; and lack of understanding, training and community oversight.