Towards an Evidence-Informed Adventure Therapy: Implementing Feedback-Informed Treatment in the Field

ABSTRACT

As an intervention for adolescents, adventure therapy has evolved considerably over the last three decades with support from multiple meta-analyses and research input from both residential and outpatient services. Tainted by a history of unethical practice and issues of accountability, this article explores the question of how adventure therapy can meet a standard of evidence preferred by policymakers and funding bodies on the international stage. In this case, feedback-informed treatment (FIT) is presented as a means for routine outcome management, creating a framework for adventure therapy which aims to improve the quality of participant engagement while maintaining and operationalizing today’s definitions for evidence-based practice. A case vignette illustrates the use of FIT with an adolescent participant engaged on a 14-day adventure therapy program.

KEYWORDS:

• Adventure therapy
• feedback-informed treatment
• adolescents
• psychotherapy
• routine outcome management