Throughout my career, I have grappled with the concept of boundaries defining the roles of an outdoor learning facilitator or educator. There is a desire to be all things to all participants—instructor, facilitator, guide, teacher, counsellor, pastor, coach, or therapist—but is this feasible? These roles are often conflated and used interchangeably without clear distinction of their appropriate application. Practitioners recognise that distinct boundaries exist when working with participants in outdoor settings, yet these lines remain vague and poorly defined. The most evident boundary arises when confronting emotional or psychological challenges during an outdoor experience, where the role of a psychologist or therapist becomes critical. In South Africa and across Africa, specialised fields like adventure therapy or nature therapy are virtually non-existent. However, thousands of recreational, tourism, educational, and developmental programmes yield notable therapeutic outcomes, even if therapy is not their primary intent.
Given that this is a global reality, with many countries already integrating various therapeutic applications and practices to ensure competent and trained practitioners, South Africa must follow suit to align with these international practices and standards.
Distinction of practices
Basic outdoor learning experiences focus on acquiring specific knowledge or skills in a natural setting, such as learning navigation or environmental science through structured activities like hiking or field studies, emphasising cognitive or practical outcomes. An outdoor developmental experience builds on this by targeting personal growth, leadership, or social skills, using activities like team-building exercises or ropes courses to foster qualities like confidence and collaboration, often seen in programmes for youth or corporate groups. In contrast, an outdoor therapeutic experience, whether intentional or not, prioritises emotional and psychological healing, engaging participants holistically through immersive activities like wilderness expeditions or nature-based mindfulness, which facilitate emotional processing, self-discovery, or trauma resolution, as seen in adventure or nature therapy. While all three leverage outdoor settings, they differ in intent: learning for skill acquisition, developmental for personal growth, and therapeutic for emotional or psychological transformation.
Experiential therapies, which emphasise active participation, emotional processing, and personal growth through direct experience, often manifest in outdoor education programmes, even when therapy is not the explicit goal. Outdoor education programmes typically aim to foster skills like teamwork, leadership, or environmental awareness through hands-on activities in natural settings. However, the immersive and challenging nature of these activities can naturally elicit therapeutic outcomes, aligning with experiential therapy principles such as emotional expression, self-discovery, and holistic engagement.
How Experiential Therapies Manifest in Outdoor Education
Outdoor learning programmes often involve activities like hiking, camping, ropes courses, or environmental projects, designed to teach practical skills or foster personal development. These activities inadvertently create conditions that mirror experiential therapy approaches, leading to emotional, psychological, and social benefits. Here’s how specific experiential therapy elements emerge:
Emotional Processing Through Challenge-Based Activities
Mechanism: Outdoor education often includes physically or mentally demanding tasks, such as navigating a wilderness trek or completing a high-ropes course. These challenges can evoke emotions like fear, frustration, or pride, prompting participants to confront and process feelings in real-time, like Gestalt therapy’s focus on present-moment awareness.
Example: A student on a group hike may face fear of failure while crossing difficult terrain. Overcoming this obstacle, with peer support, can lead to increased self-esteem and emotional resilience, mimicking the therapeutic process of addressing inner conflicts.
Unintended Outcome: Participants process suppressed emotions or gain confidence without the activity being labelled as therapy.
Why These Outcomes Occur Unintentionally
Immersive Environment: Outdoor settings naturally reduce stress and encourage openness, creating a fertile ground for therapeutic experiences.
Experiential Learning: Outdoor education is rooted in experiential learning, which overlaps with experiential therapy’s focus on learning through doing. Activities designed to teach skills inadvertently trigger emotional and psychological growth.
Group and Facilitator Dynamics: Facilitators in outdoor education, trained in group management or reflection, often act like therapists by guiding discussions or supporting emotional moments, even without formal therapeutic training.
Challenge and Vulnerability: The inherent challenges of outdoor activities push participants out of their comfort zones, fostering vulnerability and self-discovery, key components of experiential therapies.
Specific Outdoor Education Contexts Where This Happens
Adventure Camps: Camp activities often involve problem solving activities, climbing walls and obstacle courses, these can lead to therapeutic outcomes, such as improved confidence or emotional bonding, as participants overcome fears or rely on peers, even if the goal is skill-building or fun.
Corporate Team Building and School-Based Outdoor Programmes: Schools or Corporate companies may organise outdoor retreats to teach or develop leadership or group dynamics, activities like ropes courses or group problem-solving can foster trust and emotional growth, resembling adventure therapy.
Environmental Education: Programmes focused on conservation, like tree-planting or wildlife tracking, can evoke mindfulness and emotional calm, aligning with nature therapy’s effects, despite an educational focus.
Youth Development Programmes: Programmes for at-risk youth, such as those for fatherless boys, may use outdoor activities to teach discipline or teamwork but inadvertently provide therapeutic benefits like emotional regulation or self-esteem through experiential challenges.
Examples of Unintended Therapeutic Outcomes
- Building Resilience: A student completing a solo camping task to learn survival skills may discover inner strength, mirroring the self-discovery focus of experiential therapy.
- Emotional Release: A group activity requiring vulnerability, like sharing personal stories around a campfire, can lead to emotional breakthroughs, similar to psychodrama, even if the goal was community-building.
- Stress Reduction: Spending time in nature during an environmental education program can reduce anxiety, akin to nature therapy, without being explicitly therapeutic.
- Enhanced Self-Awareness: During a team navigation exercise in an outdoor education program aimed at teaching map-reading skills, a participant may recognize their tendency to rush decisions under pressure. Reflecting on this with the group, they gain insight into personal patterns, resembling the self-discovery process in Gestalt therapy, despite the activity’s focus on technical skills.
- Improved Emotional Regulation: In a group kayaking activity designed to build teamwork, a participant might face frustration when coordinating with others. Overcoming this challenge with encouragement from peers can teach them to manage emotions in high-stress moments, aligning with outcomes of adventure therapy, even though the goal was collaboration.
- Increased Sense of Belonging: A campfire cooking task in a youth camp, intended to teach practical outdoor skills, may prompt participants to share responsibilities and stories, fostering a sense of community and acceptance. This mirrors the relational healing of experiential family therapy, despite the activity’s logistical focus.
- Overcoming Fear: A ropes course activity meant to develop leadership skills might require a participant to confront a fear of heights. Successfully completing the task can boost confidence and reduce anxiety, similar to therapeutic exposure techniques, even if the program aimed to enhance decision-making.
- Processing Grief or Loss: During a solo reflection activity in a nature-based program focused on environmental awareness, a participant might journal about a personal loss while sitting by a river. This quiet moment can facilitate emotional processing, akin to nature therapy’s reflective practices, though the intent was to connect with the ecosystem.
With all of these activities the emotional breakthrough, which alleviates a specific psychological distress, distinguishes it as a therapeutic outcome, even though it occurs within a program focused on skill-building or personal growth.
Launch of Experiential Therapies South Africa
Join the Adventure Institute and South African Adventure Industry Association (SAAIA) on 23 October for the launch of Experiential Therapies South Africa, a movement dedicated to exploring diverse experiential therapeutic applications within Outdoor Learning, including Adventure Therapy, Nature Therapy, Art Therapy, Music Therapy, Drama Therapy, Equine-Assisted Therapy, Play Therapy, and Experiential Family Therapy. The event will feature distinguished speakers such as Prof Johan Potgieter (NWU), academics from the University of Cumbria (UK), and practitioners and experts from Africa and beyond (a detailed speaker list will be shared later). This interactive gathering will foster discussions among all participants, celebrating successes and addressing challenges in the realm of outdoor and experiential therapies. Please complete this form if you are interested in this online get-together.
