Challenge by Choice

December 11, 2024
Jessie practices belaying during adventure therapy high in the treetops.

Every day at Green Chimneys, students have opportunities to build invaluable skills, and in many settings, even among the trees! As part of the specialized groups offered to residential students, Adventure Therapy aims to help youth develop skills in goal-setting, establishing trust, and regulating emotions in potentially stressful situations. Green Chimneys recreation therapists who are trained in high ropes adventure courses lead the group. This provides a challenging yet safe way for students to identify an ambitious goal and work with staff, and each other, to achieve it.

Adventure Therapy in Practice

Therapeutic groups such as this are developed in collaboration with residents, who are surveyed about what activities they would be comfortable doing in a therapy group. Once selected for a group, residents work with the facilitator to develop objectives for the group as a whole, and the goals that will be most valuable for each member to work on in their treatment.

At the beginning of each Adventure session, the group discusses physical and emotional safety. Physical safety relates to the course, the element the group will complete, use of required gear, and affirmation that the activity is safe. Emotional safety is more personal—climbing and adventure activities can put people in stressful, and sometimes scary, situations. In fact, climbers not only need to trust their gear, they need to trust the facilitator, other climbers and, most importantly, themselves.

“When we talk about our emotional safety, we talk about what feelings might come up that day,” explains Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist Catherine Troiano. “Someone may feel nervous about the height, anxious about the equipment or element, or doubtful of their own abilities. And these emotions are happening 35 feet in the air!” Group members explore what will be helpful to them in these stressful moments—whether it’s regulating their breathing or hearing encouragement from others—and share what they might need from one another. “The process of preparing for the activity is just as important as the activity, itself,” Catherine advises.

Jessie Sets a Goal

Group member Jessie sets her goals high—as high as our 35-foot-tall parachute jump. The element consists of belaying (hoisting by rope) the climber up a ladder to metal staples bolted into the tree, up to a platform. From there, participants transfer to an auto-belay system, where the gear does all the work in supporting the climber. Then, after ensuring the area is clear, the participant jumps from the platform in a “free fall” and the auto-belay lowers them to the ground.

The first week, Jessie ascended the tree, noticing how it felt to be so far off the ground. As soon as she reached the platform, she would climb back down, feeling too nervous to proceed to the jump. In the weeks that followed, Jessie went as far as getting set up on the auto-belay in order to make the jump but those nervous feelings kept her from completing it.

Success!

Facilitators decided that in order to help Jessie realize she had the ability to execute the jump they had to meet her where she was. First, an A-frame ladder was set up for participants to practice jumping from any height that felt comfortable. Then, Jessie quickly gained a sense of what the jump felt like and how the gear assisted her. Her confidence in the gear, the facilitators, and herself increased with each jump and each subsequent attempt from a higher rung of the ladder.

By week four, Jessie went back to the tree. She climbed to the top, attached the auto-belay system, took a deep breath, and jumped! The group cheered, recognizing what it meant for Jessie take that leap, both literally and figuratively. “Having people who supported me was what made me overcome my fear,” Jessie reflects. “After the jump, I felt very happy about myself.”

Jessie was determined to meet her goal in adventure therapy and, now that she has, she makes an effort to help other climbers and show the same support she felt. Overcoming this challenge has helped Jessie trust herself more. “I feel more prepared to take on other ‘adventures’ in my life.” Go Jessie!

Learn more about clinical approaches at Green Chimneys which help students like Jessie