Being bad can make you better: How to deliberately improve your adventure therapy and experiential practice

While therapists and educators may refer to their work as their “practice,” researchers have found that the majority of practitioners do not engage in deliberate practice. Researchers of expert performance, Ericsson and Lehmann (1996), have defined this practice as “individualized training activities especially designed by a coach or teacher to improve specific aspects of an individual’s performance through repetition and successive refinement” (pp. 278–279). Many practitioners acknowledge the importance of strengths-based approaches for those they work with. Research, however, indicates that increasing our awareness of practitioner deficits and focusing skill-building on these areas leads to better client outcomes overtime. This workshop will provide a brief snapshot of the evidence about expert performance, making clear links for adventure therapy and experiential education providers. Having provided consultation services for agencies in the United State, Canada, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and India, these presenters will illustrate how agencies around the world have strived for building a culture of excellence. Experiential activities and real vignettes from adventure-based agencies will allow participants to explore how they can use their community of colleagues to build on their practice.