trainings
Meaningful trainings, done the right way.
We love working with people who are changing the world. Whether it's higher schoolers, practicum students, early-career professionals, or organizations looking to deepen their impact, we believe in emboldening all people towards meaningful growth through adventure, play and creative expression. Despite being in the therapy sector, we don't see a hard line between the work we do and yours. Find that surprising? Let me tell you a story.
Have you heard of the Friendship Bench?
The Friendship Bench was born to bring mental health support to a community that did not have convenient therapy services. In a small Zimbabwe township, Dr. Dixon Chibanda taught town elders who he affectionately named "grandmothers" simple therapy principles and then dedicated benches in local parks where these gradmothers would sit. Struggling community members would come and the grandmothers offered support using open ended questions, active listening and basic problem solving. Since then, these lay people, with no advanced therapy degree from some fancy university, have supported thousands of people, many of whom would never have received help otherwise. Thankfully, Dr. Chibanda and these grandmothers didn't buy into the myth that "therapy should be left to the professional." Now I'm not saying just anyone can walk out their front door and just start doing therapy, we're working with people's minds here! These everyday people changed lives because they were trained. While Dr. Chibanda called the skills he taught the grandmothers "talk therapy" skills, I see them simply as life skills - the skills that allow us that nourish the life on this planet.
Even if you don't employ therapists, I'd like to believe the active ingredients that make therapy work (a trusting relationship, a listening ear, genuine hope and change-oriented rituals) is good for everyone. In a world that is becoming dehumanized, I believe everyone working in human-serving organizations and aligned businesses should be trained in on how to relate to others at the human level. Similar to these grandmas, the potential is within us all, with training we can harness it!
On the flip side, if you're a mental health organization and want to dip your toes into adventure therapy, we can discuss your training needs. There is a lot to consider when adding adventure elements to the therapy space and it may challenge some accepted ideas of what therapy is and how it works. Working with a reputable training center like ours minimizes some common pitfalls while demystifying what can otherwise be an overwhelming traverse across sketchy situations. When done well, adventure therapy is a deeply rewarding specialization for clinicians, who find it improves their clinical judgment, assuredness in the therapy process, and responsiveness to their clients' needs.