Exploring Islands of Healing: New Perspectives on Adventure-Based Counseling Experience

Schoel, J., & Maizell, R. (2002). Exploring Islands of Healing: New Perspectives on Adventure-Based Counseling. Beverly, MA: Project Adventure. 303 pages. ISBN 0-934387-15-X.

The field of outdoor adventure has been said by many to be experience rich and theory poor. Practitioners are so occupied with packing the gear, reviewing their risk management plans, and running the ropes course that they have little time to develop and disseminate the vitally needed theoretical underpinnings essential to the field.

Considering the acute need for frameworks and structures to guide practice in adventure -based counseling (Gass, 1993), practitioners should be thankful that Jim Schoel and Richard Maisell came in from the ropes course and wrote Exploring Islands of Healing: New Perspectives on Adventure-Based Counseling. This book offers a complete overview for anyone engaged in adventure-based therapy, and also serves as a foundational resource for other types of outdoor adventure, including the educational and recreational realms. While the book is intended for the adventure therapist, anyone involved in experiential education with an adventure component will find nuggets of wisdom within its covers.

Exploring Islands of Healing starts by leading the reader through an interesting history of adventure-based counseling, particularly as it developed in Project Adventure (PA). The concepts of "full value contract," "challenge by choice," the "GRABBSS assessment tool," and the "adventure wave" are presented. The second section of the book introduces the ABC Triangle of Adventure: the affective, behavioral, and cognitive scripts that influence a participant in an adventure experience. The articulation of an assessment tool promoting informed program planning, intake assessment, and individually tailored decision-making by leaders is the basis of section Three. The focus of the GRABBSS model of assessment is to serve as a scanning device based on questions about Goals, Readiness, Affect, Behavior, Body, Setting, and Stage of Development, and thus to allow the facilitator to determine the activities and adventures most useful for a group, individuals, or even the leaders. The final section provides implementation and application of the adventure process, including activity selection, briefing, sequencing, and debriefing.

There are both advantages and drawbacks to a Project Adventure-inspired book. The ability to articulate key concepts in accessible terminology has long been a hallmark of Project Adventure program practice. As a long running and highly revered program in the field, Project Adventure adds credibility to the field-tested concepts in the book. While Schoel and Maizell ground their ideas initially on standard academic research, the models suggested are primarily based on many years of field-tested experience that may be ultimately more relevant to the practitioner. However, a limitation to understanding this book is that unless the reader is strongly versed in Project Adventure theory and practice, the book can be confusing. For example, names of common PA activities are sprinkled throughout the final section. While the games/initiatives descriptions are sometimes nested in the text examples, they are like common names in botany; initiative names can be confusing unless referenced properly. This could have been rectified by providing references to the texts of origin and organizing descriptions in the Appendix.

The question as to whether Exploring Islands of Healing is an updated version of the classic Islands of Healing (1988) or a stand-alone text must be asked. The answer is a definite "both." Expanded sections on history and theory are in the new book, but the biggest change is the in-depth look at assessment. The GRABBSS model of assessment, merely hinted at in the first book, is explained in great detail and applied to sample situations. Overall, the book demonstrates how far the field of adventure-based counseling has evolved since 1988 when Islands of Healing was first published.

As a reader, I appreciated the demonstrations of "inclusivity" shown through gender-inclusive language, and photos of people of color and people with disabilities. I found the multiple methods of presentation (i.e., charts, case studies, photos, artwork, metaphor, and activities) to be useful in accessing this particularly information-rich text.

The quest for the realistic balance between a recipe book of activities and a tome of theory is achieved in Schoel and Maizell's book. Exploring Islands of Healing moves the field of adventure therapy forward, and will occupy an important place on the bookshelves and in the backpacks of anyone who incorporates adventure in his or her practice.

References

Gass, M.A. (1993). The future of the profession of adventure therapy. In M. A. Gass (Ed.), Adventure therapy: Therapeutic applications of adventure programming (pp. 411-416). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Schoel, J., Prouty, D., & Radcliffe, P. (1988). Islands of healing: A guide to adventure-based counseling. Hamilton, MA: Project Adventure.

Karen Warren, Ph.D., teaches in the Outdoors Program/Recreational Athletics at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, 01002. She can be reached by e-mail at: kwCC@hampshire.edu

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