Rock Climbing Adventure At Cascades

Posted by J Huffine, Ph.D., Owner & Clinical Director at Cascades on October 08, 2015

1j resizedGroup One at Evoke's Wilderness Program in Central Oregon is at it again. Another adventure outing. This time we went rock climbing at Smith Rock State Park.

Almost everyone these days has been rock climbing either indoors or outdoors. With the growth of adventure travel in the past 10 years, there are many exciting adventures that people are now doing for vacation that used to be reserved for the daring few.

Rock Climbing

The difference in a vacation and a therapeutic learning experience is the intentional integration of adventure activities into each student’s program. We know our kids well. We know their strengths. We know the areas they need to develop. We work with them day-to-day on issues such as anxiety, depression, learning differences, social difficulties, school failure, and family problems, to name a few.

When we go on adventures outside our field, there are many goals. Fun and excitement are a given. There are, however, individual goals that may be specific to each student:

Our focus on this outing was coping with anxiety.

Rock climbing3

Anxiety is another word for fear. It is an emotion that is common and normal. It warns us that we may be unsafe and certainly outside our comfort zone. Unfortunately, many students have experienced setbacks and failures in their lives that have resulted in anxiety issues related to school performance, physical activities, and social situations. Many have developed fears of failure, rejection, embarrassment, etc.

A common solution to avoid failure is to avoid trying. This results, of course, is lack of development in these areas, continued failure, and perpetuation of perceived lack of ability.

Rock climbing is an excellent vehicle for facing and overcoming fears. The strategy is simple. Stay relaxed and focused. Consider the choices. Take it one step at a time. Allow your peers to support you.

Simple is not necessarily easy, but it works. It works in many areas: schoolwork, social interactions, coping with feelings, physical activities.

One must know the steps. Most of our students don’t, so we teach them.

Rockclimbing4

And one must be willing to try to take the steps.

It was quite an experience for each student that day. Everyone was successful in trying his hardest, supporting each other, and going higher than they imagined they could. Developing strategies they can apply in other aspects of their lives. Leaving with more resilience and a strong sense of accomplishment and pride.

Oh, and it was really fun.

Comments

Be the first to comment on this page:

Post your comment