Nature and physical activity play an important role in supporting physical and psychological well-being. Moreover, engaging in activities in nature has a long history of healing through deeper self-awareness and self-understanding. According to Frontiers in Psychiatry, recovery is a process in which you improve your health and wellness for life satisfaction. Through bodily movement, you can deepen the connection between your body and mind to support psychophysiological healing. Thus, engaging in therapeutic physical activities like ropes courses can have a significant impact on your long-term growth and well-being.
Further, spending time moving your body in nature helps you feel more connected to yourself and the natural world. The sense of connectedness you experience in ropes courses can give you tools to sustain wellness on your recovery journey. However, at The Guest House, we know challenges with substances and mental health can make participating in activities feel impossible. Therefore, we are committed to providing group-oriented therapies and activities like ropes courses to encourage connection and trust.
Yet, you may question how spending time moving your body in nature can truly help dismantle self-defeating thinking and behaviors. Right now, the thought of physical activity may feel overwhelming or like yet another way to fail. However, with support, you can engage in ropes courses to uncover your sense of self-worth and capacity for growth. You can start to see the value of bodily movement in your life and ropes courses by understanding adventure therapy.
What Is Adventure Therapy?
According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, outdoor therapies support the therapeutic process in three ways. Outdoor therapies like adventure therapy are place-based, provide active bodily engagement, and recognize the value of the nature-human kinship. Through the three therapeutic elements of outdoor therapies, social, emotional, physical, physiological, and psychological wellness can be enhanced.
The Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma notes that adventure therapy is the use of adventure experiences. Typically adventure therapy happens in a natural setting that kinesthetically engages individuals in processing cognitive, affective, and behavioral difficulties. Moreover, the bodily movement and learning elements of adventure activities can support addressing the roots of self-defeating behaviors.
Many difficulties with substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health disorders are tied to trauma. Thus, adventure therapy presents an alternative mind-body way to process difficult thoughts and emotions. Many traditional therapies, while effective, rely on talking as one of their main support tools. Everyone’s experiences with traumatic or stressful life events are unique to them. Thus, relying on only one form of therapy can be limiting in supporting your long-term well-being. With adventure therapy, you can access stuck points in processing your distress through specific activities. Through adventure-based experiences, you can find the catalyst to process your challenges. You can actively work through external and internal problems with examples presented in a wider variety of physical activities.
Various elements of yourself can be supported through outdoor therapies. Fun and engaging activities like ropes courses encourage self-efficacy and mastery over seemingly impossible challenges. Thus, mastering the physical challenges found in outdoor therapies with others showcases your ability to overcome obstacles. Moreover, one of the benefits of adventure therapy and other outdoor therapies is their versatility. There are a variety of therapies and practices you can explore to find the tools best suited for your recovery.
Types of Outdoor Therapies and Activities
Outdoor therapies are a holistic approach to care that makes space for tools that match your needs for healing. As a holistic healing tool, outdoor therapies have a variety of practices to build an individualized care plan. Listed below are some of the outdoor therapies that you can incorporate into your plan of care:
- Wilderness therapy
- Adventure therapy
- Forest therapy
- Walk and talk therapy
- Garden therapy or horticultural therapy
- Animal-assisted therapies
- Equine therapy
- Emotional support animals
- Dogs
- Cats
In addition, as Ralf C. Buckley et al. note in “Bringing Outdoor Therapies into Mainstream Mental Health,” everyone has different psychological and physical capabilities and interests. Therefore, within outdoor therapies, there are a multitude of practices that can be tailored to your specific needs for recovery, such as:
- Problem-solving activities
- Ropes courses
- High ropes courses
- Low ropes courses
- Rock climbing
- Indoor climbing
- Abseiling
- Caving or spelunking
- Rafting
- Backpacking
- Overnight camping
- Snow camping
- Canoeing
- Kayaking
- Fly-fishing
- Ski touring
- Snowshoeing
- Cross country skiing
Engaging in various nature and skill-based activities can support decreasing your distress and improve coping. In addition, physical activities based on mindful body and emotion connection support deepening awareness of the self and others. The skill-building aspect of nature-based activities can be particularly beneficial to adaptive coping. In particular, ropes courses can be an invaluable coping tool to dismantle self-defeating thinking and behaviors for your long-term well-being. Now you may question what are ropes courses. How do ropes courses engage healthier coping patterns? What can you expect during ropes courses?
Ropes Courses in Adventure Therapy
Every treatment program can be customized to suit specific capabilities, needs, and wants. However, there are some common components to ropes courses. According to Iredell County’s Parks and Recreation, ropes courses or a ropes challenge course is a unique experience designed to give you space to form more effective teams. Through high and low ropes courses, you can build stronger communication and cooperation skills. Moreover, with communication and cooperation, you uncover your true capabilities and potential to meet and overcome challenges.
As Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI) notes, ropes courses are typically a collection of elements made from cables and wood. The elements of the ropes courses can be described as ground, high, and low elements. Different elements of a course open up different paths for personal growth and healing. Understanding the elements of ropes courses can give you insight into how these experiences can support personal and group growth.
Benefits of Ropes Courses for Healing
As HMHI notes, ropes courses can include various ground, high, and low elements to encourage physical and psychological wellness. Listed below are the skills and coping techniques that different elements in ropes courses can support:
- Ground and low elements
- Presents opportunities for groups to build:
- Communication
- Cooperation
- Teamwork
- Group cohesion
- Problem-solving
- Trust
- Accountability
- Presents opportunities for groups to build:
- High elements
- Focuses on individual accomplishment while requiring group support, thereby strengthening:
- Communication
- Cooperation
- Self-esteem
- Trust
- Empowerment
- Focuses on individual accomplishment while requiring group support, thereby strengthening:
The individual and group skills you learn in ropes courses are important for challenges with mental health disorders and SUD. Ropes courses support the natural building of self-confidence and belief in your ability to get through difficult moments. As noted in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, self-esteem plays an instrumental role in your mental well-being. Your self-esteem is how much value you place on yourself. Healthy self-esteem is a reflection of how you feel about yourself, but also how you engage with others.
Thus, healthy self-esteem means you can maintain positive beliefs in challenging situations. When you have high global self-esteem, you have more bandwidth for physical, psychological, and social well-being to support life satisfaction. Whereas, low self-esteem is more closely associated with mental health challenges and SUD.
Challenges with low self-esteem contribute to a poor opinion of yourself and your value as a person. Your self-confidence, sense of identity, belief in your competence, and sense of belonging are all harmed by negative thoughts and beliefs about yourself. The less you believe in yourself or your ability to overcome obstacles throughout your life, the more it contributes to self-defeating and destructive behaviors. In this way, ropes courses give you the space to explore and work through those negative thoughts while building self-
You can dismantle maladaptive beliefs about yourself with the active and kinetic nature of ropes courses. The active skill-building and group connection aspects of ropes courses become an important tool for mental health and SUD recovery. Understanding holistic care provides insight into the long-term benefits of therapeutic modalities like ropes courses for lasting recovery.
Components for Holistic Recovery
According to Vermont’s Department of Mental Health (DMH), recovery is a process of change in which you find sobriety, improved health, and wellness for a higher quality of life. Lasting recovery is a whole-person process that encompasses every part of you and your experiences. Thus, understanding the fundamental parts of recovery showcases the value of holistic mind-body modalities like ropes courses to support healing the whole self in mind, body, and spirit. Listed below are the ten fundamental components of recovery for whole-person healing and their relationship to ropes courses:
- Self-direction: You have the independence to define your life goals and build a unique path toward your goals
- Exploring ropes courses is you actively putting your individual needs and goals for recovery at the heart of your treatment
- Individualized and person-centered: Recognizing that recovery is not a one-size-fits-all process or a destination
- Your path to recovery is based on your specific strengths and resiliency and or your needs, preferences, experiences, and cultural background
- Ropes courses provide an alternative path to addressing your challenges
- Through ropes courses, you are introduced to or reminded that you are far more capable of learning and growing
- Ropes courses provide an alternative path to addressing your challenges
- Your path to recovery is based on your specific strengths and resiliency and or your needs, preferences, experiences, and cultural background
- Empowerment: You have the power to decide what services and resources are best suited to support your well-being
- Working with others within your support network to speak for and advocate for your collective needs, wants, desires, and aspirations
- Through empowerment, you become aware that you are in control of your life
- Ropes courses empower you to make choices for your life and work in collaboration with your group to solve problems
- Through empowerment, you become aware that you are in control of your life
- Working with others within your support network to speak for and advocate for your collective needs, wants, desires, and aspirations
- Holistic: Recovery embraces every aspect of you and your life in mind, body, spirit, and community
- Ropes courses introduce you to adventure experiences that can represent the navigation of different parts of your life
- From difficulties communicating your feelings to trusting yourself or others, the holistic nature of ropes courses allows you to address and process those difficult emotions
- Ropes courses introduce you to adventure experiences that can represent the navigation of different parts of your life
- Non-linear: Lasting recovery is born in awareness that recovery is not a linear process
- Recovery is a journey of continual growth, occasional setbacks, acceptance, and learning from your experiences
- Through ropes courses, you can engage in the non-linear process of setbacks and learning as you navigate the high and low challenges of the course
- From learning belaying to attaching carabiners, you can gain skills and understanding through each element of discovery
- Through ropes courses, you can engage in the non-linear process of setbacks and learning as you navigate the high and low challenges of the course
- Recovery is a journey of continual growth, occasional setbacks, acceptance, and learning from your experiences
- Strengths-based: Focuses on building on your strengths to support your resilience to negative beliefs and work through stressful life events
- Through a holistic approach to recovery, you engage in building on your capacities, resilience, talents, adaptive coping strategies, and self-worth
- Building on your strengths in recovery moves you toward healthier connections as you build supportive, trust-based relationships
- Ropes courses build self-confidence as you navigate and overcome the challenges of the course
- It also presents the opportunity for communication and connection with your peers
- Working as a team to meet and get through challenges together
- Peer support: Recognizing that lasting recovery does not happen in isolation
- Recovery is better sustained when you have access to a mutually supportive network
- Support from your peers lived experiences
- Learn from each other’s knowledge and skills
- Find encouragement to work through difficult moments from each other
- Discover a sense of belonging, self-value, supportive connections, and community
- Ropes courses offer the opportunity to process your challenges in collaboration with other
- You learn how to trust in others for mutual support to overcome challenges
- Respect: You recognize the value of respect for yourself, your well-being, and others
- Through respect, you can find self-acceptance and learn to believe in yourself again
- Ropes courses help you reclaim your belief in your ability to get through difficult things
- You rebuild your self-confidence through acceptance of every part of yourself
- Increased self-esteem and self-worth work as a protective factor to dismantle negative self-beliefs
- You rebuild your self-confidence through acceptance of every part of yourself
- Responsibility: Recognizing that despite the value of community in recovery, you also have a responsibility to your self-care and recovery journey
- Taking these important steps to heal takes courage
- Through the process of holistic recovery, you find the courage to seek understanding and find meaning in your experiences and challenges
- You are putting in the work to build coping strategies that will support your long-term wellness
- By exploring and engaging therapeutic modalities like ropes courses, you showcase your courage and commitment to building a recovery plan for your long-term well-being
- Taking these important steps to heal takes courage
- Hope: The process of whole-person recovery instills in you the belief that things can and will get better
- Through the fostering of hope in recovery, you learn that you can overcome the barriers and obstacles life throws at you
- As a catalyst for the recovery process, hope is fostered in ropes courses through your and your group’s active participation in doing the work of the course
Therefore, ropes courses as a part of your individualized treatment plan are another means to discover and put your recovery into practice. With a diverse range of therapeutic modalities found in a holistic approach to recovery gives you the space and tools you need to truly engage in the process of recovery.
Healing With Diverse Therapeutic Modalities at The Guest House
At The Guest House, we believe in holistic healing as a means for lasting recovery that approaches healing as a whole-person process. Diverse therapeutic modalities like ropes courses give you the tools and connections to foster self-acceptance and trust in yourself and others. Through ropes courses, you and your peers can encourage and motivate each other to work through challenges. Moreover, the bodily nature of ropes courses allows you to actively engage with and overcome setbacks on your journey through the course.
We are committed to providing a holistic approach to care to address your specific needs and empower you to face challenges. Through holistic care, we can offer a wide range of therapeutic modalities that support your long-term healing. With customizable and combined treatment plans, we can support our commitment to giving you a safe space where trust, self-acceptance, and belonging are possible.
Poor self-esteem can contribute to challenges with self-defeating thinking and behavior patterns like difficulties with mental health disorders and SUD. However, through holistic approaches to care like ropes courses, you can rediscover or discover your sense of value and belonging. Through the obstacles and challenges of ropes courses with your peers, you build communication, trust, and self-confidence to support healthier coping strategies. With ropes courses, you can actively see that you are capable of overcoming the challenges life and the process of recovery throws at you. At The Guest House, we are committed to providing a wide range of therapeutic modalities to support whole-person healing. Call us at (855) 483-7800 to learn how ropes courses can support your long-term recovery.