Today’s guest is my colleague Dr. Anita Tucker, professor of Social Work, and associate director of the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) Center here at the University of New Hampshire. She is also a co-author of the recent textbook, Adventure Group Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Treatment. Anita was an early practitioner of adventure group therapy in the Social Work field, and through her research she has been a leader in developing the practice.
In this podcast we talk about Anita’s journey to the field of Social Work, and specifically adventure group therapy. We conclude with a discussion of the Facilitated Wave Theory that is the basis for her recent book, Adventure Group Therapy, An Experiential Approach to Treatment .
Links to the Podcast:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/OLv4d1wDeZ0
Podcast Outline
Time Topic
0:01:31 growing up in the outdoors
0:05:31 undergaduate at Dartmouth - political science (government)
0:09:14 Club Med to Chicago
0:14:44 working as a paralegal, discovering a desire to help marginalized people
0:17:08 starting an Masters in Education
0:18:31 switching to Social Work, going into the wild
0:23:08 Masters in Social Work at U of Michigan
0:26:20 social work approach vs. psychodynamics
0:31:31 what is an LICSW
0:33:59 first exposure to adventure therapy
0:35:47 stepping stones and adventure tools
0:41:51 learning to be an adventure therapist - Project Adventure
0:43:32 starting PhD studies
0:47:10 Adventure therapy in social work- bringing it to the mainstream
0:52:25 why therapy?
0:55:15 hardest thing about becoming a therapist
0:57:48 when did she know she was a therapist
1:00:24 group vs. individual therapy
1:03:59 when is adventure therapy appropriate
1:13:38 role of the therapist in adventure therapy
1:15:25 facilitated wave
1:29:42 current role at UNH
Topics Discussed
Ph.D. Social Work, Boston College
