Healing in Action: Adventure-Based Counseling with Therapy Groups

(Hardback)

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Healing in Action: Adventure-Based Counseling with Therapy Groups is a practical guide for therapists wanting to integrate interactive games and challenges into their work. It provides current research supporting using ABC with trauma survivors and those recovering from addictions, as well as its efficacy with a broader population. Twelve activity-based chapters take the reader through various one-hour sessions of activities based on a particular theme or material used, complete with 50 descriptive photos of groups in action. Therapists will be able to use these activities to help their patients experience in vivo the joy, freedom and playfulness that are the hallmarks of sound mental health. With its combination of sound theoretical material and practical application, this book is a valuable resource for practitioners and graduate students alike.

Reviews

This book is an impressive tour de force as it integrates the simplest forms of play with the most complex psychological dynamics that unfold as we work with mental illness and addiction. The most outstanding characteristic is its availability to the relatively new and inexperienced activity therapist and its simultaneously profound implications for the more seasoned and sophisticated psychotherapist, particularly those of us who practice group psychotherapy. -- Jeffrey D. Roth, Jeffrey D. Roth, MD, lecturer, department of psychiatry, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and medical director, Working Sobriety Chicago
Barney Straus has created a very useful guide for integrating group activities and exercises into the practice of group psychotherapy. Throughout the book, he recognizes the importance of these activities and understands the meaning and process of their implementation and impact. This thoughtful approach to Adventure-Based Counseling will be of interest to group therapists broadly and those treating patients with trauma or addictions in particular. -- Molyn Leszcz, Molyn Leszcz, MD, CGP, professor, department of psychiatry, University of Toronto, and president-elect, American Group Psychotherapy Association
Straus provides another resource where we can pull his book off the shelf, get clients out of their chairs, and walk the talk of adventure therapy. No longer is staying on the couch the way to approach therapy. -- Michael Gass, PhD, LMFT, College of Health and Human Services, University of New Hampshire

Author Bio

Barney Straus, LCSW, CGP, is a psychotherapist in private practice with Working Sobriety in Chicago. He is the founder of Adventure Forward Therapy, a practice dedicated to using adventure-based methods to help clients achieve therapeutic goals. In addition to providing group and individual therapy, Straus offers adventure-based retreats and trainings. He is also a part-time faculty member at Loyola University Chicago, School of Social Work, and Roosevelt University, Department of Psychology. Barney is a Certified Group Psychotherapist, certified Level 2 challenge course facilitator, and a fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association.