Description
Thirty minute oral presentation. Abstract:Outdoor Adventure Activities (OAA) and Adventure Therapy (AT) can positively impact resilience in young women and could provide valuable experiences which benefit this population (1, 2). This presentation will discuss a feasibility study of a co-designed OAA intervention which aims to promote resilience in young women named ‘The Firebird Project’. The intervention was delivered over five-weeks in a UK university, utilising nearby nature and short weekly OAA sessions. Eight young women completed The Firebird Project and participated in interviews to share their thoughts and reflections. The Firebird Project was feasible to deliver and showed promise for promoting resilience and wellbeing in young women. Reflexive thematic analysis resulted in five main themes: ‘A Safe and Welcoming Community’, ‘Restoration and Regulation: Unwinding and managing stress’, ‘Planting seeds and lighting fires’, ‘Opening Eyes and Minds’, and ‘Ready To Be Resilient: Understanding and Practice’. The presentation will cover the findings of the feasibility study and explore what the findings suggest regarding what works, how, for who, and under which circumstances. It will conclude by offering suggestions of how this research may inform future studies, intervention development, and AT practice.
References:
1. Allan JF, McKenna J. (2022). Trajectories of Resilience in University Inductees
following Outdoor Adventure (OA) Residential Programmes. Psychiatry
International. 3(1):67-90.
2. Brown CL, Christian DD, Crowson HM. (2023). Effects of an Adventure Therapy
Mountain Bike Program on Middle School Students’ Resiliency. Journal of Child
and Adolescent Counselling. 9(2):222-41.
| Period | 9 Nov 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Association for Outdoor Therapy Annual Conference: Sharing practices and building perspectives in Outdoor Therapy |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Capel Curig, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | National |
Keywords
- resilience, youth, women, outdoor adventure, feasibility