Adventure therapy is described as the prescriptive use of adventure experiences provided by mental health professionals, often conducted in natural settings, that kinesthetically engage clients on cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels. Adventure therapy typically stands under the over arching ecotherapy umbrella and is usually facilitated outdoors but can be done indoors as well. The underlying philosophy of adventure therapy largely refers to experiential education, and has evolved to develop experiential education and outdoor recreations into adventure therapy. Adventure therapy approaches psychological treatment through experience and action activities, often involving physical and emotional challenge. The continual evaluation and consideration of feelings, actions and thoughts within the overarching context of the therapeutic relationship is the key to adventure therapy work. 

Adventure therapy adds many benefits to the client, family, and the treatment process. Experiential therapies like AT aid the participants ability to morph the interventions into a relevant and profoundly personal experience. Adventure therapy generates faster results that last longer than any other kind of therapy. The active creativity and problem solving/planning involved in AT takes one out of a trauma response. Neuroplasticity explains that the brain changes physiologically as a result of experience, and AT can be that experience. AT provides a healthy amount of risk and stress as Richard Lazarus coined “eustress”. With the provocations brought on by the adventure experience, the danger that lurks within a crisis becomes an opening, a chance for change, an opportunity. The lack of regular risk activities may be a contributing factor in depression. This depression is caused by a lack of norepinephrine, which is a chemical released during risk activity. The depression resulting from a lack of such risk activities can lead to violent acts or substance abuse as youth desperately seek to climb out of their low affect states.

Adventure therapy provides direct feedback that is easy to read and transferable to numerous scenarios for the client and family. It is an opportunity for the client and family to discover who they are and what they are capable of in a healthy way. Adventure therapy asks youth and families to problem solve continuously, building this skill along with skills in communication, collaboration, connections, cooperation, trust, support, conflict management, coping strategies, and emotional regulation. With the development of these skills resiliency is bound to follow. Building resiliency comes from the reorganization of the meaning of experience, which literally develops new attitudes, values, and skills that help clients to be more equipped to address intra- and interpersonal problems in the future. Adventure work is especially beneficial for those families hesitant to participate, as its unique playful and interactive approach tends to engage even the most resistant of clients. AT fosters the development of inherent motivation in individuals to want to change despite low motivations at the onset of treatment. This increased motivation carries over to other aspects of life, and the clients are more likely to continue to engage in treatment. Adventure therapy also creates a platform for physical activity, which releases endorphins that increase positive affect. In addition, the increased heart rate associated with physical activity reregulates the central nervous system.