Spaces currently available at our Prestwich site on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons
The Therapy Adventure delivers a specialist outdoor provision for young people aged 8-18 who require 1:1 or small group support and psychological input to be able to engage in education.
The Centre has been created for children with mental health needs, neurodiversity or experience of school related trauma. Our placements support young people’s mental health, working with young people to develop a toolbox of coping skills to build emotional regulation, confidence and resilience so they can integrate back into the school environment.
Placements are typically 6 months to one year long, but where suitable, we can work with young people in the longer term.
Young people engage in outdoor activities tailored to their own needs, which may include, Bushcraft, Rock Climbing, Hill walking or other outdoor and adventure activities. We use these outdoor and adventurous activities as a stimulus for growth and introduce young people to evidence-based coping skills to support their wellbeing outside of sessions.
Our programme draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Solution Focused Approaches and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy to support young people to develop the coping skills they need to thrive.
In the course of our outdoor and adventurous activities we support young people to challenge negative thinking, build self-soothing behaviours and overcome challenges. We also build in opportunities to develop Social Skills.
All our programmes are trauma-informed and every member of our team has Clinical Supervision and access to regular support from a Clinical Psychology Team.
The Therapy Adventure Alternative Provision is led by a team of Certified Outdoor Mental Health Practitioners and registered Therapists including a Clinical Psychologist, Speech and Language Therapist and Occupational Therapist.
Our Trained Outdoor Therapy Dog, Lily, regularly visits sessions. Therapy dogs can support young people's emotional regulation skills.
A typical student enrols with us for one day per week. This is made up of one 2 hour session in our Woodlands and 2-3 hours of home learning. Our Home Learning programme includes the Nature, Wildlife and Wellbeing AQA Unit Programme,. Each student will receive a Nature, Wildlife and Wellbeing Activity Box. The boxes will provide hands-on experiences to complement the online learning and help students explore the natural world around them.
Our beautiful outdoor setting creates a relaxed, nurturing and low-pressure environment that enables young people to thrive. There are a maximum of 4 children in the provision at any one time and each child works independently with their own Certified Outdoor Mental Health Practitioner.
Although all work is one to one, we build in opportunities each day for young people to engage with their peers, when they are ready. This begins slowly through shared conversations around the fire circle and builds as they get ready to transition back to a school environment. Our Speech and Language Therapist is on hand to provide each young person with the support the need to develop social communication skills and build relationships with peers.
Find out more
If you are a Parent or Carer, a local authority, commissioner or school and you are interested in finding out more you can book a call with our manager Georgina.