Makes a practice out of the idea that play, recreation, and leisure are an important part of being human
Quality of life includes access to leisure experiences and opportunities for self-development and self-expression. With stress and traumas, our playfulness and participation in the lighter side of life can be inhibited, denied, or abandoned as survival energy takes over. Sometimes we just don’t have access to the resources to explore our interests. We all have innate hobbies and interests and talents to create, play and explore. Recreational Therapy takes the therapeutic value of these activities and uses them with the intention for healing and restoration. It is about using activities for their innate therapeutic value in the context of a therapeutic process.
Therapeutic Recreation is adaptive and aims to take any activity and craft it to allow for satisfying participation of everyone involved. Like wheelchair ramps into buildings, any activity can be adapted to allow access. For those shy, anxious, tired or restricted in any way, sometimes it just takes a thoughtful adapting of an activity to provide access and a good reconnect to what makes you happy, calm, and alive. Restoring a sense of belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity is the right of each and every human being. To enjoy life is a human gift.
If you were given free time and your access to your own pure free will and open resources, what would you do with your time?
Therapeutic Recreation works with the foundations of Experiential Education, Multiple Intelligences, and Multisensory learning. It satisfies the crafter and the athlete and explorer who wants to use these qualities to explore within.
Adventure-Based Therapy is part of this and uses its wonderful concept of Challenge by Choice. You will see many ways that I use these notions of challenge and choice.