2021 International Conference Education & Programming

What's on the Agenda?

This year, our theme is "Common Roots, Many Branches". Individually, we branch out with our varied backgrounds and experiences across a variety of disciplines and settings. Collectively, we unite through our roots in Experiential Education.

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Registration has officially closed. There will be an opportunity in the New Year to purchase access to recordings!

Daily Schedule At-A-Glance

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ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN STANDARD TIME (USA) (UTC -5)

*Schedules are subject to change and more events will be added!

Extended Education Sessions 

Extended Education sessions take place prior to or after the start of the conference, and are in-depth workshops and activities that provide an expanded opportunity for professional development. Extended Education workshops and activities are designed to provide individuals with an opportunity to enhance their Conference experience and dive deeper into a particular topic. 

AEE Therapeutic Adventure Professional Group (TAPG) Series

Opening Circle: 10/19 6-9PM ET Creating Community & Hard Conversations. Join us as we gather again to connect, and share knowledge around hard conversations; both between colleagues and between clinicians/clients. 

Workshop: 10/26 11AM-2PM ET Home: A Conversation about Bodies, Health, and Weight Stigma

Presenters: Nicky Treadway & Tierra Carter
Description: Our bodies are our homes and many individuals have complex relationships with their bodies due to societal programming about acceptable body sizes and shapes. This workshop will feature education about the Health At Every Size (HAES) philosophy and provide opportunities for us all to examine our contribution to weight stigma and fatphobia. As facilitators of and partners in adventure, respecting all bodies is a necessary component of the therapeutic alliance.
CCAT Core Element Addressed: Therapeutic Alliance Building, socio-cultural considerations.

Workshop: 10/28 6-9PM ET Presenters: Jorge Venceslau & Jeff Dvorak

Presenters: Jorge Venceslau & Jeff Dvorak

Description: Adventure is a state of mind. In this workshop, we will share how we want to challenge our clients to find adventure everywhere they go. Whether it’s rafting down a class three rapid or walking down a street in Lisbon. When we are able to find equal meaning and excitement around every bend in the river or around every corner of a street, we begin to live our lives with openness. Join us to learn about the way we incorporate and honor the social and cultural differences of not only those we serve, but the communities in which we host our programs.
CCAT Core Element Addressed: Socio-Cultural Considerations

Workshop: 11/2 11AM-2PM ET Translating Wilderness Therapy elements into Outpatient Therapy 

Presenter: Collin Rhoade
Description: This workshop will provide conceptual information on Wilderness Therapy intervention elements and describe how these elements can be translated into the outpatient therapy setting. Sources will include relevant research, personal experience from the presenter, and additional experience from clinicians who have operated in both Wilderness Therapy and outpatient settings. The workshop information will span from the conceptualization level to the practical delivery of relevant interventions. Participants will be involved in group brainstorming as well as sharing personal experience of creatively translating interventions to fit a particular setting and client. 
CCAT Core Element Addressed: Conceptual Knowledge in A.T., A.T. Interventions

Closing Circle: 11/4 6-9PM ET Roots and Wings: Join us as we close out our second annual Extended Education Series with continued connection, growing our professional community, learning more ways A.T. can impact our communities, and our common roots.

All events will be recorded and made available for attendees to view until October 2022

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Behavioral First Responder

Curt Davidson

Dates: 11/16, 11/23, 11/30, 12/7, 12/14  Times: 6:30p-7:45p EST (each day)

The Behavioral First Responder is designed for instructors, administrators, and counselors of all varieties who want to understand common behavioral issues and helpful responses within the experiential education context. Our course will teach you overarching theories, models, and techniques adapted from the fields of social work, counseling, and psychology to help you understand the dynamic nature of behavioral situations, underlying motivations, and methods and strategies to manage and mitigate behavioral crises. This course starts with an in-depth look at preventative strategies with the idea that we can tailor programming and staff practices to avoid behavioral and mental health issues while on our programs. Next, we'll explore helpful tools to manage and mitigate behavioral and mental health incidents. This includes de-escalation skills, behavioral assessment, and development plans for moving forward and helping the student continue to have a successful course. Finally, this course will examine how to help students enact long-term, pro-social behavioral change. Simply put, this certification is designed to help you ally with the student before, during, and after their difficult moment. Participants will walk away from this course with practical applications of theories and models taught via activities, instructor facilitation techniques, and many more resource for promoting healthier behavior and promoting mental health through Experiential Education.

Let's Build an Adventure: Implementing Table-Top Roleplaying Games as an Integrative Educational Strategy

Jeromy Slaby

Dates: 11/4-11/5  Times: 7-9am & 10am-12pm PST (both days)

The explosion of popularity in table-top roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and Call of Cthulhu, has opened up a unique opportunity to provide students with a relevant and engaging way to not only teach academic content but also to build social-emotional skills. This extended session will walk through how each part of the adventure building and playing process can be utilized as an educational component. Much of this workshop will focus on exploring, developing, and testing different integration ideas at each step as a group. It will address questions like, “How can I use the worldbuilding stage to integrate science and social studies?”, “How can I adjust the rules so that students have to practice specific communication skills?”, or “What can I do to ensure that one of my students feels represented and included in the process?” This session will utilize the Dungeons and Dragons 5E system but will explore this integration in a way that can be applied to any system that you are familiar with. A general understanding of how roleplaying games work is preferred but not required.

Risk Management Information Systems: Implementing Safety I and Safety II approaches with IncidentAnalytix

Rick Curtis

Date: 11/5 Time: 1:00p-4:30p EDT

Managing risk is more than simply collecting incident reports. You need a comprehensive data collection and analytics system—a Risk Management Information System (RMIS)—to analyze incident and close-call data and provide detailed analytics to identify trends and develop actionable insights to reduce risk and enhance program safety. Using case study analysis and hands-on practice with on-line incident data you will learn how to combine the benefits of traditional Safety I methodologies with the newer Safety II methodologies and practice applying Rasmussen’s Systems Model of Contributing Factors and Mitigating Factors using IncidentAnalytix, the most comprehensive RMIS developed for the outdoor education industry.

Risk Management for Outdoor Programs

Jeff Baierlein

Dates: 11/3 (45 min), 11/10, 11/17, 11/24, 12/1 Times: 11:00a - 12:30p ET

The Risk Management for Outdoor Programs training by Viristar is a comprehensive, 40-hour online course that provides a systems-based approach to understanding why incidents occur and how they may be prevented. Topics include human factors in incident causation, systems thinking, legal considerations, safety standards, emergency response, risk management planning, and more. The course has weekly Zoom calls with independent work and small group projects in between. Participants review outdoor risk management models, learn best safety practices, develop a Risk Management Plan outline, complete a mock Risk Management Review, and develop a Strategic Improvement Plan for their organization. Details at https://courses.viristar.com.

Extraordinary Facilitation - Insights from half-a-century of working and playing with groups.

Dr. Jim Cain

Date: 11/15 Time: 11:00a - 2:00p ET

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Author and Teambuilding Guru Dr. Jim Cain shares the collective knowledge gained from working and playing with groups over the past 50+ years, including over 100 tips to help you become a better facilitator, his favorite teambuilding activities of all time, creative debriefing techniques, the ten teambuilding books every facilitator should own and a special collection of best practices for virtual facilitation.