This article serves to challenge the prevailing wisdom that suggests that most trauma is followed by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and is best treated with critical incident stress debriefing (CISD). Instead, recent evidence suggests that many individuals exposed to stress do not experience stress responses. Even those who do, however,…

Outdoor leaders should address emotional safety and anxiety in program planning and reconsider the common practice of pushing participants, particularly troubled youth, out of comfort zones by purposefully increasing perceived risk. An alternative model of adventure education is proposed in which the greatest amount of change and growth comes from…

Defines emotional crises in an adventure education context. Discusses crisis intervention from a mental-health perspective and presents nonviolent intervention techniques for anxiety, disruptive behavior, and harmful behavior. Describes two techniques--critical incident stress debriefing and traumatic stress defusing--aimed at managing traumatic…