Christine Lynn Norton

• PhD
• Professor at Texas State University

Background: Youth who have experienced cancer face challenges that include social isolation, increased psychological risks, and developmental interruptions. Adventure therapy may offer a tool to enhance resilience for this population. Purpose: This study sought to understand how adolescents with lived experiences of cancer perceive and experience t...

This brief article summarizes five trends and issues discussed during a moderated panel and round table discussion at the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Symposium on Experiential Education Research (SEER) in November 2023. The aim of this session was to expand on prior documented trends and disseminate current experiential and outdoor...

Adventure therapy programs can promote beneficial experiences and attributes that cultivate positive youth development (PYD). This study explores the impact of an urban, outdoor adventure therapy program for underserved youth. Multiple versions of the Positive Youth Development Inventory were given to participants and a comparison group (N = 161) a...

Objective Despite advances in cancer treatment and increased survival, adolescents in treatment for cancer often suffer from psychosocial distress, negative mood, and chronic health problems. Wilderness therapy is considered a promising program to address psychosocial issues among adolescents with mental or behavioral health issues. There is little...

The training and development of international adventure therapy practitioners has had somewhat limited critical examination from cross cultural perspectives. While individuals and organizations have collaborated internationally for decades, to the authors' knowledge, there has not yet been a concerted effort to examine core training for wide intern...

Students with experience in foster care (SEFC) are an often overlooked student subgroup within the first-generation student population in higher education. The lack of attention on SEFC as a marginalized group in need of specialized support and guidance in higher education is the impetus for this study. In order to address this gap, the Texas Educa...

This paper presents findings from an investigation of nature-based practices, from the perspectives of 10 academics/educators from six nations. Participants engaged in a focus group exploring the prevalence and inclusion of nature in social work practice and education. While the study focused on individual members’ experiences and perspectives, the...

Involuntary youth transport (IYT) is a controversial practice used to admit adolescents into residential care. Critics point out that IYT is in need of regulation and is best used as a last resort. This article examines the risks and benefits of IYT, especially the longterm effects on the client, in order to ensure that all facets of a client’s tre...

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) now known as COVID-19 changed the world and the outdoor adventure and experiential education (OAEE) fields were not immune. These changes significantly impacted various OAEE programs in multiple ways and at different levels of intensity. Purpose: The purpose of this study...

There is a dearth of research in the field of outdoor behavioral healthcare on the direct care staff at wilderness therapy programs, known as field staff. Some research has identified direct care staff as particularly susceptible to burnout and high levels of stress due to personal, organizational, and social factors. Recent research on burnout in...

Objective This study investigates the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental health among a sample of college students. It also explores whether health behaviors and social support may help to explain the link between ACEs and mental health. Participants: Participants were students at a large public university in the So...

• Studies demonstrate that preventive practices, including restorative practices and social and emotional learning, reduce the need for suspension. However, emerging findings suggest that preventive practices perpetuate the same rates of racial disproportionality in suspension as traditional disciplinary codes; evidence of persistent racial disprop...

Women experiencing homelessness have high levels of psychosocial distress related to complex trauma, barriers to mental health treatment, and social isolation. The HOPE Adventure Therapy program utilized outdoor adventure therapy to increase hope and well-being among women homeless shelter residents. Using the Hope Scale and the Outcome Rating Scal...

Child abuse is epidemic in the United States and has dire long-term consequences. Innovative interventions are needed to address the negative cognitive, affective and behavioral effects of child abuse. This mixed-method study examined if adventure therapy is 1) an effective mental health intervention for child and adolescent survivors of abuse and...

Child abuse is epidemic in the United States and has dire long-term consequences. Innovative interventions are needed to address the negative cognitive, affective and behavioral effects of child abuse. This mixed-method study examined if adventure therapy is 1) an effective mental health intervention for child and adolescent survivors of abuse and...

Rationale Social work has long supported activity-based group work for young people. One such approach includes outdoor behavioral healthcare (OBH), also known as wilderness therapy, which often employs nonclinical field staff to lead outdoor activities as part of the overall treatment model. Although men and women both serve as field guides, the c...

Based on a narrative inquiry with women outdoor leaders, in this chapter, the authors discuss how women experience gender whilst becoming outdoor leaders, including gender socialization and the internal and external resources that facilitate the path to leadership. The chapter utilizes in-depth narrative inquiry to recognize barriers to participati...

Two social media posts (Highland, 2015; Johnson, 2015) about the authenticity of women’s experiences in the outdoors fueled an intense dialogue among the authors of this paper. These posts sparked healthy debate, and we asked ourselves, “Why does our apparel, our aesthetic appeal, our physicality, or even our motivation become subject to critique a...

Communication in families is essential for healthy family functioning . However, when youth act out and exhibit high-risk behaviors, trust is broken and communication in families is negatively impacted. When this occurs, some families turn to therapeutic wilderness programs for help. One such program is Intercept, a program for struggling teens and...

(Full text: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KVwXn2js7xs95nIVQd6p/full) Adventure programming has seen considerable growth throughout the world. While newly established programs aim to meet the needs of their prospective clients, failing to account for cultural differences when con- ducting or designing programs may impede this goal. Non-western a...

Nondeliberative group work allows group members to generate their own solutions and provides experiential opportunities to transfer learning to life outside of a therapeutic setting. Adventure therapy is explored as a tool for engaging groups in a nondeliberative manner. The theoretical underpinnings of adventure therapy are presented and contextua...

Every year approximately 130 families participate in Intercept, a program for struggling teens and their families at the Voyageur Outward Bound School, because they are concerned about the loss of trust, poor communication, and/or other high-risk behaviors they are experiencing with their children. Though families hope for improvements in family fu...

With roots in experiential education and Outward Bound, wilderness therapy (WT) is a growing field of mental health care for youth. WT uses outdoor modalities combined with therapeutic interventions to assist youth to promote clinical changes. Previous research has shown it to be effective in improving the mental health of clients; however, little...

Background Considering the sensitive ethical issues related to involuntary treatment of adolescents, research investigating youth transport practices and treatment outcomes is clearly needed. Youth transport is common practice in many private pay programs, including wilderness therapy programs. Objective This study of 350 adolescents in wilderness...

Emerging adults (18-25) aging out of foster care are more likely than their peers who did not age out to experience poor outcomes. Using content analytic procedures, this study analyzed semi-structured interviews (n = 134) and four focus groups with homeless emerging adults, including a subset that aged out of foster care. Findings indicate partici...

Adventure Therapy around the Globe is an important, peer-reviewed collection of papers pulled from the from the 5th and 6th International Adventure Therapy Conference proceedings. These papers present international perspectives and diverse approaches to adventure therapy theory, practice and research. Adventure therapy program models and interventi...

This mixed-methods study examines the relationship between adolescent identity complexity (Clin Social Work J 21(1):11–24 1991) and youth purpose related to participation in a wilderness experience program at an alternative, residential boarding school in Colorado. Students in this study (N = 55) completed an adapted version of the Self-Worth Index...

The authors report quantitative findings from a meta-analysis of studies investigating the relationship between attachment style, grounded in theory developed by Bowlby and Ainsworth; and Snyder's theoretical model of hope (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991; Snyder, 1994). Statistically significant results provide support for further investigation of clinic...

This state of knowledge article provides an overview of Adventure Therapy (AT) as it is practiced with adolescents in North America, presenting (a) current findings in AT research with adolescents, (b) critical issues in AT, (c) the need for training and professional development in AT, and (d) professionalization in AT. Implications of current find...

Purpose: The unsatisfactory achievement of adult competency among emerging adults aging out of foster care is well documented. However few studies have examined how development within the child welfare system impacts the ability to achieve competence. In this study, homeless emerging adults who had not aged out of foster care were compared to pee...

Purpose: When adolescents are resistant to treatment, families are faced with the challenge of how to engage them, sometimes against their will. This phenomenon has led to the use of youth transport practices by some residential programs. From a social work perspective there are ethical concerns related to the involuntary treatment of adolescents l...

Young people today face a multitude of challenges, especially when growing up in an urban environment. Risk factors such as poverty, exposure to gangs, drugs, and community and family violence threaten healthy development. The positive youth development (PYD) approach attempts to combat these personal and environmental challenges by providing youth...

Campus support programs for foster care alumni (FCA) have emerged in an attempt to improve higher education outcomes for former foster youth. However, these programs have little empirical or theoretical literature to guide their development. We present a case study of a newly developed campus support program for FCA which utilizes a strengths persp...

Alternative high school students are at risk of negative social, emotional, and academic outcomes. School-based group counseling is often implemented by mental health professionals to address these risk factors. This study explores benefits of school-based group counseling utilizing mindfulness meditation to help students improve functioning. Parti...

Adventure therapy, an experiential intervention that combines outdoor, adventure based activities and group process, is used in direct practice by clinical social workers; however, it is unclear to what extent clinical social workers are actually utilizing these techniques. This research project surveyed a random sample of clinical social workers a...

Training in groupwork in social work education is a critical aspect of promoting the continued use of groupwork in social work practice. Groupwork courses in social work education should integrate theory and practice; emphasize the processes that make groups effective; and train group leaders by providing experiential learning opportunities for how...

Norton CL. Social work and the environment: An ecosocial approach This article draws on insights from social work, ecopsychology and ecofeminism to inform an ecosocial approach honouring humans' interconnectedness with nature. It re‐examines social work's ecosystems perspective and redefines its central ‘person‐in‐environment’ configuration to embr...

This paper examines the importance of the therapeutic relationship and the need for cultural competence in adventure therapy. Cultural differences between therapist and client can sometimes result in possible misinterpretation and conflict, which can lead to problems in the therapeutic relationship and negatively affect treatment outcomes. This pap...

This article describes a feminist-informed reflective teaching project enacted by a group of social work faculty at Texas State University–San Marcos. Utilizing Schon's notion of reflection-in-action, faculty formed a participatory action research group to implement reflective techniques to further their professional development as new teachers and...

Self-injury among female adolescents has become an important clinical issue in social work practice. Anxiety has been cited as one of the primary reasons that self-injury occurs in this population. This paper explores the role of empathy in mitigating anxiety and helping with emotional regulation and highlights the need to empathically monitor the...

Innovative Interventions in Child and Adolescent Mental Health is a unique composite of the literature on various innovative interventions for children and adolescents, and provides a developmental and neurobiological rationale for utilizing innovative interventions with this population. Based on the latest research, this book emphasizes that child...

Adolescent depression has become epidemic in the United States, with statistics showing that one in five adolescents may suffer from depression (Brent and Birmaher in N Engl J Med 347(9), 2002). This article examines adolescent depression from a psychodynamic perspective, and identifies the psychodynamics of adolescent depression as the affective c...

Abstract: Training in groupwork in social work education is a critical aspect of promoting the continued use of groupwork in social work practice. Groupwork courses in social work education should integrate theory and practice; emphasize the processes that make groups effective; and train group leaders by providing experiential learning opportuniti...

Training in groupwork in social work education is a critical aspect of promoting the continued use of groupwork in social work practice. Groupwork courses in social work education should integrate theory and practice; emphasize the processes that make groups effective; and train group leaders by providing experiential learning opportunities for how...

Social work as a profession has a unique commitment in honoring the dignity and worth of human beings, and believing in the power of human relationships (NASW, 2008). In its approach to helping people, social work has distinguished itself through its dual focus on the person and the environment, a construct which has been widely identified as perso...

Rates of adolescent depression in the United States have become alarmingly high, reemphasizing the need for holistic interventions for afflicted youth. This study examined the impact of wilderness therapy on youth with depression using a mixed methods research design. Data were collected via pre- and post-tests using the Reynolds Adolescent Depress...