While the recent roots of adventure and nature-based therapies can be said to have germinated in the last 50-100 years, it is acknowledged that Indigenous and place-based peoples have been using similar practices and processes for millennia. The contemporary International Adventure Therapy (IAT) network can be directly linked back to the early 1980s and 1990s, with the inaugural International Adventure Therapy Conference held in Australia in 1997 (1IATC). Since that time, the international adventure therapy community has included a diverse range of practitioners, including therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers, therapeutic facilitators, experiential educators, adventure educators, outdoor leaders, researchers, students, and interested individuals. 

Landing on a Name: Why ‘Adventure Therapy?’ (1997 - 2025)

Since the conception of the International Adventure Therapy network, there has been a huge development in our understanding and use of the term Adventure Therapy. Adventure Therapy has been used to describe outdoor, wilderness, and nature-based therapies; and it is important to note that Adventure can occurr inside, as well.

In the English language, the term ‘Adventure Therapy’ is grounded in two key concepts: ‘adventure’ and ‘therapy.’ Derived from Latin and Greek etymology respectively, ‘Adventure’ encapsulates ‘a movement towards’ growth, healing, and wellbeing, and includes challenges of body, mind, relationships, and spirit. The ancient roots of ‘Therapy’ centre on the act and art of ‘attending to’, with the ‘Therapist’ an ‘attendant’. From this perspective, adventure therapists attend to struggles of body, mind, relationships, or spirit. The term Adventure Therapy ‘practitioner’ can be useful for describing therapeutic facilitators and educators who are not trained and registered Therapists, but who nevertheless provide adventure therapy services, usually in partnership with registered Therapists. We strived to be inclusive of all cultures, identities, disciplines and experiences, whilst maintaining an expectation of bio-psychosocial safety for participants and practitioners alike, simultaneously acknowledging that work must be done to dismantle oppressive barriers that prevent participation from many international practitioners.

Even today a specific definition for ‘Adventure Therapy’ is yet to be agreed upon. However it is generally understood that Adventure Therapy includes the practical professional application of intentional, evidence-informed processes that attend to healing and growth through purposeful interventions, often provided in outdoor/natural environments, although not exclusively.

After the first International Adventure Therapy Conference in Western Australia (1997) our international community has met every 3 years in different nations around the world: 2IATC Germany (2000), 3IATC Canada (2003), 4IATC New Zealand (2006), 5IATC United Kingdom (Scotland) (2009), 6IATC Czech Republic (2012), 7IATC USA (2015), 8IATC Australia (2018), 9IATC Norway (2022) and 10IATC in Taiwan (2025).

Development of the Adventure Therapy International Committee (ATIC)

In response to the momentum from the global community, the Adventure Therapy International Committee (ATIC) was established in 2006 in New Zealand (4IATC) as an informal representative network. ATIC’s main purpose was originally to support triennial conferences and the growing community, enhancing connections across continents. Over the decades, 2-4 Chairs have led the network for 3 year terms, supported by a small number of highly dedicated volunteer members. Given the volunteer and unfunded nature of our network, the productivity and progress made by ATIC has naturally ebbed and flowed over time. As new nations have joined conferences and the international community, ATIC has grown to include more national representatives.

Our triennial international gatherings have evolved into a cornerstone for the global adventure and nature-based therapy community, offering a global platform for exchange, learning, and collaboration for adventure practitioners and researchers. Even now, we are continuing to grow.

At the 9IATC in Norway, ATIC members represented 42 different nations. The momentum for international discussion and cross-fertilisation is steadily increasing— though limited to attendees predominantly from English-speaking countries in the global north. This reflected a growing need for ATIC to re-vitalise its approaches to collaborate with the wider community in order to expand.

This desire for growth brought more energy and more expectations. The volunteer network built to organise conferences and support practice and research was becoming tasked with so much more:  guide ethical practice, coordinate research, connect practitioners across continents, and speak for a field that had grown far beyond what the term "adventure therapy" originally described. Changing needs in local contexts called for more collegial international collaboration. A question arose: could ATIC step towards deeper responsibility for our shared field and become more ‘organised?  

From ATIC to IAANT

Becoming an entity became our answer to that question.

The ATIC ‘Entity’ Working Group’ was established in Norway in 2022, 9IATC. In 2025, the ‘Entity Working Group’ proposed that ATIC transitions to become a formal international entity with the words International, Adventure, and Nature-Based Therapies . The proposed new entity will strive to continue the Adventure Therapy International Conference’s role and purpose and to build a stronger, wider, representative diverse community with a stronger voice across areas of practice, increasing representation. Yet, there was one more decision: Federation, or Association?

The decision was made, and the International Association forAdventure and Nature-Based Therapies (IAANT) was approved by vote. IAANT reflects what our community told us in a 2024 survey: that our fields include nature-based, ecotherapeutic, wilderness, outdoor and place-based therapeutic practices, and that people need to be able to see their own work in the name. Our governance structure is reflected in the term Association, and the way we function was discussed throughout the 10th conference in Taiwan.

How IAANT is structured today

We're built around Working Groups — volunteer teams, each taking responsibility for one area of the association's work, and each setting its own way of operating together. Every group elects two representatives to a larger Leadership Team, which holds the strategic direction and makes the significant decisions about the Association, chaired by four Co-Chairs drawn from different parts of the world. 

Alongside these sits our network of National Representatives, made up of one to six people per member nation. Their job is to carry information both ways between the international community and their own. In the past, the national representatives were the decision-making group of people that formed ATIC, the committee. This has now changed, with the Now the National representatives working group focuses on building community and supporting our National Reps in maintaining engagement in their regions between conferences. now a working group focused on connecting nations and regions, and widening our reach - helping others connect.

Everything comes back to a General Assembly held at each triennial conference, at which the progress of Working Groups and the Leadership Team is reported, and community members can question, challenge, and steer the intentions of the community. It's designed to be a democratic consensus-building structure in which the needed work is done by the people closest to it, with community safeguards ensuring that no single region or small group of people can quietly become the central power brokers. We encourage all community members to support the Leadership Team to be accountable to these aspirations.