AdventureMind 2024
Hosted by Beyond Bendrigg, in partnership with The University of Central Lancashire
21st & 22nd November 2024
AdventureMind is a conference series exploring the importance of adventure to wellbeing and mental health. It is for everyone who is interested in in understanding the connection between adventure and wellbeing, including outdoor professionals, wellbeing practitioners, researchers, health professionals & all adventurers.
This year’s theme is ‘Accessible Adventure’ and is hosted by Beyond Bendrigg, in partnership with The University of Central Lancashire.
We will examine the importance of adventure for mental health of those who face the most significant barriers to accessing challenges in the outdoors. Barriers might include poor mental health, disability, gender identity, race, and socio-economic factors. These groups stand to benefit the most - so we will also explore how to deliver accessible and inclusive adventures for all and design them to maximise the power of adventure for everyone.
It is recognised as CPD by The Mountain Training Association, Association of Mountaineering Instructors and British Association of International Mountain Leaders.
This 2024 event will be hosted by Beyond Bendrigg, part of the Bendrigg Trust – an accessible outdoor centre for disabled and disadvantaged children and adults near Kendal in Cumbria. Delegates will have the chance to see how Bendrigg designs and delivers accessible and inclusive adventures with opportunities to discuss ideas with Bendrigg staff and tour the facilities.
Information on previous AdventureMind conferences
The full line up of speakers and workshops will be updated soon. Here are the first confirmed sessions:
Prof Katharina Luttenberger - Psychotherapy for refugees and those with depression using climbing techniques
Professor Katharina Luttenberger and her colleagues have developed “boulder psychotherapy” which combines psychotherapeutic interventions with action- and body-oriented bouldering exercises. She has applied boulder psychotherapy with different groups including clients with depression, adolescents at risk and refugees in Lebanon. Katharina will share her theories and discoveries from practice and how she is "thrilled by the intense connection between body and mind and the fun that people experience with this type of psychotherapy".
Andy Reid MBE - Making physical activity interventions accessible to all community groups
Ex-soldier Andy Reid MBE, will talk about how and why he set up the ‘Standing Tall Foundation’ which promotes mental and physical health and wellbeing to vulnerable groups including those experiencing financial hardship and people recovering from addiction. Andy will discuss how he designs the interventions, which include counselling, adventure, and mindfulness, to be open to all.
Suresh Paul - Training carers to work with clients with complex needs and marginalised communities
Suresh is a research practitioner and director of Equal Adventure. He will share his latest research working with those in remote Scottish communities that have very complex needs and how this research might change the care system and the provision of adventure, green and blue health provision. Equal Adventure also designs and produces kit that makes adventure accessible for anyone in any environment and Suresh will be available to discuss the equipment available.
Zaynab Jogi - designing programmes to promote mindset that are open to all communities
Zaynab set up ‘Zee’s Adventures’ to promote health, foster social interactions and encourage a connection with nature. Programs focus on personal development, volunteering and nature therapy. Zee will talk about the challenges she faced in accessing the outdoors growing up and how she is now designing programmes to ensure that other people from her community don’t face the same barriers.
Jack Bennett - How to make adventure activities and volunteering more accessible
Jack describes himself as a deaf blind person who is seeking to break the barriers faced by the deaf blind community, but also other disabilities - his ultimate goal is to work in outdoor education. Jack will talk about what the outdoors means to him and how organisations can make their activities and volunteering more accessible so that more people can experience the power of adventure
Dr Dave Harvey - increasing equitable participation in the outdoors
Dave has been a passionate supporter of the outdoor learning sector for over 30 years. Dave will talk about his PhD, which he completed at the University of Cumbria in 2022, which has led to a wide range of projects that share an underlying goal of increasing equitable participation in the outdoors.
Alex Staniforth - How ‘Mind Over Mountains’ design accessible programmes.
Alex will speak about why and how he founded the charity Mind Over Mountains which offers walking in nature, mindfulness, and counselling services. He will share how Mind Over Mountains design their programme to be accessible and inclusive and the positive impact positively on mental health the programme delivers.
Nick Liley - Accessible and Inclusive Adventures for all
Nick Liley, Centre Director at Bendrigg, will introduce insight into specialised provision of Outdoor Education for disabled people. Nick will share how Bendrigg uses the inclusion spectrum to ensure that activities are open to all in order to build resilience, mental wellbeing and independence and will discuss some of the barriers to participation that disabled people face in accessing outdoor adventures.
Belinda Kirk - How to better design and deliver adventure to impact wellbeing
Belinda Kirk, Founder and author of Adventure Mind will present the progress of the Adventure Mind collaborations in 2024. She will also lead interactive workshops to further develop how organisations can better design their programmes to maximise impact on wellbeing.
Sara Murray - Exploring ideas of compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and resilience
Sara Murray, Training, Research and Consultancy Manager at Beyond Bendrigg will run workshops exploring the impact that working with people who have experienced trauma or disability can have on our own mental health and wellbeing, and how we can increase our resilience and reduce compassion fatigue and burnout in ourselves and our workforce.
Details of the all-new workshops at AdventureMind will be updated in September
Who is AdventureMind for?
The AdventureMind conference brings together over one hundred adventure practitioners, health & wellbeing professionals, researchers, policy makers and all adventurers to better understand how adventurous activity can positively affect mental health and wellbeing in the UK.
The conference is designed for any outdoor organisation or practitioner that works to improve the wellbeing of their participants and for individuals who are interested in how adventure can affect them. Attendees benefit from learning about new research, smarter ways to deliver adventure, how to best assess impact and how to win funding.
Researchers benefit from sharing their results with those that can action them and building collaborations for future work.
Policy makers have the opportunity to work with high profile practitioners and researchers to examine ways of bringing outdoor adventure into mental health planning.
The event incorporates indoor and outdoor workshops, keynote speakers, panel discussions, networking opportunities, presentations of case studies by practitioners and the latest evidence by leading scientists.
Interested in presenting your work?
We invite you to submit your abstracts for presentation about your research or practice around the theme of Accessible Adventure or a short proposal for a seminar/ practical workshop.
Research and abstracts about practice-based submissions are welcome with content connecting any form of adventure for positive mental health to accessibility, inclusion, belonging, health equity, outdoors, outdoor learning, outdoor education, nature connection, and social prescribing. Authors from a practice background with no research experience are welcome to submit, please get in touch with us if you would like further information or support with your submission.
Presentation submissions are invited in the form of a 300- word summary using the guidance below. Proposals for seminar/practical workshops are limited to 150-words. Referencing is not required in the abstract. Full information and how to submit your abstract here
Location
Adventure Mind 2024 will take place at The Bendrigg Trust – an accessible outdoor centre just outside Kendal in Cumbria.
Just of Junction 37 of the M6 motorway, nestled between the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. Postcode: LA8 0NR Grid Ref: 581892
The nearest train station is Oxenholme Lake District, approximately 4 miles away. There is no public transport to Bendrigg Lodge however pick up can be arranged with Bendrigg or taxis are available outside the station building.
Please note, parking is extremely limited at Bendrigg, so we are encouraging travel by train or car-sharing wherever possible.
What’s included:
Eary Bird Price is £165 per person including:
All presentations, indoor and outdoor workshops, panel discussions and networking sessions
1 x two-course networking dinner on Thursday evening
2 x cooked lunches
Two servings of tea/coffee/biscuits each day
Please note, the price will increase to £190 after July.
Please let us know about any accessibility or additional needs you might have on the booking form or contact Bendrigg direct to chat through how we can make sure you can fully participate in the event.
We want as many people as possible to be able to attend AdventureMind 2024. If your circumstances mean that the cost of the event means you can’t attend, please contact Bendrigg for details of bursaries. Bursaries are designed to support people to attend who otherwise wouldn’t be able to for financial reasons.
Accommodation
Comfortable rooms are available onsite and at a local basic hotel a few minutes’ drive away. Shuttle buses will bring you to and from the hotel to the conference each day.
You can book Wednesday and/or Thursday night and prices include breakfast.
The conference will take place just before the Kendal Mountain Festival – so why not stay on in the area for the weekend and be inspired by all the events taking place during the festival! It may be possible to stay on at Bendrigg during the Mountain Festival, contact Bendrigg direct to discuss your requirements.
If you have any questions please contact Sara Murray sara@bendrigg.org.uk