The use of adventure therapy in therapeutic communities in the Czech Republic

Background: Stressful programs should be part of every addiction treatment in certified therapeutic communities in the Czech Republic (Adameček et al., 2006). Nevšímal (Ed., 2007) writes about stressful programs in therapeutic communities. However, topic adventure therapy and its use in addiction treatment appears anywhere in Czech literature, so I would focus on it in my thesis. Objective: The aim of this study is to summarize available informations about adventure therapy (definition, history, characteristic features, etc.) and determine how therapeutic communities in the Czech Republic use adventure therapy in treatment of addictions, what are the views and attitudes of therapists who organize stressful programs, and what are the problems in organization of stressful programs. Methods: This is a qualitative research conducted using quastionnaires and semistructed interviews with experts who work in therapeutic communities in the Czech Republic. I used the frequency response analysis method and a simple enumeration. The research group consists of 7 respondets from 6 therapeutic communities and one respondent - Head of the Intensive Aftercare Program with protected housing. Results: Stressful programs are found to be very important part of addictions treatment by experts from therapeutic..