Re­flec­tions on the Fish Bowl Con­ver­sa­ti­on

Du­ring the 9th In­ter­na­tio­nal Ad­ven­ture The­ra­py Con­fe­rence (9IATC), we were pre­sen­ted with mul­ti­ple op­por­tu­ni­ties to gather at the in­ter­sec­tion of our shared ex­pe­ri­en­ces and iden­ti­ties, paus­ing to re­flect on how we have jour­ney­ed tog­e­ther over the past 25 ye­ars.
Much like a fo­rest, the field of Ad­ven­ture The­ra­py re­qui­res di­ver­si­ty to thri­ve. 9IATC chal­len­ged our com­mu­ni­ty to re­flect on the lack of di­ver­si­ty and the ho­mo­gen­ei­ty of our net­work. Ho­no­ring the li­ved ex­pe­ri­en­ces and le­ga­ci­es of tho­se who bring us tog­e­ther as a com­mu­ni­ty is es­sen­ti­al; we grie­ved the loss of our col­le­ague Leiv Ei­nar Ga­bri­el­sen tog­e­ther in Hov­den. We gathe­red 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and were re­min­ded of the work still to be done af­ter the tra­gic loss of life in the shoo­ting in Oslo. This ar­tic­le out­lines op­por­tu­ni­ties and ex­amp­les of prac­ti­cal ways to show al­ly­ship to co-crea­te the he­alt­hy and thri­ving eco­sys­tem that our com­mu­ni­ty and our world need.