This is a therapeutic activity; those suffering from addiction are likely to have early developmental deficits. The Sailaday OK activity consciously addresses the first three developmental stages

Being (expanding self awareness to all the sensations and feelings and being in the world)Doing ( participating in the experience )Thinking (processing and using metaphors to make sense of the experience)

(Ilsley Clarke, J. and Dawson, C. (1998)) (Erickson E, 1950,)

Many addicts have suffered physical and/or emotional abuse and consequently are significantly dissociated from their bodies; trusting their body is counterintuitive. In this environment a participant's impasse (*Goulding, M. and Goulding, R. (1976)) between embodiment and disembodiment, association and dissociation is heightened; addressing this impasse, with all the necessary support, both formal and informal, is at the heart of the Sailaday OK activity.

Participants are supported to connect with both their body and their surroundings and interventions seek to bring the participants as much into the present as possible, in order to experience the here and now. They use the relationship with themselves to connect with the elements (or vice versa) and utilise the inherent wisdom and intelligence of their immediate responses in order to better understand their current situation and what needs to be done – an obvious transferable skill.

Other interventions to help participants be in the here and now and to support the body/environment connection include meditation each morning and TaiChi type exercises for balance and to lower the physical centre of energy.

An activity like helming (steering) helps in this process of connecting.

This activity encourages the use of the body as an instrument to gather information about their environment and is carried out with the support of a therapist or peer. Group members are invited to trust all the sensory information that is available to them including

what they can see what they can feel through the motion of the boat (how she is moving, heeling etc)the feel of the wind and/or sun on the facethe sound of the sails the feel of the helm

Participants incrementally increase awareness of the body and their relationship to the boat and the environment and deepen trust in them to respond usefully as they progress through the following stages;

Helming

by sight (towards a fixed point) by compass (relying on sight and thinking (the helm needs to be manoeuvred counter-intuitively; left brain /right brain activity) and By wind (relying on phenomenological responses) are progressive stages. Blind helming. Trust all your senses and your guide

Each stage requires present awareness and responses which resolve problems in order to achieve their goal. Participants make corrections to their course in response to environmental conditions.

Finally, a more advanced exercise is available, if it has been contracted for, an opportunity to do blind helming. This may be done for 5 to 30 minutes. Participants work with a buddy and this brings in the element of trust and cooperation.

For all this experience to have lasting benefit it needs to be processed and integrated. Exercises are debriefed and reflected on as they occur. There is a further opportunity to reflect upon the day's events in group 'process' time at the end of each day; group members are supported to give and receive support to one another as they express their thoughts and feelings and make personal meaning of these experiences for themselves; they are further invited to identify how learning and insights achieved aboard Physis may be transferred to their life ashore.

They are invited to THINK and we use the metaphor is a useful way of communicating complicated ideas; as you can tell, sailing is understood here as a metaphor steeped in useful wisdom for life in general; staying afloat and managing ever changing conditions, often beyond an individual's control, requires a high degree of present awareness and personal resourcefulness.

• Sailing is rich and yields an abundance of metaphors including
• being all at seasailing close to the windwaiting to see which way the wind is blowinglearning the ropes
• Others and maybe ones to avoid
• falling in the drinkthree sheets to the wind

The concept of anchoring (NLP Anchoring Richard Bandler and John Grinder) is rich in transferable meaning in terms of making secure relationship attachment, (John Bowlby and Attachment Theory) being rooted in the present, being connected to the earth; the necessity in navigation 'to know where you are now before you can move forward' and in shifting conditions the ability 'to make changes in order to stay on course or to choose a different course' are equally transportable.

Participants readily make connections between maritime phenomena, such as shifting land and seascapes, tide, storms or becalming and other inevitable obstacles and general life events, such as a new job, grumpy child or partner, car break down, financial struggles or unexpected impediments.

In conclusion, I suggest that existential and seafaring journeys require identical personal qualities and resources in order to successfully move forward, to achieve our goals and also to know when to let go of goals and change direction...

How do we know it helps change people's lives?

Participants are carefully selected by close contact with the agencies they come from, and assessed by intake forms for health and safety issues

Sailaday OK moves forward in the light of new information through monitoring and evaluation procedures, and practice... Feedback is gathered from participants, agencies and care teams through discussions and informal interviews.

A formal evaluation questionnaire is issued at the end of each session for the participants, and a follow up questionnaire is sent one year later. Practice is regularly discussed with peers, in supervision and with specialist trustees. Being part of an international group of adventure therapists, practitioners and researchers helps us keep abreast of new ideas and innovations, in order to keep improving the delivery of this therapeutic intervention.