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GATE 2026 - BELGIUM
19-22 May 2026
Program
Workshops
We are very proud to present this beautiful program to you. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all colleagues who, with great enthusiasm, are willing to share their experience in adventure therapy. This is the purpose of GATE: learning from one another and expanding our European network. You can choose from more than 70 workshops and experiences given by colleagues from 17 countries.
If you are registered for GATE 2026 you will receive an email with the link to the workshop registration tool.
This registration tool will open on April 24th at 5 pm.
So block your calendar, take the time to read our interesting program and piece together your own inspiring GATE 2026 experience.
Pre and post conference
On top of the wonderful and inspiring GATE2026, we are delighted to offer you some pre- and post-conference events too.
An international crew of talented adventure therapists will give you the chance to experience their passion in an activity that embodies the spirit of GATE.
- Graham Pringle (Australia) will share his ‘reflections on adventure therapy for people with complex trauma and dissociation’ in a full day workshop, 18th of May.
- Agata Wlodarczyk-Bucharowska and Magdalena Stempska (Poland) will take you ‘On the edge, on therapeutic climbing for people with disabilities’. This will be a 2 day training for practitioners, with the second day a group of para-climbers to coach to the top of the rocks . Still checking the best rocks to climb in our beautiful Ardennes on May 17th and 18th 😊.
- Yamina Zahi and Jolien Laenens (Belgium) will let you ‘surf your current, a different type of surf therapy’. You will spend a day on the river (instead of the ocean waves) on the 18th of May.
- Also on May 18th, we organize a special Ukrainian day facilitated by Yuliia Pohonysheva, Khrystyna Shukal, Tania Malaia and Alina Shtefan on ‘trauma, embodied regulation, nature therapy and even a workshop for Ukrainian parents on the supportive power of reading aloud with children’.
- After the GATE, Lynn Van Hoof and Bert Vandenbussche (Belgium) will take you ‘into the night – exploring nocturnal space in outdoor therapy’… You will leave together right after the gathering and will be released (😊) in the afternoon of May 24th.
- Also after the GATE, Adeena Gerding and Jess Purchase (Globe) would love to take some of us on a ‘dream lab -growing and strengthening a passionate GATE community’. You will have Friday evening and Saturday May 23th to reflect on how the ATE community can flourish even more in the future!
Keynote Speaker
Carrine Ribe Fernee is a senior researcher at the Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health at Sørlandet hospital and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. Together with her team of clinicians, researchers, and collaborating partners in the Agder region of Norway, they have become a national hub for developing nature- and activity-based interventions for children, youth, and families across health, school, and leisure settings, where the collaborative action research project Where Wild Things Grow is one example. Carina is responsible for a post-graduate study in “Nature-based therapeutic work”, in addition to research, training, and supervision. Carina was involved in founding the Nordic Outdoor Therapy Network (NOTN) in 2016 and the Norwegian Outdoor Therapy Association (NFUT) in 2022. She is a former co-chair of the International Association for Adventure and Nature-based Therapy (former ATIC) and perhaps some of you will recognise her as one of the convenors of the 9th International Adventure Therapy Conference/3rd Gathering for Adventure Therapy in Europe (9IATC/3GATE) in Norway in June 2022.
Keynote Speaker
LEJO is a pioneering Belgian youth organization working with youth at risk (12 – 25 yrs). Their trademark is a process-oriented and experiential approach with youngsters, in the spirit of ‘grass does not grow by pulling it’.
About 60 counselors, youth workers/coaches and 150 young volunteers work at LEJO. They reach 3000 young people, crossing different fields of leisure, education, well-being and labor.
Their main goal is to create safe spaces as a therapeutical context to grow. They like outreaching, finding youngsters where they like to hang out: Schools, public parks, town squares …
More and more, they see themselves leaving the comfort of their safe spaces to get involved in society, along with youngsters. Joining the conversation on education, inequality and discrimination, by supporting young people to bring their perspective.
That’s why they are excited to join GATE, bringing youngsters’ voices about growth and what LEJO’s therapeutical settings have meant for them.
Looking forward to meeting you there!