My husband, Chris, and I have spent a lot of our lives learning how to do hard things.
We are both Veterans of the Arkansas Army National Guard. I served six years as a Combat Medic with the 142nd Field Artillery Brigade. Chris served for 25 years, retiring as a Sergeant First Class after a career that included leadership and operational roles, and service during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Service taught us about mission, teamwork, and what it means to rely on the person beside you.
But some of the hardest battles we would face came later.
For nearly ten years, I privately struggled with alcohol dependency. I was highly functioning—building a career, raising a family, and appearing successful while quietly using alcohol to cope with things I didn’t know how to process. In March 2021, I reached a turning point and chose sobriety. Chris has his own recovery story, and on October 1, 2026, he celebrated four years of sobriety.
For both of us, adventure became a powerful part of what came next.
We started filling our lives with movement, challenge, and time outside chasing goals that scared us a little. We chose to do hard things on purpose instead of simply surviving hard things that happened to us.
Together, we discovered that adventure gave us somewhere productive to put our energy. It helped us build healthier habits, confidence, and community. It reminded us what our bodies and minds are capable of.
We started to wonder: What if we could create opportunities for others to experience this, too?
The answer became Adventure Therapy.
Adventure Therapy creates restorative outdoor experiences using nature, movement, and meaningful challenge to inspire lasting personal change. We serve first responders, people in recovery, women rebuilding after domestic violence, couples who need an opportunity to reconnect, and Veterans.
We created Adventure Therapy because we believe some of life’s most meaningful breakthroughs don’t happen sitting inside. Sometimes, they happen on the side of a mountain, around a campfire, on a bike trail, or during the quiet miles when you realize the person walking beside you understands more of your story than you expected
Our retreats combine outdoor challenges with intentional opportunities for reflection, conversation, teamwork, and connection. Participants may hike, mountain bike, climb, paddle, or take on something they have never attempted before. When possible, licensed mental health professionals may also join our experiences, allowing meaningful conversations to happen naturally outside a traditional clinical environment.
As Veterans, serving Veterans is special to our mission.
Military service creates a profound sense of purpose and camaraderie. After service, opportunities to experience this kind of connection can be difficult to find. Adventure Therapy offers a platform, not to recreate military service, but to bring Veterans together again to experience things many of us deeply understand: purpose, challenge, camaraderie, teamwork, and belonging.
This year, we took our first group of Veterans (plus one Veteran spouse) to Colorado for a multi-day Adventure Therapy expedition culminating in a Pikes Peak climb.
Every participant who began the summit attempt made it to the top, and we are incredibly proud of that 100% summit success rate. We saw encouragement on the trail, laughter around the table, honest conversations, and shared exhaustion. We tackled something difficult together.
That is what we want Adventure Therapy to be: more than an itinerary filled with outdoor activities. We want people to leave with new friendships, renewed confidence, meaningful memories, and a reminder that they are capable of hard things, and that they don’t have to do those hard things alone.
As Adventure Therapy grows, we want these experiences to be accessible to more Veterans and others who can benefit from them. Our Adventure Therapy Scholarship Foundation helps us achieve this goal. Through partnerships with donors, sponsors, and community organizations, we are able to remove financial barriers to participation.
Jessy Davis, Co-Founder
Veteran, Army National Guard
jessy@adventuretherapy.com
Founded in Northwest Arkansas by Veteran couple, Chris and Jessy, Adventure Therapy creates restorative outdoor experiences using nature, movement, and meaningful challenge to inspire lasting personal change.
Visit www.adventuretherapy.co to learn more about Adventure Therapy retreats and to support the Adventure Therapy Scholarship Foundation.