Michael Gass
- Director, Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Research (OBHRC)

Education - Ph.D., University of Colorado, Post-doctoral work in marriage and family therapy, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (State of New Hampshire), Clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy

Research Interests – Wilderness and Adventure Therapy program effectiveness, Social Development of Adolescents in Adventure Programs, Program Accreditation, Effects of adventure therapy on specific psychological issues with adolescents, Effective facilitation techniques with therapeutic populations

Mike’s current research projects include targeted efforts with Project Adventure (Massachusetts), the Santa Fe Mountain Center (New Mexico), and the Marimed Foundation (Hawaii).

Mike is a Professor & the Coordinator of Outdoor Education in the College of Health and Human Services at the University of New Hampshire. He is the current Director of the NATSAP (National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs) Research Database. He also serves as the Editor of the Journal for Therapeutic Schools and Programs, published by NATSAP.

In 1990 he wrote the first set of accreditation standards for the Association of Experiential Education with Jed Williamson and served as the first Chair of AEE's Accreditation Council for six years. In 1998 Mike received the Association for Experiential Education’s Outstanding Experiential Teacher of the Year Award, and in 2002 he delivered the Kurt Hahn Address for AEE. In 2005 he received the UNH College of Health and Human Service’s Distinguished Career Research Award. He has published over 100 research studies in his career and made over 200 professional presentations. His latest book, Adventure Therapy, written with Lee Gillis and Keith Russell, will be published by Taylor and Francis/Routledge Books in June, 2011. Mike also serves on the REAP and CORE Committees for the Association for Experiential Education.

To view the ENHANCES adventure therapy supervision model and kinesthetic metaphor models developed by Dr. Gass and Dr. Lee Gillis with actual demonstrations and applications to adventure therapy, go to http://kinestheticmetaphors.com/Kinesthetic_Metaphors.html