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Back tonature

growing field ofutdoor and adventureherapy practicesonnects individualso the healing benefitsf nature. But are weoing enough insidehe therapy room to

ddress the impact ofnvironmental issues onmental health?

y Martin Jordan

In its most basic sense, ecotherapy is aboutthe healing and psychological benets obeing in nature and natural settings. In amodern context the links between natureand positive eects on mental health canbe traced back to the early part o the lastcentury. When psychiatric patients werehoused in tents due to an outbreak otuberculosis, doctors ound their conditionimproved. But when they returned tothe inside o the hospital, most revertedto their original chronic state. Furtherresearch at the time looked at the benetso tent therapy and ound that psychiatricpatients improved when living out odoors.1

More recently Mind published a reporton ecotherapy, which ound that peoplesmental health signicantly improves ateractivities in nature. The report highlightsits own denition o ecotherapy, reerringto horticultural development programmessupervised by a therapist and green

exercise in nature.2

The term ecotherapy was rst coined

by Clinebell.3 He posits a orm oecological spirituality whereby ourholistic relationship with natureencompasses both natures ability tonurture us, through our contact withnatural places and spaces, and our ability toreciprocate this healing connectionthrough our ability to nurture nature. Inthis sense, ecotherapy has always shared aclose relationship to ecopsychology4 placing humans within a reciprocal healing(and disconnected and destructive)relationship with nature.

Recent developments, particularly inAmerica, have placed ecotherapy in therole o practising clinician, viewing it asapplied or clinical ecopsychology, just aspsychotherapy can be described as appliedor clinical psychology. A orthcoming bookedited by Linda Buzzell and CraigChalquist5 outlines many kinds oecotherapy, including horticulturaltherapy, green exercise, animal assistedtherapy, wilderness therapy, naturalliestyle therapy, eco-dreamwork,

community ecotherapy, dealing with eco-anxiety and eco-grie, and much more. Inthis context, and in the absence o adenitive statement on what ecotherapy is,I see it as a set o practices, a process andan experiential connection with nature.

The biophilia hypothesis

For millennia we have lived in intimateexistence with nature and to all intents andpurposes we still do. We are intrinsicallyconnected to water, ood, the turning o theseasons and the climate. Technologicaldevelopment has ostered our ability (inthe western world) to exist primarily

The fundamentalprocess forecotherapy andtherapeutic practicesin nature is thereconnection tonature as areconnection to self

within urban or semi-urban environments,causing us to disconnect rom nature changing and challenging our sense oidentity and aecting our mental health.6

The biophilia hypothesis dened byEdward Wilson7 is the innate tendency toocus on lie and lie-like processes. Wilsonbelieves that we are biologically programmedto seek kinship with more than the humanworld. The biophilia hypothesis suggestshuman identity and personal ullmentsomehow depend on our relationship withnature, and that the human need or nature islinked not just to the material exploitation othe environment but also to the inuence thenatural world has on our emotional,cognitive, aesthetic, and even spiritualdevelopment.

Stephen Kellert says: The maniold waysby which human beings are tied to theremainder o lie is poorly understood.The term biophilia may do well in drawingattention to psychological phenomena that

rose rom deep history, that stemmed rominteraction with the natural environment,and are now likely to reside in the genesthemselves.8

A body o evidence drawing upon researchrom environmental psychology has exploredthe eects o nature on human perception,emotions, behaviour and cognition. It hasbeen ound that the quality and content o aview rom a hospital window has a signicantaect on a patients recovery, with a view onature ostering a quicker recovery postsurgery.9

A parallel issue or counsellors andtherapists that runs alongside any discussiono ecotherapy, is when, and in what ways, dowe engage with the environmental issuesthat are aecting our planet, within ourtherapy practice? This is complicated, or, astherapists, aect is located at the level o theindividual, embedded in problematicrelationships in the present, the past, andin the therapy room itsel. I dont advocatethat therapy outside is somehow better thaninside, both are very valuable. For me, itsabout how therapy is placed in the service omaking connections, the locating and re-

embodying o elt emotion in a network orelationships, both positive and negative, andthe ability to both be able to sit with, tolerateand attempt to change some o theseemotions.

Environmental issues, our relationshipwith the planet and the oppressive economicconditions which give rise to aspects opersonal distress, are all issues orelationship, and thereore it can be arguedthey should be integrated ully into ourtherapeutic practice. The undamentalprocess or ecotherapy and therapeuticpractices in nature is the reconnection tonature as a reconnection to sel.

Nature as therapeutic presence

Therapist variables have been seen to beimportant. Several researchers haveconcluded that it is the quality o therelationship and the therapists ability toorm and sustain a therapeutic alliancewith the client that is important to theoutcome o the therapy.10 Working withinnature adds another variable: the role onature itsel in therapeutic change. Inature acts as a therapeutic presence in theprocess, then the person engaging in eco-and nature-based therapy needs to orm asustaining and therapeutic relationshipwith nature. This alls into two aspects:passive receiving o the aesthetic andhealing beauty o nature and naturalenvironments that in themselves becomeplaces o healing and restoration; and amore active engagement whereby therapyis conducted utilising the resources o thenatural environment, as in adventure,

wilderness and horticultural therapy.The deep ecology movement points us

towards the importance o ritual to afrmour connectivity with the earth. What isrequired is a remembering o theconnection and this can be acilitated byintention to connect and re-establishcontact. This idea centres on the act thatwe are descended rom thousands ogenerations who practised ritualsacknowledging our interconnectedness.11

By placing nature in a central role intherapy we are asked to shit ourperception o nature as a thingand invitedto give it a orm o subjectivity. I we draw

upon ideas o ecopsychology, believing are nature, the sel becomes moreintrinsically linked into and a part o thenatural world. As most o our therapeuttrainings havent accounted or thisconnection in our psyches, we have to lourther back or an evidence base or ourpractice.

Aboriginal culture

I will draw upon ideas rom AustralianAboriginal culture whilst acknowledginga orm o these belies existed or our owindigenous European ancestors just murther back in recent history. By drawinupon these ideas I am attempting to illuhow a psyche can be represented and sein a natural context and orm part o areciprocal eedback loop, wherebypsychology and emotions becomeintrinsically linked to the land upon andwithin which we exist and unction.

Aboriginal culture existed or at least40,000 years unchanged prior to coloniby European settlers. It is a culture sointrinsically linked to the land that whatAboriginal saw (and still sees) was not aenvironment with dierent geographicaaspects, but a prooundly metaphysicallandscape capable o expressing their despiritual yearnings.12 The sacred landscaramed within the connes o the churccathedral walls or the European, existedthe Aboriginal as open space, trees, rockrivers, central to wellbeing and happineFrom this perspective the land becomesiconic in its essence, not only a containe

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References

1. Caplan RB. Tent treatmentor the insane an early orm omilieu therapy. Hosp CommunityPsychiatry. 1967; 18:145-146.2. Mind. Ecotherapy: the greenagenda or mental health. London:Mind; 2007.3. Clinebell H. Ecotherapy: healingourselves, healing the earth.Minneapolis: Fortress Press; 1996.

4. Roszak T, Gomes M, Kramer AD(eds). Ecopsychology: restoring theearth, healing the mind. New York:Simon and Schuster; 1995.5. Buzzell L, Chalquist C (eds).Ecotherapy: healing with nature inmind. San Francisco CA: Sierra ClubBooks; 2009.6. Bird W. Natural thinking:investigating the links between thenatural environment, biodiversityand mental health. Royal Society orthe Protection o Birds; 2007.7. Wilson EO. Biophilia. Harvard:University Press; 1984.

8. Kellert S in Kellert S, Wilson EO(eds). The biophilia hypothesis. NY:The Island Press; 1993.9. Urlich R. View through a windowmay infuence recovery rom surgery.Science. 1984; 224:420-421.10. Mearns D, Cooper M. Working atrelational depth in counselling andpsychotherapy. London: Sage; 2005.11. Seed J, Macy J, Fleming P, Naess

A. Thinking like a mountain: towardsa council or all beings. GabriolaIsland: New Society; 1988.

12. Cowan J. Mysteries o the dream-time: the spiritual lie o Australian

Aborigines. Bridport: Prism/Unity;1992.13. Bates B. The way o wyrd (2ndedition). New York: Harper andCollins; 1992.14. Foster S, Little M. The ourshields: the initiatory seasons ohuman nature. Big Pine CA: LostBorders; 1988.15. Levinson D. The seasons o amans lie. New York: Knopy; 1978.16. Santosteano S. Child therapy inthe great outdoors: a relational view.

London: The Analytic Press; 2004.

its purely physical attributes but in termso its metaphysical qualities. This web osystemic connections becomes central tothe idea o land as sel and can also be seenin Celtic and Norse mythologies knownin one orm as the web o wyrd, theinterconnectivity between all things,human and more than human.13

Case example

I was engaged with a group exploringpersonal transitions rom student toqualied health proessional. The setting

was a mountainous area in Wales wherethe group was camping over a weekend.The group participated in a number oexercises, moving around a wheel o selcomprising o the our directions: north,east, south and west. The our shieldspsychology, developed by Steven Fosterand Meredith Little,14 is based on theNative American tradition o the medicine

wheel; the our directions correspond with

the our points o the compass and theour seasons. They also represent aspectso our psychological make-up and thestages o maturity that the participant isseeking to pass through in a journey otransition. The our shields shares akinship with ancient psychology wherethere was no dierentiation betweenpeople and nature, where human lie wasintimately tied into the seasonal changes.

South is summer; the psychologicalaspect is o childhood and bodilysensation, instinct, urge, desire and lust.

West is autumn; the psychological aspectis o adolescence, introspection emotions such as ear and sel-doubt may

be present in this shield. It is a place oinitiation when the child o summer ispreparing to become the adult o winter.The north is winter; the psychologicalaspect is o adulthood, mind, design andorder. The adult o winter must do whatneeds to be done to survive, to store oodor the long dark nights o winter, to makesure there is enough uel or warmth.Finally the adult makes the transition tothe east, which is spring. The psychological

state is a reection o the other shieldsmaniest in wisdom and the position oelder but also paradoxically o inant andrebirth. It is the state o insight, spirituality,and healing.

Ater one exercise where participantswere instructed to walk in the direction othe south and reect upon their childhoodexperiences, a participant returned withthis account: I came to an area o

vegetation where a dry bush had beenburnt in a re. From the ashes new growthwas emerging, looking much healthier thanbeore, with more nutrients rom the ashesstarting to sustain new growth. I took romthis encounter a metaphor o my difcultchildhood: growing up in a barrenenvironment, the product o an unhappymarriage, an experience that had burntme in a similar way to the bushes being

burnt. My interest in psychology andtherapy was largely a result and an attempt,as I suspect o all therapists, to heal mysel.

I wondered whether I had to eel pain againto grow, to heal seeking nutrients romthe ashes o my experience.

The exercises evoke experiential andpsychological memories o childhood, both

joyous and painul. Representation cantake the orm o encounters with trees,plants and animals, which then areassociated with the eelings and thoughtso childhood. Nature acts as a mirror reecting back to the person aspects othemselves and their relationships.Symbolism and metaphor becomeimportant in relation to bringing greaterunderstanding or participants throughtheir contact with nature. Symbolism isused to invoke eelings and thoughts whichcan then in turn aid the process o innerreection.

Seasons of life

The idea o the sel as existing within aseasonal process reects back the idea that

we are not static in terms o our state omind or our ability to transcenddifculties. We are always in a process ochange and transition rom one season to

the next. This idea has been used in liespanpsychology to understand the seasons o apersons lie.10, 15 Moving around a wheel osel allows us to connect with a widerprocess in nature o death, birth, growthand renewal. These are seen as inescapableacts o a nature-based psychology.

By incorporating nature into therapy andtherapy into nature, the myth o the isolatedmind separated rom nature is challenged.

Mind becomes a relational phenomenon,not only in relation to other humans but inrelation to the more than human world.The relational term in psychotherapy andcounselling argues that the person ismotivated by meanings given to interactionsand how this interpersonal matrix iscongured and participated in. A relationaltherapeutic process takes the position thatchange occurs through the client andtherapist participating in interactions witheach other, giving rise to an emergentprocess o new ways o being in relation.16

By working in a relational way withnature, new internal landscapes start toemerge in interaction with externallandscapes, which reects, sustains,challenges and supports the person on theirtherapeutic journey. The myth that the selis somehow separate rom nature becomesexposed as the allacy it is.

Martin Jordan is a UKCP registeredpsychotherapist and Senior Lecturer inCounselling and Psychotherapy at theUniversity o Brighton. Email m.jordan670@ntlworld.com

The Fith International Adventure TherapyConerence exploring the outdoors, nature,

wilderness and adventure as a context orpsychological therapy, takes place in Edinburgh,711 September 2009. The conerence willexamine the developing feld o outdoor andadventure therapy and will include keynotes,

presentations, and workshops rom leadinginternational researchers and practitioners

working in this area. For more inormation seewww.bacp.co.uk/5iatc or email katy.hobday@bacp.co.uk