Our intention in writing this book was to share our ideas about the potential of nature-based approaches to healing and to hopefully inspire professionals across a variety of human service and educational fields who are working with children, youth, and families. We have read many academic books about outdoor adventure approaches in education and therapy, as well as highly engaging mainstream books about the benefits of connecting with nature. Some of these seemed overly academic and others quite light and entertaining. We aimed to create a book influenced by both writing approaches, even though we recognize that our approach will not satisfy everyone. We were undecided about the depth of research and theory to include versus stories and ideas for practice. As the chapters came together, and our colleagues gave feedback, we identified core elements and content that stayed near the middle ground we sought. At times, we felt lost. Lost in the immensity of trying to capture all that this approach to therapy has to offer. Lost in the literature of “who said what” and “what evidence do we have to say that?” And lost, at times, in our confidence to provide something of value to you the reader. If we take Tolkien’s adage to heart, it will all be OK, as we accepted to go on an adventure and wander along in our efforts to share the work we truly believe in.
We hope that early childhood educators, youth workers, community youth leaders, teachers, social workers, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, and a range of professionals in the human service field can find the materials, ideas, and activities we include helpful to their work. We hope this book inspires you to implement more nature-based approaches into your practice, and if you want to dive deeper into the material presented, we have left a breadcrumb trail throughout with our references. We did our best to provide theoretical support for the practices shared, as well as enough evidence from research to satisfy the rigor needed to represent the work fairly and justify our recommendations. So, whether you are a counselor wanting to take clients outside into nature for their weekly 60-minute sessions or a youth worker utilizing parks and greenspaces for relationship-building, group work, or psychoeducational activities, we encourage you to find and use the parts of the book that will work for you.
Chapters and related sections are set up to be read front to back; however, you be the judge of how to approach it. The book begins with broader narratives suggesting why we need nature for therapy and how it is portrayed in the research as beneficial. We locate our practices among other outdoor and ecopsychological approaches and then explore practice more in depth through case examples and personal experiences. We hope these examples and activity explanations offer you plenty of material to explore. Topics from certain chapters may draw your attention more than others; however, while each chapter can be read independently, they are all linked through cross-referenced content, theoretical assumptions, and research evidence, while covering a wide variety of issues, populations, and contexts. In short,
• Chapters 1–3: provide the philosophical and theoretical map for the practice terrain we explore
• Chapters 4–11: provide knowledge, skills, and evidence to guide you into the terrain and direction on design and delivery of your own nature-based practice
We hope we have created a book that can provide practitioners with guidance, program administrators with evidence and justification for practice, and readers new to nature-based therapy ideas with the encouragement and confidence to join us in moving your practice into nature.
We recognize that what we describe as nature throughout this book may be seen and read as uncritical universal claims—such as “nature is good for everyone” and “nature is healing.” We do not ignore the fact that by design we are all nature, and nature is everywhere. Well, that is how we perceive nature. The Oxford Dictionary and Wikipedia, however, still define nature as “other than human.” These definitions perpetuate the belief that nature is just the physical world of plants and animals and the features of Earth such as beaches, mountains, and rivers. This definition excludes human or human creations and dichotomizes our relationship to nature: being nature is other than human. Derived from the Latin natura, the word nature originally meant the essential or innate quality or disposition of something. If we pause and consider this from a therapeutic standpoint, we are trying to create the circumstances for our clients to achieve this quality of being: to rekindle their vitality and find their core qualities and disposition. This fulfillment of one’s potential can be realized through an improved ecological self that begins and ends with a deep meaningful relationship, as Alan Watts suggests above, as being not just in nature but as nature.
Blending Indigenous knowledge with the physical sciences, botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Robin Wall Kimmerer1 describes human relationships with plants as that of family, or “kin.” Her thesis is grounded in knowledge systems of First Nations across North America who relate to other living things in this way versus subjecting plants and animals to the title of “it.” “It is a tree” is more likely to lead to a tree being chopped down without gratitude than “She is a tree.” While a very simple premise, this approach has had an impact on our work and our clients’ relationships with the land. We see this as more than a narrative shift, but in fact a relational one.
We are, however, trying to isolate our practice well enough to provide useful definitions, structure, and process as a therapeutic approach in nature. Nature, as it will be described in this book, is the primary venue and medium for our practice. While in some ways our writing will echo the dualism inherent in speaking of nature and humans as separate, although we also work with our clients toward their reunion with nature in the establishment and strengthening of their ecological selves. Our combined professional experiences include over fifty years as outdoor educators, wilderness guides, youth workers, facilitators, and counselors. Much of our work has been undertaken in nature, albeit in differing ways. References to wilderness versus nature do not suggest distinct differences to us but rather nuanced ones. We try to focus on nature as a place for healing that is primarily not human-made, and generally nearby, close to where we and our clients live, work, and play. Wilderness, as opposed to nearby nature, in our terms, is just going farther out from urbanized, populated, and manufactured spaces. You might say “more natural” or “wilder” than the city park or town greenspace context.
Within this understanding of nature and wilderness, we still recognize how these terms may be contested. Reading early (and recent) Western literature, nature and wilderness carry Romantic notions of sacred and healing spaces, Judeo-Christian overtones of human “dominion over” nature (as seen in modern Western resource extraction growth economies), and colonial impressions of terra nullis, or empty land, which was to be filled up and civilized with settlers from homelands. In turn, the Romantic notion of nature and wilderness as sacred healing spaces ignores the fact that people get lost and occasionally die due to environmental exposure, that environmental crises are real, and that many are left homeless due to environmental catastrophes, war, and economic collapse the world over. These realities make nature as healing space seem ridiculous to espouse across populations and contexts. Biblical ideas of nature being for human dominion and use, and that “wild” is opposed to “civilized,” has obviously led to many of the aforementioned global environmental and social crises. Last, and very relevant to us and our work, global colonial projects tend to ignore First Nations. Wilderness was described as those uninhabited places, suggesting “untouched” and “unused” nature, which is ridiculous considering the travel, hunting, harvesting, and settlements of First Nations. What a settler may have considered wilderness in 1800 was simply home to those people whose Nations were already long-established.
This book was written with strong intentions to improve the lives of children, youth, and families through what we believe is one of the most accessible and affordable paths to healing. Nature-based approaches are becoming more common and offered in education, community, and therapeutic settings. We see the trend and know also that we want to avoid the trap of calling this innovative, unique, or some form of emerging panacea in light of our privileged Western locations and viewpoints. We need first to recognize that although humans connecting with nature for therapy is the main theme of this book, we are generally participating in these activities on unceded and traditional territories of First Nations whose deep connections and relationships with the land are still maintained today. We also recognize that local and First Peoples around the globe have maintained strong ties to the Earth as a healing place, as well as the basis for their cosmologies. We want to be clear that we try to engage in practices that are culturally appropriate for us, and for our clients, and do not engage in ritual or practices of other cultures. Cultural appropriation is a real and harmful practice, especially so when there is a deep craving by so many to reconnect with nature and rediscover their sense of belongingness to something greater than themselves. There are ways to learn from the more-than-human world, and across cultures in a good way, without appropriating, and in our experience, doing so helps to facilitate a strengthening of the sacred bond Kimmerer describes and thus more willingness to bring about a world that is harmonious and life-sustaining for all beings. So, while we who are privileged as benefactors of the colonizing project of Canada are discussing connection with the land, we acknowledge our social location and privilege. We recognize that we live, work, and play on the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people, known also by the colonial name of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It is important for us as practitioners to honor this reality and to think deeply and act appropriately about our work relative to the land.
Connecting people with nature has been a significant part of our careers, and we hold strong beliefs about the health of our planet and its relationship to human health and well-being as well as environmental well-being. We each have our own ecological stories of the role nature has played in our lives and how it now defines and influences our professional careers. While we utilize our relationships with nature for therapy, we also need to remain mindful to the suffering of the environment and the people of the land. Without this social and ecological justice perspective, we would do no more than perpetuate the Western colonial practice of benefiting from the consumption of others’ natural resources: a hollow and short-sighted approach to healing in our minds.
We also recognize that the use of nature for therapy is primarily a modern and Western middle- to upper-class phenomenon. The number of people currently displaced from their homelands globally is beyond anything ever experienced in history. Human migration, driven by social and environmental conditions, includes conditions unbearable to most who read this book. Environmental change due to global warming, wars, an ever-increasing competition for resources, and the negative influences of the global economy have created these circumstances. What we have seen and experienced in our work, however, is that connecting with nature is a conversation we hear more often, and we see growth in the research literature building the case across academic and professional disciplines.
While the content of this book may suggest themes and concepts applying to all humans, we know this work is not for everyone (as therapists or clients). We have described nature-based programs and interventions for individuals, families, and groups. These are contextualized relative to client backgrounds, experiences, needs, and interests. We don’t assume what we offer can reach across all diverse populations. A telling experience from colleagues a few years ago illustrated the need for our field to improve its understanding of culture and diversity. A group of young new Canadians (recent immigrants) were participating in a service club’s recreational program and were asked if they wanted to join in an outdoor experience trip to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. When the trip details were described, these youths said that the idea of going to the woods, carrying all their possessions on their backs, sleeping under tarps, cooking on small portable stoves, and learning to deal with the conditions of living outdoors sounded an awful lot like the refugee camps where some of them had lived, often for years. As practitioners, and with this book as simply one reference, you will need to find ways to appropriately assess and meet your clients’ needs, whether in nature or not.
While nature-based therapy may manifest in various ways, we provide here the core elements of our practice. This list may serve now as an advanced snapshot of our philosophical orientation and how it influences our practice.
• Practitioner’s relationship with nature
• Nature as co-therapist
• Full-body engagement, play, and risk
• Restoration and regulation
• Bonding and belonging
As mentioned above, we are not prescribing our approach to practice but, rather, simply sharing our approaches to therapy. We will also be transparent about what we see as the major benefits, and potential limitations, of the nature-based therapy approach.
This book is not a substitute for professional training and qualifications. Therapeutic work carries with it significant professional obligations and responsibilities. Taking your practice outside further increases your liability and needs to be undertaken with the knowledge and competencies required to do so ethically. While you may be inspired to try activities and approaches suggested in this book, you must also take responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of your clients, that professional codes and standards are not compromised, and that you meet regulatory bodies’ approval for your work. We assume readers will utilize this book relative to their type and level of training and the mandate of their organization or practice and will complement the helping skills they have already developed. Neither the authors nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for any consequences of action taken as a result of the information contained in the book. Names have been altered and story details combined in our case examples to ensure that client confidentiality is maintained. In some cases, clients gave permission for their experiences to be disclosed in ways they may recognize; however, we still altered the case enough to ensure anonymity.