Nature and Therapy

Understanding counselling and psychotherapy in outdoor spaces

Martin Jordan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317618195
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy Counselling
• Index: Psychology

Recent decades have seen an increasing interest in the healing and therapeutic potential of nature and interest in the potential of greencare interventions for the benefit of mental health. The field of nature based therapies is expanding in line with this interest. Nature and Therapy offers a unique contribution by outlining the specific processes involved in conducting counselling and psychotherapy sessions in outdoor natural environments.

Central areas covered in the book include:

A thorough exploration of the evidence for the psychological and healing potential of natural spaces;

Developing a therapeutic rationale for nature based therapeutic work;

Understanding the therapeutic relationship and the unique therapeutic processes that come into play in outdoor natural spaces;

Translating indoor therapeutic work to outdoor contexts;

The practicalities of setting up and running a therapy session outside of a room environment;

Experiential exercises to explore the therapeutic potential of nature.

Martin Jordan offers a clear outline of how to set up and hold a therapeutic session outdoors. Using case examples Nature and Therapy explores both the practicalities and the therapeutic processes that come into play in an outdoor natural setting. The book will be of use to counsellors, psychotherapists, arts therapists, psychologists and health professionals who are interested in taking their therapeutic work into natural environments and outdoor spaces.

Index

• Aboriginal culture 70–1 see also Native Americans
• Abram, David, The Spell of the Sensuous 22, 64
• acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) 37
• adventure therapy 2, 5, 30, 35–6, 69, 125
• aesthetics 40
• affect, and therapeutic space 66–7, 109–10, 113
• affect attunement 25
• Ainsworth, M. 51
• alchemy 75
• Altschuler, S. 62
• Ancient Greece 74, 108
• Anderson, J. 19
• animism 17
• arousal system 25
• arts therapies 40–1, 68, 71, 75, 98, 111–12, 128–9
• Asklepian healing temples 74, 108, 112
• assemblage theory 23
• attachment:
  • in emotional regulation 52–3
  • to nature 51–2
• attachment patterns 50, 51–2, 90
• attachment theory 51–3, 65
• Attention Restoration Theory (ART) 6, 10
• Atwood, G. E. 46
• audit trails 94
• Avatar 18

• Barrows, A. 16, 25
• Bates, Brian 3
• Bateson, Gregory 13, 23
• beaches 66
• Beauvais, J. 65
• becoming 20–2
• Bennet, J. 22–3
• Berger, Ronen 32–3, 40, 69–70
• Bion, W. R. 106
• Biophilia Hypothesis 6, 9
• Bondi, L. 114
• Boston Change Process Study Group 47–9
• boundaries xii, xiii, 7, 20, 32, 36, 39, 80–2, 85, 86, 91–3, 95, 110, 112–1...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Author’s note
• Introduction
• The healing effects of nature – why go outdoors?
• The field of nature-based therapies
• The therapeutic relationship and nature-based therapy
• Understanding the range of therapeutic processes in nature
• Practice issues in moving counselling and psychotherapy outdoors
• Therapists’ stories – taking therapy outside
• Developing your own therapeutic relationship with nature
• Index