OUTDOOR THERAPY
My interest in outdoor therapy began long before I became a counsellor. It has its roots in my early work as a permaculture enthusiast and community gardener. Much of my work then, involved working alongside and supporting people who had suffered trauma and or were experiencing mental health problems. My first love was gardening, caring for the earth, rather than caring for people and there was a quiet acknowledgment that the soil, flora and fauna were my early therapeutic companions. To begin with in my naiveté I believed I was growing them, but it increasingly crossed my mind whether they weren’t simultaneously growing me.
Now I am able to recognise how the relationship between us was interrelated and therefore mutually beneficial. This concept of interrelatedness now forms the basis of my therapeutic work whether indoors or outside.
WHERE & HOW I WORK
We will meet at an agreed upon place and sessions will last for the usual therapeutic hour. All the usual boundaries observed in an indoor setting will apply to our work outdoors, although there will be some added flexibility which we can discuss and agree upon before we begin working together. Weather is an obvious one and we will agree a protocol for negotiating this at the beginning. Confidentiality and what to do if we encounter other people is also discussed and agreed upon at the beginning of our work.
During the session itself we have the option to walk and talk for the duration, or if we like find a place to sit and simply bring awareness to what it is like being you, outdoors.