Eco Therapy
All my psychotherapy and yoga therapy sessions take place with an awareness of and reconnection with the wider world and it’s inhabitants. However, in these specific Eco-therapy sessions, my role becomes more of a facilitator with regards to developing a deeper reconnection with more-than-human nature. I may suggest a variety of interventions, to help develop and support that relationship which can deepen self-awareness, embodied connection and belonging.
These sessions can take place as a one-off or more regularly. They can take the form of working together to create an individualised practice of nature and body reconnection that you continue outside of the session. Then you may choose to either have no further sessions, sessions to tweak or change the practice, or regular sessions of exploration and connection if this would best support your needs.
Practical information
Individual sessions are usually 50 minutes or 100 minutes, and follow my sliding scale for payment, £35-£70 for each 50 minutes.
Prior to the first session, I request an initial session online to find out a little about you and your hopes and needs. You may feel a full 50-minute consultation is necessary or just a 25-minute chat. I feel you are best to judge which would be most useful for you. After this initial meeting, we would arrange our eco-therapy session/s.
Initial online sessions are charged at a reduced price of £30 for 50 minutes, or £15 for 25 minutes, payable by Paypal before the session, I will send details of this when we arrange the meeting.
The eco-therapy sessions usually take place in the woodlands, meadows, lanes and fells of Staveley in the South Lakes.
We usually decide on a walk and a pace together that feels right for today. Sessions can be moving or more static, or with a mixture of walking and practicing in one place and moving on to another. Interventions and suggested activities are individualised based on what would be helpful for you on that day.
Group Sessions
I also offer public and privately booked sessions in nature-reconnection. For public sessions, please see the events pages. To book for your private group, please email me.
DIY
You could also experiment with embodied nature reconnection using my Wild and Wellbeing Card Deck, published by WW Norton. Available at most bookshops, including:
Why outdoors?
Activities in Nature can help to increase a feeling of connection and belonging and reclamation of natural spaces and practical skills.
Spending time in Nature has been shown to relieve stress and reduce cortisol.
Exposure to green space significantly correlates to a positive effect on well-being[1]
Spending time in Nature improves working memory, cognitive flexibility, and attentional control[2]
Contact with Nature is associated with increases in happiness, subjective well-being, positive affect, positive social interactions, and a sense of meaning and purpose in life, as well as decreases in mental distress[3]
[1] White, M. P., Alcock, I., Wheeler, B. W., & Depledge, M. H. (2013). Would You Be Happier Living in a Greener Urban Area? A Fixed-Effects Analysis of Panel Data. Psychological Science, 24(6), 920–928. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612464659
[2] Schertz, K. E., & Berman, M. G. (2019). Understanding Nature and Its Cognitive Benefits. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(5), 496–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419854100
[3] Bratman GN, Anderson CB, Berman MG, Cochran B, de Vries S, Flanders J, Folke C, Frumkin H, Gross JJ, Hartig T, Kahn PH Jr, Kuo M, Lawler JJ, Levin PS, Lindahl T, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Mitchell R, Ouyang Z, Roe J, Scarlett L, Smith JR, van den Bosch M, Wheeler BW, White MP, Zheng H, Daily GC. Nature and mental health: An ecosystem service perspective. Sci Adv. 2019 Jul 24;5(7):eaax0903. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax0903. PMID: 31355340; PMCID: PMC6656547.