Exploring Environmental Art Therapy and Nature-Based Creative Practices
Discover the essence of environmental art therapy through concepts like containment, utilizing natural materials, and engaging in various art projects within outdoor and indoor natural settings. Embrace the therapeutic benefits of working with nature, fostering self-expression, resilience, and creative living.
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ENVIRONMENTAL ART THERAPY THE OUTDOOR STUDIO AND PORTABLE STUDIO Gardens, Streets, Parks, Beaches, Forests, Polytunnels, The Home Studio Nature Table, A Pathway
CONTAINMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL ART THERAPY Containment in terms of this essay is a metaphor for steadying, cultivating composure, a place to collect one s thoughts, a space to express without fear of rejection, and an opportunity to feel secure in one s self. Containment is an opening into investigation, a curiosity about why we react, why we suppress, and why we need to find creative ways to become. The therapist can weave together our feelings and thoughts, but is their a capacity for the natural world to do this as well? The nature of the ephemeral is apparent in the natural world, and is this somehow a composition for our identities, to be within the nature of complexity and cylces of change? We seek stability, and yet change always appears. Can this somehow be understood or regulated in an enhanced way when working outdoors? Bion examined containment as the ability of the mother (carer) to receive the projections of the child without reaction, and to communicate their understanding, while helping the child to come to terms with their discomfort. Containment is connected to how we promote resilience in our clients and service users. How we encourage self understanding as insights that further creative living. The goal is for the client to live out their innate abilities and to share these as life goals. Containment is about attunement, mirroring, supporting, and giving voice to a client s story and conflicting situations. It seeks to restore feeling, thinking and acting so that the client can relate and feel understood.
NATURAL MATERIALS BERRIES, POLLEN, MUD, BRANCHES, LEAVES, MOSS, LICHEN, CHARCOAL, FLOWERS, STONES, SAND, WEEDS, BARK, GRASSES, PINE CONES, PINE NEEDLES, ROOTS, VINES, CLAY, RAIN WATER, WATER FROM A LAKE, RIVER OR OCEAN, BEESWAX, ROSEHIPS, HERBS, STEMS, SEEDS, SNOW, FEATHERS, NATURAL DYES, FUNGUS, FLOWER/PLANT/VEGETABLE PRINTS, SEEDPODS, RUBBINGS FROM NATURAL MATERIALS, REEDS, HAIR, SEAWEED, ABANDONED INSECT AND BIRD NESTS, NATURALLY SHED ANTLERS, CATTAILS
ART PROJECTS LAND ART HABITATS, BUILDING A HOME IN NATURE WITH FOUND MATERIALS INDOOR NATURE DISPLAY OUTDOOR FESTIALS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL ART EDIBLE GARDEN, COOKING HERB GARDEN FOR A SPAS (APOTHECARY GARDENS) NATURE CRAFTS (PAPERMAKING WITH NATURAL MATERIALS) PHOTOGRAPHY PERFORMANCE CREATIVE WRITING NATURE JOURNALS/ARTIST BOOKS SEASONAL CELEBRATIONS (IRELAND S WILD PLANTS: MYTHS, LEGENDS FOLKLORE AND IRELAND S TREES MYTHS LEGENDS AND FOLKLORE NIALL MAC COITIR GARDENS PRODUCED FOR LIVING ART MATERIALS (DYE GARDENS, WILLOW FOR MAKING SHELTERS, PLANTS FOR CRAFTS)
THE HOLDING ENVIRONMENT Working with nature seemed to provide a subtle and deeper holding of the therapeutic process. Nature also provides the materials, media, context, inspiration and exhibition space. The inspirational dynamic which is active in nature is experienced as we attune to the holding environment. Here there is a connection made between internal feeling and the unconscious and the external explored and amplified through the use of symbol and metaphor. The process of exchange between inner and outer expression opened up a reciprocal dynamic. It allowed connection with internal individual dramas, losses or traumas; a space for these to be held and reflected back as nature provided the grand narratives of birth, life and death, repeated in its annual cycle. Our clients do not live, and are not bound by personal and familial narratives alone. Our clients, like us, live their lives in wide systems of relationship with themselves, with other people, institutions and organisational structures, and the wider natural environment, including nature and non-human others. Environmental arts therapy and art therapy outdoors .provides a framework to working actively with this bigger picture. Vanessa Jones and Gary Nash, BAAT, Newsbriefing
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND NATURE Nature and Therapy: Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy in Outdoor Spaces by Martin Jordan Nature Deficit Disorder The child is born into a social and nature based environment, and to disregard the natural world limits the child s imagination, observation skills, and ability to restore and replenish themselves within the nature. Avoidant Attachment Patterns. Richard Louv, www.childrenandnature.org Search Research Articles. Nature as a maternal supportive presence. Nature for self regulation, self composure as a place where we are held. The natural world places the client and therapist into uncertain conditions, in regards to what may happen. The space is more unpredictable than indoors. This may be a metaphor for human development as well. There are not the same kinds of boundaries, and therapist will not know what will happen in terms of weather conditions, health and safety, and working within shared natural environments (forests, parks, etc.). There is a greater democracy outdoors, the client can lead and determine the use of space and choice of materials. The therapist is not sitting as close, there is more space, and the client can move away from the therapist s close observation. Projection, unwanted feelings can be transferred into nature, in other words destructive tendencies can be projected into natural materials. Anger and anxiety are not transferred to a person, but to an environmental context that accepts these feelings and does not judge these actions or feelings.
ECOTHERAPY SPENDING TIME IN NATURE AND CREATING IN NATURE FOR HEALTH PROMOTION BIOPHILIA: THE AFFINITY OF HUMANS TO THE NATURAL WORLD. DO WE HAVE A SECURE OR INSECURE ATTACHMENT WITH NATURE? NETWORKS OF CONNECTION BETWEEN WELL BEING OF INDIVIDUALS COMMUNITIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH THEY LIVE. ECO THERAPY USES NATURE AS A THERAPIST TO ENHANCE A CONNECTION TO A SENSE OF BELONGING THAT IS TRANSPERSONAL (TAKING IN ONE S CONNECTION TO THE NATURAL WORLD AS SOMETHING BEYOND ONE SELF THAT OFFERS MEANING) THERE IS AN ETHOS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ACTIVISM, A SENSE OF VALUING AND TAKING CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT. BEING PART OF A LARGER RELATIONAL SYSTEM (OR NETWORK) THAT IS COMPOSING OF HUMAN BEING LIVING MORE SUSTAINABLY WITH THE NATURAL WORLD.
ECOTHERAPY THE OUTDOOR STUDIO OR THERAPEUTIC SPACE AS AN ALIVE INTERACTIVE SPACE FOR ART THERAPY, VERSUS BEING AN OFFICE TYPE OR INDOOR CLINICAL SPACE. IT IS RELATIONAL AS IT OCCURS OFTEN IN A PUBLIC SPACE HEALTH AND SAFETY AND RISK ASSESSMENTS ARE REQUIRED DEFINING THE BOUNDARIES OF THE SPACE THROUGH SITE VISITS PRIOR TO THERAPY COMMENCING SELF CARE/CLOTHING/REFRESHMENTS/COMFORT THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP EXTENDS INTO NATURE: THERE IS A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLIENT, ENVIRONMENT, ARTWORK AND THERAPIST HUMAN RELATIONSHIOPS WITH NATUE EMBRACE NOT ONLY PHYSICAL, BUT ALSO PSYCHOLOGICAL, ETHICAL, EXISTENTIAL AND SPIRTUAL ASPECTS. THIS RELATIONSHIP IS CONSIDERED EQUAL TO THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH THE THERAPIST. THE ROLE OF OUR PHYSICAL EMBEDDEDNESS IN THE NATURAL WORLD AND ATTACHMENT AND ATTUNEMENT WITH NATURE ARE CRUCIAL.
ECO ART THERAPY FORAGED OR FOUND ART MATERIALS RATHER THAN BOUGHT ART MATERIALS. THERE IS AN INHERENT EMBODIED CONNECTION TO THE NATURAL WORLD. A COLLABORATION WITH THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH ART THERAPY OCCURS, SO THERE IS A APPRECIATION OF METAPHORS ASSOCIAED WITH CULTIVATION, HARVESTING, SEASONS OF CHANGE, UPROOTING, BLOSSOMING, DECAY, INFESTATION, DEATH, BRANCHING OUT, ETC. SYMBOLIC REFERENCES AND MEANING ARE ASSOCIATED TO THE ARTWORKS MADE AND ALSO TO THE OVERALL ENVIRONMENT. THIS IS A REFERRED TO AS THE PERSONALISATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT. ECO IDENTITY IS A REFLECTION OF INNER PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESS WITHIN SURROUNDINGS OF NATURE. FINDING THE FRAME OF THE THERAPEUTIC ENCOUNTER, THE SITE/SPACE FOR THERAPY NATURE AS A POTENTIAL SPACE AS A CONTAINER FOR SYMBOLIC FORMS. NAURE SERVES AS A MIRROR IN WHICH TO REFLECT UPON ONE S LIFE STORIES.
BENEFITS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ART THERAPY SKILL SHARING AND TEAM BUILING COLLABORATION AND MENTORING SOCIAL INTERACTION, A GATHERING PLACE NATURE IS THERE WHEN YOU NEED IT ACHIEVEMENT AND SELF ESTEEM CREATING A PUBLIC ART FORM PRIDE OF PLACE WORKING WITH SYMBOLS OF REGENERATION PHYSICAL RELEASE OF TENSION AND STRESS COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD, MAKING ONE S MARK BEING ABLE TO OBSERVE YOUR CLIENT IN THE WORLD AT LARGE
BENEFITS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ART THERAPY PSYCHOLOGICAL RESTORATION AND INCREASED GENERAL MENTAL WELLBEING REDUCTION IN DEPRESSION, ANXIETY AND STRESS RELATED SYMPTOMS DECREASE IN DEMENTIA RELATED SYMPTOMS. IMPROVED SELF-ESTEEM, CONFIDENCE AND MOOD INCREASED ATTENTIONAL CAPACITY AND COGNITION IMPROVED HAPPINESS, SATISFACTION AND QUALITY OF LIFE SENSE OF PEACE, CALM, RELAXATION FEELINGS OF SAFETY AND SECURITY INCREASED SOCIAL CONTACT, INCLUSION AND SENSE OF BELONGING SOIL MYCOBACTERIUM VACCAE RELEASS SEROTONIN TO DECREASE ANXIETY, IMPROVE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS, ENHANCE MOOD AND COPING ABILITIES FORAGING AND HARVESTING ASSIST IN THE RELEASE OF DOPAMINE WHICH MAY PROMOTE ENERGY AND ENTHUSIASM.
NATURE BASED THERAPIES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH AND REFERENCES HORTICULTURAL THERAPY WILDERNESS THERAPY ADVENTURE THERAPY FOREST SCHOOLS ECOPSYCHOLOGY NATURE THERAPY COUNSELLING AND WALKING MINDFULNESS IN NATURE INDIGENOUS CULTURES
