Ecopsychology: Reconnecting with Nature II
Wilderness therapy, a nature-informed approach to healing and branch of the adventure therapy model, challenges participants to face their fears by exposing their body and senses to the elements of nature while, subsequently, learning about their own human-nature in the process. Frequently described as experiential education (Newes & Bandoroff, p.2), participants are guided by trained professionals into nature for days or weeks. Depending on the guides, therapists, and programs involved, wilderness therapy can function in a variety of ways. For example, ecopsychology pioneer and nature guide, Robert Greenway, requires considerable periods of silence, listening, pondering and contemplation during his wilderness trips. Yet, unlike other nature guides, he does not look at words as an “enemy” in the process (Buzzell & Chalquist, 2009, p. 134). Greenway believes that, “In the backcountry, our perception can change at very deep levels. Dreams change, as does the desire to manipulate the world in ways that damage it” (2009, p.138). During a six month back-packing journey through Mexico and Guatemala, I had the opportunity to experience nature in the same way Greenway described. With only a hammock, sleeping bag and back-pack, I spent my days swimming in lakes, climbing mountains and volcanoes, trekking through jungles and playing on the beach. My nights were wrapped in fire-side conversations, starry skies, full moons, and rituals – inspiring me to create new meaning in my life. I taught myself how to play the guitar, trusted my voice when singing, and learned the value of my own skin’s natural oils as I communed with nature – away from the artificial elements of air-conditioners and electric heat. My body was becoming “one” with the Earth and my mind, quieting, in the presence of the Earth’s beauty. I developed a deep respect for nature which changed the way I viewed the world, along with my writing style, into a more “earth-based” reflection of life that I still use today.
Rituals, such as a ceremonial rites of passage or vision fast, are sometimes incorporated into wilderness therapy. As a wilderness guide through the School of Lost Borders, Dr. John Davis integrates a variation of this ritual into the expeditions. With the intention of a transformational experience or “vision,” participants are encouraged to meditate, reflect, or pray as they fast (without food or water) for a day or longer – alone, in the wilderness. The vision fast, or modern day vision quest, “is a border crossing practice. When one steps across the threshold and into the unknown wilderness, boundaries begin to dissolve and our vision begins to expand. The threshold place is a dreamscape, where everything is pregnant with meaning, and nature, once again, speaks to us in the voices of rock, tree, and wind. Following the ancient pathway of this rite of passage, we step into our true nature and remember our home among the wild. We become who we were born to be” (School of Lost Borders, 2009, pg. 1). Although the experience of a vision fast is similar to that of a vision quest, Davis (during the course of our interview) discouraged the use of this name [quest] out of respect for the “relationship of its use with Native American Indian practices” (Davis, 2009). While the term, ritual, can be applied in many forms and interpreted in different ways, the reality that it has been used for healing within varying cultures around the world and is now being practiced in clinical and nature settings within modern western therapy, demonstrates the necessity of the process involved. Although it has a history with “paganism” and “witchcraft” that has stirred controversy over its use in modern therapy, “the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), which is the bible of mainstream mental health practice, now recognizes that spiritual and religious beliefs can play a mitigating role in psychological disturbances” (Buzzell & Chalquist, 2009, p. 260).
