Nature, Beyond the Therapy Room

Benefits of Therapy in Nature

Gestalt Therapy in Nature offers an immersive experience within a safe container that brings surprising insights, encourages shifts and gently erases stuck relational patterns – ultimately in support of personal growth beyond trauma.

I offer Gestalt in Nature therapy.   This dynamic approach facilitates a sensory and embodied experience of therapy – what you might see, smell, hear, touch may stir memory or offer a chance to pause and talk through what is emerging.   Therapy in nature offers a non-judgemental therapeutic space, quietening  ruminating thoughts and connecting you to emotions that you might have had to suppress to cope with early relational trauma.

We tend to hold tension, stress and trauma in the body.  There is increasing evidence from neuroscience on the benefits of nature in regulating the nervous system. 

Therapy in nature can also bring awareness to historic patterns of relating to the world and to yourself, that may have been creative ways of coping with early developmental trauma. Working alongside nature as co-therapist,  is a powerful journey of self-growth  and ultimately  to a deeper connection with yourself, others and nature’s seasonal changes.     

What’s it like?

Therapy in nature offers an opportunity to stop and look up, around, down and take in what’s around you. Imagination may stir, memories arise, and thoughts that hold fear in the mind and body dissipate more easily than they may do in the  therapy room.  

You might hear a bird and it takes you to an early memory, or see something that reminds you of a difficult relationship: nature offers a stimulating, spacious environment in which to reveal insights, try out new ways of relating and start to heal.

We might take a walk, find a sit spot, take a breather or a pause, imagine – letting nature be our guide. I practice in nature-based settings which could be woodland, parkland, or the seashore.

Who is it for?

You might feel at home in nature, or think nature is ‘not for me’.  Sometimes the stories we have been told about nature keep us away and I encourage you to come and try it out. I work with adult individuals and with groups and welcome anyone who is curious to explore the benefits of therapy in nature.