Within Wild Spaces
Ecopsychology
My research
Welcome to a basic overview of my dissertation research results for anyone who’s interested in understanding in more detail how nature and therapy can work together. However, it’s not essential reading for those who are not. If you’re interested in the full academic paper, which deep-dives into theory and analysis, feel free to reach out, and I’d be happy to share it with you!
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This research is centered on understanding the elements which contribute to personal growth and healing during immersive outdoor experiences. By examining various participant experiences, I explored the unique dynamics, seen in the venn diagram below, that facilitate meaningful change, including the influence of nature, group interactions, and structured activities. My findings aim to provide valuable insights into how these environments can be harnessed for positive therapeutic outcomes, offering a deeper understanding of the healing potential inherent in outdoor settings.
I discovered that ecology was absent from most wellness models, so I created a wellbeing model of my own which incorporates the results of my research, including ecological wellness. Participants displayed minimal concern for economic status, instead human connection transcended all other aspects. When present with themselves, reflections focused on mental health, relationships and fulfillment, with nature acting as a co-therapist offering a judgment-free, open space.
Participants often mirrored the outdoor conditions in which they were in, with the wind and ocean waves giving permission for people to feel wild and free spirited, allowing them to release anger and pain or feel liberated. Whilst calming forest environments, with their bird song and crackle of a fire, offered opportunity for reflection and healing. Importantly, all of these natural environments allowed for authenticity. Within these moments, participants experienced how outdoor activities can become tools for personal and therapeutic change.
In its simplest terms, participants from all walks of life, were experiencing hardship and feeling a disconnect or a discontent with life. The multifaceted properties of nature, combined with the connection to community, gave birth to an intensive period of personal development. The residential gave people time and space to be introspective, it gave them permission to evolve and courage to change their environments, leading to fuller, richer and more connected lives.
The experiences in my research felt like the opposite of treading softly on psychological terrain, and instead, were a constant stream of new, breathtaking experiences, and a complete sensory overload. For my participants, this created incredibly powerful and moving experiences, which caused individual, existential evaluation. When participants returned home, this transformed into real life change, as though their paths became visceral to a degree in which change was unavoidable.
The subject of mental health within outdoor practices arises here, issues of risk and responsibility. In order to prevent harm in an unregulated industry, there is a duty of care for the individual and a personal duty to establish our level of competency.
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The explosive nature of these retreats and residentials can be the catalyst for change but in therapy, we work at much slower and more mindful pace. The outcome however, can be the same.
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The following poetry was written using a combination of interpretation, the meaning I derived from each story and lifting specific words or phrases directly from the transcript. The second poem is written in a regional accent, using colloquial language, to honour the voice and expression of the participant.
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Love
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The loneliness is slowly just
causing pain my chest,
Self-medicate to strangulate
the way I feel depressed,
The air tastes of despair and I just,
want to turn the lights off.
Shut down shut down,
never wake up
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These people though that I don't know,
they invite me in
They hold me there in my despair
and all my suffering
I found my tribe, I feel alive,
I feel deep connection.
It's blissful it's blissful,
there isn't any pain
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Nature's tonic to treat this chronic
spiritual intertwining,
The past at last, I let it go,
my heart is realigning,
From my despair I found repair,
and love in all direction.
That's all I'm feeling, that's all I'm feeling,
It's just love, just love,
Incredible love.
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Get Your Sen Gone
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By the pull of the tree and its clamberin' arms
By the roots reachin' to pull me up its steep and muddy slopes of the impossible,
I will get to the top and I will learn to feel.
I will walk, I will walk, I will walk myself outta my head.
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When I look at nature, I can 'ear it.
When I'm walkin' down a beach, I can 'ear it.
There'll be no noise, but I can 'ear it.
Even when there isn't a sound, I can 'ear it.
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Nature is everything.
To me, nature is everything.
These surroundings what I'm in,
Nature is everything.
Grounding,
Empowering,
Strong.
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Call me a tree hugger,
call me what you want,
It called to me:
No one's gona do this life for ya,
Get your sen gone then.
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This research allowed me to go on my own immersive and introspective journey; reflecting on our human nature, how we are always in process, always learning and evolving. I hope to continue forward allowing my ambitions to unfold organically, with my belief in the healing journeys that exist within the wild spaces inside and outside of ourselves.