Abstract
This book brings together various voices in a continuing exploration of an approach to creative therapy that is centred in, and facilitated through, nature and our natural environment. The authors see Environmental Arts Therapy (EAT) as offering not only rich sensory encounters and natural metaphors but also opportunities to reconnect with the world in which we humans have evolved, worked, loved, played and created stories together for countless eons. The natural environment is a living stage and canvas for myths and encounters with inner struggles, a place to co-create meaningful, interactive representations while experiencing the dynamic instabilities, cycles and spontaneity that nature offers in abundance. This text describes how, in such work, there is a gentle call to connect with and express feelings, open our heart to discover our vulnerable inner child and create ways to release blocks and burdens. It suggests that many current human struggles may be rooted in our disconnection from the natural environment, our feelings and the natural cycles of life, and our unpreparedness for the existential crisis of human-induced climate change.
The book is structured to emphasise key strands of EAT with chapters from over a dozen authors, some being very experienced and some more recently trained in the approach. The first part, ‘Environmental Arts Therapy in Context’, consists of a chapter by each of the two editors. Here, Siddons Heginworth outlines the practice he developed over some decades and Nash presents a review of the literature. While these two chapters provide real context for the rest of the book, each feels like a précis that perhaps omits potentially rich and valuable content. Fortunately, Siddons Heginworth’s earlier book Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life (Siddons Heginworth, 2009) is available to describe his practice more fully. The references from Nash’s chapter effectively signpost us to delve more deeply in the field should we find ourselves intrigued by his taster.
The titles of the next three sections in the book (‘Childhood, Love and Attachment’, ‘Feminine and Masculine’ and ‘The Cycle of the Year’) refer to key concepts at the core of the approach. The book concludes with a final section on ‘Elders and Endings’.
As with just about any multi-author book, we are not presented with a text that takes us on a fully coherent journey, building on ideas or developing arguments stage by stage. Each chapter is self-contained and can be meaningfully read on its own. When reading the whole book, there is some repetition. Having said that, the different authors have varied writing styles, some more poetic, some more theoretical, each with different pace, energy and focus. The context and content are clearly outlined at the start of most chapters, and together they cover a broad range of applications for group and individual EAT, from bringing natural objects indoors, through working in urban parkland to more obviously wild settings. There are vignettes or case descriptions from a range of client groups and ages, and the authors come from different creative therapy backgrounds and draw on different theoretical orientations. Together, the chapters offer, even for those who are not trained in EAT, ideas and inspiration for incorporating elements of the approach into their practice. There is also some limited but interesting discussion of the shifts required to move from rigidly boundaried indoor spaces to a practice outdoors, where the therapy space is held by the therapist and nature working together.
Overall, the book makes a good case for the approach being a way to reclaim a neglected, natural and essential way of working creatively with clients. It does perhaps lack depth, but it is a useful starting point for anyone interested. It was clearly written before the COVID-19 pandemic so does not mention how working outdoors might also offer additional pandemic-related benefits. While many of us were having to connect with our clients via screens, or at least wearing masks, those practising EAT outdoors would have been far freer to work as usual or even in ways that counter or address the restrictions and fears so many have found themselves grappling with during this period.
Environmental Arts Therapy: The Wild Frontiers of the Heart is not a book about dramatherapy. However, Siddons Heginworth is an HCPC registered arts therapist, trained as a dramatherapist and, for many years, a significant facilitator for the Exeter Dramatherapy MA. If you read this book, you will see how the dramatic element is naturally woven into this emerging active form of therapy.