How nature can be a powerful tool for mental health

I have always found peace in nature. Whenever things get stressful or overwhelming, I either jump on my bike, go for a walk in the bush or just sit in the garden. I think a lot of us do. There is something very calming about having the sun on your face as you trudge, peddle, swim or just sit under a tree. (And it is not a coincidence that most mindfulness exercises invite you to imagine yourself in natural spaces or have the sounds of running water in the background.)

Indigenous peoples around the world have always understood that nature has therapeutic benefits (we have a lot we can learn from their wisdom in this space). And now, more and more, we are seeing nature being studied as a tool to support wellbeing, healing and mental health. There is even a field of study dedicated to this, called nature therapy or ecotherapy.

So what is ecotherapy?

Ecotherapy is a growing field of study. Good Therapy describes ecotherapy in the following way:

‘Ecotherapy, also known as nature therapy or green therapy, is the applied practice of the emergent field of ecopsychology, which was developed by Theodore Roszak. Ecotherapy, in many cases, stems from the belief that people are part of the web of life and that our psyches are not isolated or separate from our environment.’

They suggest that ecotherapy can take many forms and can include things like nature meditation, horticulture therapy (growing things), animal-assisted therapy, physical activity in the natural environment and involvement in conservation activities.

In an article for the Sydney Morning Herald, writer Jill Stark suggests that there are many mental health benefits that come from spending time in nature.

‘In Scotland, where I grew up, “nature prescriptions” are being offered by the National Health Service to treat chronic illnesses including depression, anxiety, diabetes and heart disease.

‘GPs in the remote Shetland Islands are prescribing birdwatching, hiking and beach walks for patients with debilitating conditions.

‘It’s a form of outdoor mindfulness – where patients take time to be still and silent and absorb the raw beauty of their natural surroundings – that has been shown to help calm the nervous system, lower blood pressure and boost positive feelings.’

What are the benefits of ecotherapy or nature therapy?

Mind UK suggests that there are many benefits to spending time in nature for mental health. It can:

• improve your mood
• reduce feelings of stress or anger
• help you take time out and feel more relaxed
• improve your physical health
• improve your confidence and self-esteem
• help you be more active
• help you make new connections
• provide peer support.

We know that exercise is good for mental health but exercising in a natural environment has been shown to have measurable additional benefits. In Psychology Today, psychiatrist, Emily Dean, sites several studies that show that exercising in nature is significantly more effective than exercising indoors, in terms of reducing anxiety, depression, negative thoughts, rumination and stress.

How can I use the principles of ecotherapy in my work with people?

Ecotherapy can be used as a stand-alone therapeutic approach and it can also be used in conjunction with other programs, supports or therapeutic interventions.

So what are some simple ways you could incorporate nature into the work you do? Here are a few ideas:

• Instead of meeting in an office, why not meet in a local park, nature reserve or by a river.
• Support people wanting to reduce stress or anxiety to become involved in a local community garden. Even better, have your meetings in the garden while planting potatoes and picking peas! (As an added bonus, people are likely to meet others and build sustainable social connections. There may also be regular community meals using veggies from the garden, which can be great for social inclusion.)
• Encourage people wanting to improve their mental health to exercise in nature whenever possible. You could support them to do this by arranging to have walking meetings, which has the added bonus of increasing the therapeutic benefits of your catch-up! This is also a great way to model how easy it is to incorporate nature into everyday activities.
• Explore the idea of incorporating a therapy animal into your practice or service. If the person you are working with already has a pet, could you incorporate that pet into the work you are doing together?
• Making a positive contribution to our community and world has been shown to have significant benefits to our health and sense of wellbeing. If the person you are working alongside has an interest in the environment, invite them to think about joining a local conservation or landcare group. Not only will they get the benefits of spending time in nature, they are also likely to have an increased sense of meaning, purpose and social inclusion.

Ecotherapeutic techniques can also be incorporated into a school curriculum to increase the health and wellbeing of students. Many schools now have onsite veggie gardens and quiet natural spaces in their playgrounds. Use these spaces whenever you can or perhaps try some of the following:

• Teach more classes outside, under a tree or in the school veggie garden (incidental grazing encouraged!).
• Create memory walks where you anchor stories and facts about the things you are teaching to features in the landscape. If you revisit the walk and stories regularly, you can actually build layers of knowledge over time. You may be surprised by how much the children retain using this technique. (Australian Aboriginal people have used these techniques for learning for tens of thousands of years.)
• Take children to a quiet outdoor space and do a short mindfulness session, including some deep breathing. This is particularly effective during times they are typically restless or tired, like after lunch. You could either ask them to close their eyes and listen to the natural world around them or invite them to closely observe, with all their senses, elements in nature, like the bark on a tree or the way the ants have built a nest.

An additional benefit to incorporating nature into your practice is that it can also increase your personal sense of wellbeing. Perhaps you can also think about ways your team can spend more time in nature? Could you hold team meetings outside or have walking meetings? Could you have regular ten minute ‘self-care’ mindfulness sessions across the day in a nearby garden or green space?

Do you use nature as part of your practice? We would love to hear your stories. Please share your experiences or ideas in the comments below.

Dr. Sue King-Smith

The Nature of Strengths                                             $49.50 inc. GST          Product Code: 4938

Self-care for home and work                                     $54.50 inc. GST          Product Code: 4936

Talking ecoLogical                                                      $59.95 inc. GST          Product Code: 4940

If you are interested in providing a review* of our latest resource – Eating Disorders & other Shadowy Companions – we’d love to hear from you. Please email info@innovativeresources.org to request a copy.

Living with an eating disorder can be a lonely, isolating experience. Eating Disorders is a special resource, one that opens up the experience and validates it – an essential first step towards well-being and recovery.

This beautiful, highly-visual tool aims to support young people break the isolation by sharing their experience with family, friends, teachers, counsellors, and other health professionals.

• 40 hand-drawn cards for creating conversations that challenge the silence and shame surrounding eating disorders
• a comprehensive booklet of suggestions for using the cards with individuals and groups.

Guided by three delightfully-engaging characters—each card features an illustration to help people reflect on and express what it feels like to live with an eating disorder, and a question to gently suggest ways forward.

‘Having an eating disorder is like being stuck in a prison of your own mind that feels impossible to get out of. This experience needs to be heard and validated before the focus can shift to recovery.’
Danni McDougall, author, art therapist and senior mental health practitioner

* Your review may appear on our website and also in our promotional material.

Everyone has anxious thoughts from time to time, which is why it is important to teach all children the skills they need to manage anxiety, find ways to distract and soothe themselves during stressful times and challenge negative self-talk.

Anxiety Solutions for Kids was designed to do just that!

A great time to introduce the cards would be a prior to an activity that may cause students some stress (for example, a test) or after lunch. Doing these activities regularly can be a great way to help children build their emotional regulation ‘toolkit’.

Here are a few ways you can use the Anxiety Solutions for Kids cards in the classroom.

• Choose an individual card as the classroom theme of the day or week. For example, ‘Thank you Bomb’ could be a card that introduces the theme or practice of gratitude.
• Use the cards in Circle Time to talk about what helps when dealing with challenging situations.
• Ask students to do the activities on 5 different cards and rate how calm they feel after each activity. Encourage them to practice their favourite activity whenever they start to feel stressed or worried.
• Write a story using a card as a prompt.
• Ask students to create an entirely new card showing a relaxing thing they love to do.

Teachers may also want to build the activities on the cards into school camps, excursions and other times when students may be anxious about being away from their routine. They are also great for lunchtime clubs and quiet times in the classroom.

One of the things that can really help build a parent’s confidence is when they proactively make changes that lead to a more harmonious and positive relationship with their child. As we all know, when we feel more confident, we feel more empowered and motivated to make changes.

We asked our trainer, Alison Krusec, who has over thirty years’ experience working with children and families, for some tips for supporting parents to build their confidence, while also creating a more positive relationship with their children.

Here are her top five:

1. Immerse yourself in their world

Imagine you are a four-year-old child looking up at the adult world. It’s likely to feel quite tall and big and overwhelming. One very simple way to connect with children (as a worker, teacher or parent) is to plonk yourself down on the floor next to them. When talking to children, try and be at their eye level. This reduces the sense of ‘power over’ and of being ‘talked down to’.

And while you’re there, don’t forget to be playful! Follow the child’s lead. Ask lots of curious questions about what they are doing when they are playing, what is the scenario they are imagining, who are the ‘players’. By spending time trying to understand and being open to our child’s imaginative world, we are demonstrating that we value what they value. And by doing this, children are more likely to come to us with worries or concerns when they arise.

2. Learn to reframe

It’s really easy, when we are feeling tired or overwhelmed, to interpret the behaviour of children in a negative way. Learning to think about these things differently can not only help build parent/child connections, it can also reduce the stress parents may feel, as they are more likely to interpret situations through a positive lens. It can be as simple as looking for the strengths in the behaviour being exhibited by the child.

For example, if a child is throwing a tantrum, we could reframe this as them exerting their will on the world and asking for what they need. In other words, they are strong, can stand up for themselves and are comfortable speaking their mind.

Or, if a toddler is always pulling everything off shelves, perhaps instead of being angry and frustrated at the mess (which admittedly, can be challenging) perhaps we celebrate the fact that they are curious, resourceful, determined and have an explorative mind.

Does that mean we accept or ignore the behaviour? Not necessarily. But it may make it easier to acknowledge the child’s needs and help them find more constructive ways to meet those needs.

It can also help us become more responsive rather than reactive, which is good for the child, and for our own stress levels!

3. Hold space for the big emotions

For children, big emotions are inevitable and they can feel scary, especially if the child doesn’t know how to manage them. For a parent watching a child in the throes of ‘big emotions’ (a wild tantrum in the supermarket or tears at the school gate) it can be difficult to know how to react.

Sometimes it’s as simple as consciously acknowledging that big emotions are going to happen and encouraging parents to just hold the space. Staying calm and unreactive and just being there as a safe space for the child to work through the storm can help parents feel more in control and can also help calm the situation.

This can reduce stress, and sense of dread (if this is a common experience) and give them confidence they are doing no harm. It also sends the reassuring message to the child that they can trust the parent to be there for them through the good and the bad.

4. Catch them being good

Think about a parent you know. How do they describe their child, when someone asks them how things are going? Do they list all the challenging stuff or do they talk about all the positive things the child is doing?

When people are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, chances are they will focus on what is not working rather than what is. The problem is that when we aren’t travelling so well, we tend to filter out the good stuff and only remember the hard things.

The good news is that we can retrain ourselves to focus on the good stuff! The even better news is that this is not only good for the child, but it can help the parent feel much more hopeful and positive too.

An easy way to encourage parents (or try this yourself) to focus on the good stuff is to keep a journal and note down every time they ‘catch’ their child doing something positive.

Once a parent gets in the swing of doing this, invite them to write down all the positive things they notice themselves doing as well. This can be a great way to help parents build confidence in their parenting abilities. It can also be a really positive document to reflect on later.

5. Let them be brave

Every parent wants to keep their children safe. But making mistakes is how we learn and grow. Failing is how we build resilience. Getting small injuries is how we learn the limits of our bodies (better to sprain your wrist falling off your bike as a child than crash your car taking a corner too fast as a young adult).

Allowing your children to take (calculated) risks and try new things is a powerful thing. It encourages them to get out of their comfort zone in other areas of their life too and teaches them that the anxiety they feel when they do something new is okay.

And let’s be honest, being brave is exhilarating. And empowering. And fun! As is watching your children thrive in the world because they are confident and engaged.

If you are supporting parents, one of the most powerful things you can do is to notice all the great things they are doing, and tell them. Even better, invite them to reflect on the positive things they are doing as parents, and encourage them to think about what they would like more of in their relationship with their child—fun and laughter, time outside, reading books together, cooking together, making things, whatever is meaningful to them—and support them to make those changes. The more they implement changes and the more they notice themselves doing this, the more their confidence will grow. And we know that a more confident, positive parent is likely to translate to a more confident, positive family.

What would your top tips be? What helps you feel more confident as a parent?

If you would like to talk to Alison about delivering training to your organisation, please drop us a line at training@innovativeresources.org or check out our website for upcoming workshops.

Positive Parenting cards

Strengths cards

Self-care cards

Everyday Strengths

If this pandemic has made us appreciate anything, it is the importance of the people around us. Family, friends, workmates, the people in our local café, the mums and dads and grandparents in our parent group, even the people we say hello to when walking the dog. They are all important and form part of our broader network of relationships.

As is the nature of these things, sometimes it’s only when we lose something for a period of time that we truly appreciate its value.

Another lesson we’ve learned this year is that humans are infinitely creative and innovative beings. When challenges hit, we adapt. In the past months, most of us have had to jump through new (and often spinning) hoops, pivot like dancers, learn new skills and find capacities and inner strengths we didn’t even know we had.

This holiday period is likely to be anything but typical and while the new ‘COVID-normal’ looks slightly different for everyone, our connections and relationships with others remain fundamentally important.

So how can we combine our recently-enhanced appreciation for those around us with our newly-minted ‘rona’ skills and insights, to stay connected with the people we care about this holiday season?

Technology (yes, I know—you are over having 2-D relationships!)

As we have all discovered this year, technology can be a great way to connect when you can’t get together in person. While we may be feeling a bit jaded when it comes to connecting through screens, it can still be worth thinking about ways we can make virtual catch-ups fun, meaningful and even a bit silly.

• In our house, we re-watch Harry Potter every year and there are always a few cheesy Christmas movies in the mix too. While Harry Potter may not be your thing, you can always watch a Christmas movie or your favourite series with the people you love on Skype or ZOOM. Crack open your favourite beverage, fill a bowl with popcorn, lollies or any variety of chocolate covered things (they are all good) and lose yourselves in the story.
• A few weeks ago I heard about a group of friends who organised a virtual pool cocktail party. Everyone set up a toddler’s swimming pool in their back yard (this was in Victoria, Australia, where we had a period of strict lockdowns…and we are heading into summer), dressed up in holiday costumes and had a virtual party, complete with mermaid dancing and party games. They had a blast.
• Food is a big part of the festive season for many people and cooking together is often the most enjoyable part of the process. Having everyone gathered around the kitchen, sharing stories and memories while the veggies get chopped, the cookies get cut and mouth-watering aromas waft from the oven, is an age-old way of coming together. Cooking is a highly tactile experience and engages all the senses. Bringing a group of family or friends together to prepare a virtual meal is a wonderful way to connect as the tactile and sensory nature of cooking makes the experience feel more real and shared, even if you are apart.

Low tech and low stress ways to connect

As columnist Angela Mollard says in her beautifully reflective piece on how she is approaching this Christmas, ‘So many of us are going into this festive season a little beaten. Others are deeply broken. We don’t have the usual bandwidth on our emotions or the capacity to absorb the hurts and tensions.’

What we need, she suggests, is to take the pressure off, lower our expectation of ourselves and others, and identify what is really important to us.

One way to do this is to think about the simple and meaningful ways you can connect with the people you care about, including people who may be really struggling this year.

• Give someone you haven’t spoken to in a while a call.
• Make a (virtual or real) photo album of shared memories and treasured moments and give it to someone you care about. Reminisce, share stories, laugh, cry.
• If you can (given your local restrictions), make your own cards or holiday treats and drop them in to neighbours or community members who may be isolated.
• Gratitude can be a really powerful mood lifter.
• Think about all the people you are grateful for in your life. Instead of giving them a generic card or gift this year, tell them what you value about them.

It is also worth taking the time to reflect on some of the simple gifts that have come from this year. What have you learned about yourself and the people you care about? What has this experience taught you about what is really important to you? How can you embed some of those insights into your life going forward? Share these insights with the important people in your life.

Living with isolation and separation this year has probably deepened your understanding and empathy for people in your community who experience long-term socially-isolation. If you have the opportunity, reach out to someone this holiday period who may not have friends and family around. What’s one simple thing you could do to help them feel more connected?

Have you got any creative suggestions about how to connect with others this year? We would love to hear about them in the comments below.

Written by Sue King-Smith

Signposts: exploring everyday spirituality             $49.50 inc. GST             Product Code: 3450

I watched a doco not long ago about how they celebrate Christmas in the Philippines. Christmas officially starts there on September 1^st. Christmas carols can be heard in shops, decorations go up and Christmas parties rage on for months, culminating in an all-nighter Christmas Eve. Then Christmas finishes, right? No, actually, Christmas celebrations continue well into January. Now that is a holiday season!

It made me wonder how other countries around the world celebrate Christmas. In my wanderings, I found some very unique and quirky traditions.

In Venezuela, for example, in the week leading up to Christmas many Venezuelans attend mass every day, and in the capital, Caracas, it is customary to do this on roller skates—they even close many of the roads to accommodate the rocking-rolling masses going to mass!

In Catalonia, a big log of poo forms the Christmas table centrepiece. This log is part of a tradition called caga tió or ‘defecating log’ where they create a log character and ‘feed’ it with fruit, nuts and sweet things all through December, until on Christmas day, they beat it mercilessly with rods, all the while singing traditional song that translates to ‘if you don’t crap well, I’ll beat you with a stick’. They do this until the log excretes its sweet innards, along with small gifts for the children. But don’t feel too sorry for this overstuffed guest—they do keep it warm with a cosy blanket.

Spider webs feature in Ukrainian tree decorating rituals. This ritual has its origins in an old story of a poor woman who didn’t have the means to buy Christmas decorations and left her tree outside overnight. When she woke in the morning, it had been beautifully decorated by spider webs and dew. Often you will find a fake spider or two alongside the bells and bows. Who knew that arachnids could be so festive!

If you are invited to Christmas lunch in Portugal, you might notice a few extra settings at the table. That is because they are a particularly hospitable and inclusive people, making sure everyone is welcome, the dead included. Relatives who have passed away are invited to share the feast.

You better hope you haven’t been naughty in Austria or you might get chased by Krampus, a hairy, scary, and nary very forgiving beast, half-goat demon, who snatches up not-nice children in his basket. He is Saint Nik’s side kick, by all accounts. Talk about calling in the yuletide debt collectors!

When I think of Australia Christmases, there aren’t any particularly strange traditions. Except for the fact that Santa wears shorts and thongs (the footwear, not the undies!). We eat salads, berries and ice-cream, chuck snags and prawns on the barbie, play a bit of backyard cricket … all that good stuff.

Ok, I don’t actually know any Aussies who celebrate Christmas that way but I have heard that many do. Which made me think…maybe Krampus isn’t so hairy and the Ukrainian Christmas trees aren’t really spidery. In fact, maybe I have entirely the wrong end of the poo-log-beating stick?

Do you have any strange and lovely Christmas traditions?

In 2020, we were contacted by Penny, a highly respected and experienced child, youth and family worker, about the various ways she is using Innovative Resources’ cards and tactile resources with children in a school setting. She generously agreed to share some of her experiences and tips.

‘I work as a school family support worker at a Victorian primary school. Currently, a lot of students are experiencing anxiety, stress and worry.

‘I’ve been using both Anxiety Solutions for Kids and Body Signals, mostly with the upper-primary aged children. Body Signals has been great to help students identify where they feel things in their body, how it might look to others, and to make the link between body sensations and feelings. I had one student reflect that she felt reassured when she looked at the picture of the meerkat feeling waves of nausea as it represented exactly how she feels before school each day. She particularly liked the illustration of the wave in the tummy.

‘Anxiety Solutions for Kids has been great too. I often say, “Let’s pop them in piles, a pile for the options you currently use or would like to practise, then maybe an I’ll try pile and a No thanks, that’s not for me pile (with a bupbaaaarm sound).” I love how each student connects with different ideas and we talk about trying some strategies to see how they fit. Could we use it at home? At school? In the car? On the loo? We then write them up, make a little book and take them off to practise.’

Penny explains how she stays flexible and is happy to adjust every session to suit the needs of the child or person she’s talking to.  She often introduces cards, using them in unique and creative ways.

‘Some days I story my whole work day using Innovative Resources’ cards and other tools. An intro meeting with a student and parent using The Bears; Can-Do Dinosaurs with the 8-year-old who struggles to get motivated; a five-column approach for the maths teacher working with a student who worries about getting the answers wrong; a scaling tool for the mum who finds it hard to get through another bloody Zoom meeting- trying to work while wrangling a toddler and a school-refusing preppy; Body signals and Anxiety Solutions for the 12-year-old who isn’t eating or sleeping properly; Strength Cards to celebrate the strengths and capacities of the student and mum who are finishing up the service; and a reflective letter with a few stickers to summarise the amazing work everyone is doing from week to week.’

Using the cards with adults

While Penny now works primarily with children in a school setting, she has also worked with the resources in various roles and finds that different cards work better in different settings.

‘When I was working with men’s groups, I found they really liked Cars ’R’ Us , Ups and Downs and Funky Fish Feelings. They didn’t seem to respond to the photo-based cards as much.

‘I also worked with groups of women in their 50s and 60s around grief, loss and change, and found the most profound shift came in around week six when I used the Strengths Cards. Everyone in the group knew each other pretty well by then, so I would ask them to turn to the person next to them and name a strength they had seen in that person over the past six weeks. For some of the women, it was the first time anyone had noticed or named something they were good at or a quality they had. It was really powerful.

‘For people experiencing big emotions around change, life can feel problem-saturated at times. It can be really hard for them to get their head around the idea they have strengths. The cards can be a really great tool for “concretising” what a strengths is.’

How do you use the cards with kids the first time you meet them?

‘I never assume that kids understand what feelings are or that they can name different feelings. Emotional intelligence is a skill you learn and not everyone, kids or adults, has had a chance to learn that skill. So when I meet kids for the first time, I start by asking them to pick out cards for the more obvious emotions—happy, sad, angry—then I get the kids to describe how they know the koala is sad. What does the koala’s face look like? What are their eyebrows doing? What are the clues in their body?

‘When we are talking about goal setting, I usually use a sport analogy. I talk about how in some sports the whole team works together to reach the goal, like netball and footy. As in sport, a goal in life is also something that you want to achieve. They get to decide who is on their team—to work with them, practise their skills and achieve their goals—their family, teacher, whoever else is important to them. They seem to understand the idea of goals better when I talk about it that way.

‘Another great way to use the cards is to get kids to use them to story their day. If you just ask them how they are feeling right now, they will probably be feeling okay if they are sitting with you in your office—they might have gotten out of maths or sport, and they are feeling pretty good! What you really want to find out is how they felt when Mum dropped them off at the school gate, or what was going on when their friends wouldn’t play with them in the playground. In other words, when were they feeling worried, angry or scared.

‘I use the The Bears and ask the kids to pick out different cards that show how they were feeling at different moments in their day or week.

The benefits of using visual and tactile resources with kids

Penny likes to use the cards without words with younger children and generally introduces cards with words on them for kids who are at least eight or nine years old. She said that kids this age enjoy reading the words on cards like Can-Do Dinosaurs and Strengths Cards for Kids.

‘Can-Do Dinosaurs is great to use with kids because they often get stuck on what they can’t do rather than what they can. Even when I ask them directly to name something they can do or things they like, they often still name things they can’t do or don’t like.

‘It can feel like a pretty big shift in thinking for some kids (and adults!) to start focusing on what they can do. Instead of naming something, they might point to a picture they like, or choose a couple of cards. Or they might choose cards that describe things they would like to be able to do. Sometimes it can be hard to put words to what you are feeling, so the cards take the pressure off by allowing them to respond in non-verbal ways.

‘I also like having tactile tools like the Pocket of Stones for the kids to play with as it can help them to have something to do with their hands; it’s something else to focus on and it makes the conversation less intense and more like a game.

‘When kids do finally name some things they can do, or some strengths they have, you can see a change in them. They feel more confident to try other things.’