Working with Nature to bring about therapeutic change in

adolescents; a practical guide.

Roger Duncan, Deputy Principal and Head of Education and Therapy.

Ruskin Mill College, Glos.

• Working in the woods ~learning to engage with the body.

• Wilderness experience~~Learning to separate the essential from the non- essential

• Vision quest as wilderness rite of passage

~A mythic journey real Time.

What I will talk about ~

Working in the woods Working in the woods

Building a sense of community from the bottom Building a sense of community from the bottom up up

Chop wood carry water Chop wood carry water

By working with animals

Leave no waste Leave no waste

The Kettles on The Kettles on

Bringing Soul to nature Bringing Soul to nature

Working at a human scale . Working at a human scale .

Ensuring everyone is included. Ensuring everyone is included.

The coppice 2007 Theatre The coppice 2007 Theatre

Poetry and Story telling Poetry and Story telling

And time to go... And time to go...

The reintegration of the body senses in adolescence can The reintegration of the body senses in adolescence can form the basis of a therapeutic process and this underpins form the basis of a therapeutic process and this underpins the rationale of the Ruskin Mill Education Trust practical the rationale of the Ruskin Mill Education Trust practical

skills therapeutic curriculumskills therapeutic curriculum

Craft work Craft work

Wilderness experience

The wilderness effect

• Greenway (1995) describing the ‘wilderness effect’ comments that it only takes three or four days for modern humans in wilderness experiences to forget their daily work life and begin thinking and dreaming archetypal images and suggested that modern culture is only ‘four days deep’.

Walking is older than talking..

Learning spatial and social orientation

Learning to separate the essential from the non

essential

working with a wide range of learning difficulty in post 16

specialist education

Integration of peak experiences

Touching the edge of the psychological landscape

Vision quest as a wilderness rite of passage.

Meredith Little and Steven Foster

The School of Lost Borders

Vision Quest~ a doorway to the imaginal world, ritual fasting alone in nature as an

initiatory threshold

Preparing for a symbolic death

Severance~ letting go of the known

Threshold~ a liminal space

The return

Incorporation ~honouring of personal stories in your community

“If the young are not initiated into the village they will burn it down just to feel the warm”.

African proverb

There is evidence to suggest that there is strong case for a need for a contemporary rites of passage

within modern youth culture. (Mahdi et al,1996,1998)

The way of love is not a subtle argument,The door there is devastation,

How do birds learn to fly?They fall,

and in falling, they are given wings

Rumi

Thank you

The four shields of human initiation

Foster and Little(1998)

References.

Bateson, G. (1979) Mind and Nature, a necessary unity. Wildwood House Ltd, London.

Bateson, G. and Bateson, M. (2005) Angels Fear, towards and epistemology of the sacred. Hampton Press

Bird, W. (2007) Natural thinking. Report of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ‘investigating the links between natural environment, biodiversity and mental health.

Brendtro, L. Brokenleg, M. Van Brockern, S. (1990) Reclaiming Youth at Risk, our hope for the future National Educational Service, Indiana

Foster, S. with Little, M. (1998.) The Four shields; the initiatory seasons of human nature, Lost Borders Press,

Glendenning, C. (1994). My name is Chellis and I’m in recovery from western civilisation. Boston Shambala

Mahdi, Christopher and Meade (Ed) (1996) Crossroads The quest for contemporary rites of passage, Open Court

Mahdi, L., Foster, S., Little, M., (Ed) (1998). Betwixt and Between: patterns of masculine and feminine initiation, Open Court, publishing company.

Mind Week Report (2007) Ecotherapy, the green agenda for mental health. Mind 15-19 Broadway London

Plotkin, B. (2003) Soul craft, Cross into the mysteries of nature and the psyche, New World Library

Plotkin, B. (2008) Nature and the Human soul, cultivating Wholeness and community in a fragmented world. New World Library

Pinnock, D. (1997) Gangs, rituals and rites of passage. African Sun Press. The Institute of Criminology, University of Cape Town

Roszak, T. (1992) The voice of the earth. An exploration of Ecopsychology. Phanes Press

Roszak, Gomes and Kanner (1999) Ecopsychology, restoring the earth healing the mind. Sierra Club Books

Senge, P (1990) The Fifth Discipline, The Art and practise of the learning organisation, Random House UK