I have been involved with Deep Adaptation since autumn 2019, and it feels like the context for DA has become a lot more wide and welcoming over that time. As climate impacts increase, I hear the language of adaptation being used much more commonly. Although the Ukraine war may not be directly related to climate, it seems to have pushed many people into realising that any hope of returning to normality has collapsed, and we have to adapt to growing disorder.

I believe there’s now a much bigger potential audience for Deep Adaptation approaches, but it may need them in a more accessible form than our rather daunting website, or Jem’s original paper. This is one reason why I am co-leading a two-day residential training on May 17-18 on the theme of Nature Immersion for Climate Distress. It is aimed at helping therapists, counsellors and group leaders to use deep nature contact to help people to face and grow through climate distress.

I have been facilitating groups on resilience and adaptation, using nature as a teacher, for many years. My co-leader, Jane Sanders, is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist who does many of her client sessions in a local woodland, and has a special interest in eco-psychology and rewilding.

Eco-therapeutic practices aim to facilitate and deepen nature connectedness, and the evidence base quantifying the benefits for our over-stressed nervous systems, immune systems and general wellbeing is impressive, but if we just look at nature as another way to make us feel good we are missing this vital reframing.

In fact in our experience participants often find that as they slow down, deepening relationship with the more than human world, they experience a profound release from the numbing – the ‘functional denial’ that is so prevalent for many of us – and naturally connect more deeply with the ‘great grief’,  the climate distress, worry for future generations and despair about humanities’ hubris. This release brings both deep pain and relief.

We have found that applying Deep Adaptation processes in Nature enables people to go deeper, quicker. One key to this is what we call immersion: it is crucial to start with a transitional period where people slow down profoundly, connect with Nature and feel part of it, and step out of the manic materialist mindset which daily life pulls us into.

The main DA process we use is the four Rs. Because DA is largely about reframing reality, creating a new set of values and ways of living which regenerate ecological and human systems, it is best explored with Nature immersion, because this shifts people out of their usual anthropocentric, urban mindset, and makes new insights more possible. One of these is regenerating community, for which an ecosystem is a great model.

Another key process we often use is Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects: this is the best approach we have found to enabling people to face and reframe intensely painful feelings about the climate crisis, and recover some sense of agency. We have found repeatedly that doing this work outside allows this four-stage process to unfold naturally, helping people open up, move out of everyday coping mode, connect more fully to their feelings and to each other.

Some Practices for Nature immersion

We are using the term immersion to highlight the value of deeper engagement than mere connection. Here are some of the practices we have found most helpful.

• Forest bathing: this originated in Japan. In essence, it involves walking very slowly, using all your senses to melt your awareness into your environment, somewhat akin to mindfulness with a Nature focus.
• Campfire circles: gathering a group around a fire, especially after dark, creates a step shift in atmosphere, connects us implicitly with indigenous cultures, and enables deep, collective sharing and healing.
• Witnessing and walking –being alongside in twos or threes walking talking and reflecting – we offer simple deep listening processes and the landscape becomes a natural part of the holding
• Griefwork & ritual – drawing on the work of Joanna Macy, Francis Weller and many others, and working with the elements of earth air fire and water we create processes and simple rituals to honour our pain for the world. Many of the grief rituals Francis Weller has created happen outdoors, often around a fire.
• Micro-quests: this draws from the vision quest, a rite of passage in tribal cultures. The micro version invites people to go solo into Nature and sit quietly to see what insights arise. Even an hour can be very effective, especially within a residential event.
• Tree connections: this can quickly move people into a relaxed, right-brain, intuitive mode. One method is the Tree Test from Alan’s Natural Happiness model, described below, which explores the human parallel with roots, trunk and branches. Another is Walking Towards: choose a tree to represent a situation you’re exploring, walk slowly towards it with a supporting partner, see what insights arise
• Natural Happiness: a model developed by Alan, using parallels with ecosystems to guide human resilience. For example, organic farms and gardens compost waste into fertility for future growth, and humans can do the same with negative feelings. Outdoors, we can experience composting around us, and more easily apply it. See more at www.naturalhappiness.net.

An extensive but boundaried natural setting is ideal, such as the woods and organic farms that we use when possible, but immersive experiences can be created in urban parks and large back gardens. The methods described here have been effective for a great diversity of groups and individuals, including young people, hospital doctors and other front-line workers, activists, and trainee therapists.

The programme on May 17-18 is a residential at Hazel Hill Wood, a magical 70-acre retreat centre near Salisbury. For more details, click here or contact Alan Heeks: alanheeks@gmail.com

Image: Alan Heeks with a Nature Immersion group at Hazel Hill Wood