Outdoor sessions do more than just provide a change of scene, they helps us truly reconnect, says David Fong...
If you've ever been googly-eyed after too long spent in Zoom appointments or found your clients staring longingly out of the windows during a heatwave, then surely the appeal of taking a therapy or coaching session outside is clear!
But outdoor sessions do more than just provide a change of scene. For almost all of the clients I work with, one of the key issues they bring is a sense of disconnect. That may manifest itself in a separation from a loved one, perhaps through emotional disconnect or loss; it may show itself in a disconnect from a client’s emotional world; or, when working with clients going through a transition, the disconnect is felt in a distancing from values and meaning. While rates of mental health distress have been rising, both in adults and under-18s, there is also a sense of disconnect from services and traditional routes of support.
Practitioners know that these are complex, multifactorial issues, with a variety of causes. It is also true to say that, as a species, we are facing a disconnect from the natural world around us. Britain ranks bottom in studies measuring connection to nature, and a recent state of nature report describes the UK as one of the most nature-depleted countries on earth with one in six species at risk of being lost from our shores.
Outdoor sessions can provide a route back to connection. Sessions held outdoors, perhaps in a local park or garden, or, more ambitiously in an area of outstanding natural beauty like the Peak District, where I am lucky enough to work and play, allow clients a different perspective on what has brought them into sessions.
These sessions allow easy access to connecting to our senses and our bodies, and an opportunity to use both for something more than looking at screens - an unnatural habitat where almost 40 per cent of our time is spent. Being outdoors provides an opportunity to connect spiritually to the natural world and to be reminded that we are all part of it and not separate from it.
Simple considerations can make the experience safe, such as; setting an alarm for the time of the session, discussing beforehand what will happen if either the professional or the client bumps into someone they know, checking that the client is medically okay taking a session outside, and there are no environmental hazards that may cause a problem to an anxious client, such as dogs off leads.
With all this considered, an opportunity is provided for the client to take stock of themselves and their situation in a different way from how this may happen in a therapy room; a reconnection can be established between the client and what Jung described as a numinous experience of being a part of something far greater than us.
Dr David Fong is a clinical psychologist and coach providing a range of interventions at our Sheffield centre...
