Finding Hope: Writing & drawing in NIAT*

Many people are experiencing climate grief with a deepening sense of hopelessness around climate change. In an effort to process this grief myself as a nature informed art therapist, I have been listening to The book of hope (2021, J. Goodall & D. Carlton Abrams). This book is beautifully read by both authors. Abrams asks probing questions and Goodall responds with well-informed, but steady and clear-eyed hope in the face of climate change. Jane Goodall shares years of wisdom working outside with wild chimpanzees among other animals as a naturalist. She also started Roots & Shoots, which is an organization that invites young people from around the world to bring wellness to animals, humans and the natural world. For her, hope is a matter of survival and it is critical for all living creatures.

The future we choose: Surviving the climate crisis (2021, C. Figueres & T. Rivett-Carnac) has been a compelling companion book to read alongside listening to Goodall and Abrams. Nature informed art therapists use art as a tool to see and identify fears. Art in therapy is also a tool for identifying unacknowledged grief/loss. Taking time in therapy to express one's own human response to climate change in addition to other issues that arise in the art making process is important while locating hope and strength to build stress tolerance and self-compassion.  This drawing was made with both books in mind. 

A quick, 60 min. watercolor by author in response to a need to grow new forms of active hope in the face of climate change.

In addition to making art, writing increases connection to the natural world, the self & others. 

This poem below was written while reading The future we choose: Surviving the climate crisis.

        Morning poem / January 23, '23

        In the quiet
        hear them breathing

        in the garden of intention.
        The rewilding of lungs entwining
        back into soils of regeneration.
        Humans pulse within nature, not apart.

        This breath ignited by stubborn
        optimism. An active hope to redesign
        a way out of extraction.

        Restore the nutrients still offered.
        In gratitude for another chance.
        Change picked up and inhaled.

        Indigenous values reignited. 

        Breath by deliberate breath.

Visual art and writing are often richly inter-woven to activate or enrich meaning in nature informed art therapy. What is a client reading and thinking about outside of therapy? Clients find their own visual and spoken forms of creative expressions of course. Some people find it helpful to ease into art making through writing. A doodle that is quickly scribbled after a sentence is helpful. Expanding a tentative doodle onto a larger sheet of paper or building that same idea with organic materials found outside is often helpful. The three steps from writing to image allow clients to step into visualizing their lives in rich ways. Through writing and art making, client's thoughts or feelings are often viewed for the first time outside of their minds and bodies. This process of seeing one's own experience apart from the self is tremendously helpful as a mirror into the self to embolden self-love, courage and hope-filled change. 

*Nature informed art therapy (NAIT)

Mandalas and naturally sourced materials

 

Nature mandala made by nature informed art therapy group using found & picked seasonal plants from wooded site.

Mandalas are used in many Eastern spiritual traditions as a form of meditation. Mandala means 'circle' in Sanskrit. Some consider the mandala a symbol of the universe. They are used as a form of stress relief by therapists today because clinical studies have shown that making a mandala can lower blood pressure, reduce stress and pain, promote sleep and ease depression. Art therapists sometimes ask clients to make their own mandala to express how they are feeling in the present moment as a check-in at the beginning of a session. When making a mandala inside, people often work from a template and are invited to use line, shape, form and color in any way they wish. 

A mandala made with natural materials found outdoors in a therapy session is present-centered activity that invites clients into a quiet absorption. When indoors, provide natural objects or cut plants on for selection and placement on a table or floor. Begin with found objects gathered from nature. Be mindful of whether it's alright to pick living plants at the site where the art therapy session occurs. Select what appeals to you from what's available. 

If unsure where to begin, start in the center. Or set the outer boundary first, then fill areas in any manner. 

Allow the natural mandala to spontaneously evolve in any way desired. 

When finished, invite clients to write in a journal or share thoughts about the process and experience. Often surprising discoveries, phrases, revelations and associations come to mind. Sometimes, it's helpful to give the mandala a title to end or close the mandala making session. 

Time spent making a mandala encourages direct connection to nature through haptic touch, feeling textures, seeing colors, measuring forms found and used as mandala materials. The mandala is an ephemeral land drawing: transient and changeable. These inherent qualities may also be something to reflect upon as it relates to life cycles, accepting change, and letting go. Nature informed art therapists hold an ethical responsibility to be well appraised of pre-established outdoor locations. The site itself must be secured with liability insurance and the client's written consent  before venturing outdoors. 

Watch for the next blog entry about the expressive therapies continuum and how natural materials might be integrated into this important art therapy theory (first developed by Kagin and Lusebrink in 1978).