Ecoarts and nature-based expressive arts

1. Introduction

Version followed: Atkins & Snyder (2017), Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy, for the overall frame. It is cited here at the level of the publisher's and distributor's descriptions and table of contents [source: JKP publisher page; UBC Press listing], plus one published response to the book [source: Levine 2020]; its chapter content is not reconstructed [uncertain]. Concrete clinical procedures come from two open sources: Berger & McLeod's (2006) Nature Therapy framework, and Kopytin's (2021) account of ecological or nature-assisted arts therapies, including the "Green Studio". Where the two differ, both are named.

What it is. Ecoarts or nature-based expressive arts therapy is not one manualised therapy. It is a family of practices that combine expressive arts therapy (visual art, movement, writing, sound, drama and ritual, often moving between them) with ecotherapy. Atkins and Snyder present it as a way for expressive arts and ecotherapy to inform each other. Their emphasis falls on building an aesthetic response to the earth and on the link between beauty and sustainability [source: JKP publisher page]. Berger and McLeod call Nature Therapy a postmodern experiential approach. It draws on art and drama therapy, Gestalt, narrative therapy, ecopsychology, transpersonal psychology, adventure therapy, shamanism and body-mind practices [source: Berger & McLeod 2006]. Kopytin places nature-assisted arts therapies within contemporary ecotherapy and describes them from an "eco-human" viewpoint, which defines the person in relation to the living environment [source: Kopytin 2021].

How change is thought to happen. In these authors' theories, nature is more than a backdrop. Berger and McLeod describe it as "a live and dynamic partner" in shaping both setting and process. It becomes a third party in a three-way client–therapist–nature relationship [source: Berger & McLeod 2006]. Several things are proposed to reach material that indoor verbal therapy reaches less easily: direct sensory contact with natural materials, concrete non-verbal making, client-chosen space, natural cycles and the unpredictability of the outdoors. Kopytin adds personalising a place, "meaningful action" that contributes to a real problem, and the growth of an "eco-identity" (one's internalised relationship with nature). On his account, outcomes arise at two levels: individual health, and public and environmental health [source: Kopytin 2021]. These are the authors' theoretical claims, not established mechanisms. Both papers stress that research evidence is limited [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].

2. Framework

No published source cited sets out a formal phase model with session counts. Berger and McLeod present cases, not stages. Kopytin gives a typical within-session sequence. The phases below are a working structure built from those sources [synthesis]. Each element is sourced where noted.

Professional frame and competence

• No dedicated regulated profession. No regulated profession exists for ecoarts as such. Practise within your existing licence or registration (for example psychotherapist, counsellor, or an HCPC-registered art, drama or music therapist in the UK) and the competences it covers [synthesis].
• Expressive arts credential. The International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA) confers the REAT (Registered Expressive Arts Therapist). It is a registration status, not a licence. It requires a master's (or doctorate) in expressive arts therapy, a related mental health master's plus training at an expressive arts institute, or an MFA plus institute training. It also requires coursework in expressive arts, general therapy and the arts, a supervised practicum, and 1,000 post-graduate supervised client hours [source: IEATA REAT pages].
• Without arts training. If you lack expressive arts or arts therapy training, do not present the work as "expressive arts therapy" or "art therapy" [synthesis]. Use nature-based arts activities only as adjuncts within your own modality, with supervision from a trained practitioner.
• Nature Therapy training. Berger and McLeod note that formal training programmes are few. Berger's base was the Nature Therapy Centre at Tel-Hai Academic College, Israel [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Outdoor competence. Outdoor leadership and first aid are separate competences that arts training does not cover. Check that your indemnity insurance covers outdoor work [synthesis].

Phase 0 – Assessment, contracting and site planning (before outdoor work)

Goals: judge suitability, agree a contract and choose a site.

Assessment. One UK walk-and-talk service used a one-hour phone assessment [source: Davies 2024, BACP]. It covered:

• presenting issues, goals and expectations, and what outdoor work involves;
• health conditions that affect movement through the space;
• familiarity with the location and personal connections to it;
• whether the client expects to meet anyone they know;
• positive or negative associations with green spaces.

Add these to the assessment [synthesis]:

• allergies (pollen, insect stings, plants, latex in gloves) and any adrenaline auto-injector;
• asthma and medications that increase sun sensitivity;
• phobias (dogs, insects, open spaces, water, heights);
• trauma linked to outdoor places, woods, water, darkness or being followed;
• dissociation and current suicide risk (a remote site lengthens emergency response).

Contracting. Use a written contract [source: Davies 2024, BACP]. It covers:

• limits to confidentiality in public space;
• a weather policy (that service ran sessions in any weather unless the national weather service issued an alert, offering phone or video then);
• a regular meeting place and route.

Add these clauses [synthesis]:

• Chance encounters: agree in advance what happens if you meet someone either of you knows. Default: the client decides whether to acknowledge them. You do not greet first. You both move on or pause the topic.
• Pause signal: agree a signal for pausing talk when people pass.
• Records: whether photographs of artwork are taken, who keeps them, and that no client faces appear in them.
• Leaving without the therapist: what happens if the client wants to leave the site.
• Touch for physical help: whether and how you would offer a hand over rough ground (ask every time, and accept a refusal).

Site selection [source: Davies 2024, BACP]:

• level, well-surfaced paths suitable for wheelchairs;
• seating;
• toilet access and shelter;
• public transport or parking;
• busy enough to feel safe but large enough for private conversation.

Also [synthesis]:

• check land ownership and site rules (nature reserves and protected sites may ban picking; see Section 4);
• note phone signal, emergency access points and the nearest address or what3words-style location;
• note water edges, cliffs, livestock, ticks and fire rules.

The Leave No Trace principles begin with "plan ahead and prepare": learn the area's rules and prepare for weather, hazards and emergencies [source: Leave No Trace via NPS].

Lone working. Use a check-in/check-out system with a colleague, who is told when each session starts and ends [source: Davies 2024, BACP].

Moving on: the contract is signed, the risk assessment is done and the client agrees to the site.

Phase 1 – Arriving and attuning (opening of every session; early sessions may be mostly this)

Goals: safety, focus and receptivity.

Kopytin's sequence starts with an introduction that includes mindfulness instruction and a short discussion of attention and health. A warm-up of breathing and relaxation follows. Body scanning and journaling are also used to build receptivity and embodiment [source: Kopytin 2021].

Moving on: the client can settle and attend to the senses without marked distress.

Phase 2 – Exploring (walk, journey, immersion)

Goals: sensory contact with place, letting the client lead, and the first choices of place.

Kopytin's third step is an exploratory mindful walk ("walkabout" or "path-working") [source: Kopytin 2021]. Berger and McLeod's cases often begin with walks in which the client leads. They move from familiar to less familiar places and towards a site the client chooses [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].

Moving on: the client chooses or returns to a place, or an image or object "calls" them.

Phase 3 – Making and responding

Goals: concrete, often non-verbal, expression with natural materials or art media.

Kopytin's fourth step is art-making in response to the walk [source: Kopytin 2021]. Berger and McLeod describe building, sculpting, play and ritual that come before verbal exploration [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].

Moving on: a made form exists and the client can say or show something about it.

Phase 4 – Reflecting and relating

Goals: meaning-making and work within the relationship.

In Berger and McLeod's cases, once the client has had enough unobserved play, the focus moves back to the client–therapist relationship, where painful material can be discussed [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].

Phase 5 – Integration and return

Goals: linking the work to daily life, and closure.

Berger and McLeod describe moving between outdoor work and the clinic. In one case, sessions moved indoors for winter, with story and drawing continuing there. Clients sometimes returned to their site in hard periods to check it still "held" [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].

Closure tasks [synthesis]:

• deciding what happens to made works (leave, dismantle, return materials, photograph);
• a closing check of arousal level;
• planning the return journey.

Typical format

• Individual. Berger and McLeod's cases include individual work in a special-needs school and with adults [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Groups. They also describe three-day groups and an overnight training workshop [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Settings. Kopytin lists:
  • an indoor or outdoor Green Studio (permanent or temporary);
  • a portable studio in parks, gardens, beaches or wild areas;
  • gardens in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation centres and shelters;
  • wilderness, provided the setting stays central to the process;
  • a Green Studio next to a private office [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Length and number of sessions. No source cited specifies these [uncertain]. Practical default: 75–120 minutes for outdoor sessions, to allow for travel within the site and closure [synthesis].

Children and young people

None of the clinical sources cited gives safeguarding guidance [uncertain]. The guidance below is synthesis based on standard child-protection practice, plus the outdoor-education sources cited.

• Consent and assent. Get written consent from whoever holds parental responsibility, covering outdoor sessions, the site, travel, photographs of artwork, and medical information (allergies, auto-injectors, asthma inhalers). Get the child's own assent at an age-appropriate level, and recheck it each session.
• Safeguarding duties do not change outdoors. Follow your local safeguarding procedure and mandatory-reporting law. Know your designated safeguarding lead.
• Ratios and visibility. Agree staff ratios with the school or service. Do not work alone with a child out of sight of others unless the service's policy explicitly allows it. Keep a lost-child procedure and agreed boundaries. The Thunderbird camping toolkit advises setting hiking boundaries before a hike, checking equipment and carrying first aid and radios [source: Thunderbird Partnership Foundation].
• Hygiene and hazards. A school forest-school risk–benefit assessment pairs each hazard with its benefit. Its controls include:
  • checking the site for animal faeces before use;
  • hand-washing or wipes before food;
  • covering open wounds before mud play;
  • teaching children to recognise nettles and thorns and tell an adult;
  • a "no pick, no lick" rule for fungi and unknown objects;
  • cordoning off flooded ground [source: St Faiths Forest School 2025].
• Artwork is not evidence. Never treat a child's nature art, a built "home" or a boundary as diagnostic evidence of abuse or disorder. No validated projective manual exists for these products [synthesis]. Act on disclosures and observed indicators through safeguarding procedure, not on interpretation of the artwork.
• Age adaptations:
  • shorter walks;
  • concrete, play-based tasks such as building a den or "home" (Berger and McLeod's 12-year-old client built a stone-walled "tea place");
  • clear rules about water and tools [source: Berger & McLeod 2006; synthesis].
• Parents and carers. Involve them in planning and in what happens to made works and photos [synthesis].

Materials and physical safety (all settings)

This subsection is synthesis unless cited.

• Weather. Watch for heat, cold, lightning, high wind (falling branches) and sun. Sessions are cancelled or moved to phone or video on official weather alerts [source: Davies 2024, BACP].
• Terrain. Uneven ground and roots cause slips, trips and falls. Walk rather than run, and flag eye-level branches [source: St Faiths 2025].
• Plants and allergies. Identify any plant before it is handled; if unsure, do not handle it. Avoid sap from plants known locally to irritate skin or cause light-sensitivity burns, and berries or fungi from unknown plants. Never eat foraged material in session. Carry antihistamine guidance from the client's own clinician and any prescribed auto-injector (the client's own, not yours to dose).
• Ticks, water and animals. Check for ticks after sessions in long grass or woodland. Avoid stagnant water and rat-frequented banks. Keep dogs and livestock at a distance.
• Fire. The appended fire-by-friction structure in Atkins and Snyder involves fire [source: JKP publisher page; UBC Press table of contents]. Use fire only where site rules allow and only if you are trained in fire safety. Keep it small, use dead and downed wood, and extinguish it fully [source: Leave No Trace via NPS]. Keep water or a fire blanket at hand, and run no fire work with clients who are intoxicated or dissociating.
• Tools. Knives, saws and secateurs need a demonstration, a safe working circle, counting out and counting in, and client-specific risk review where self-harm risk is present. Work with spades is limited to a few people at once [source: St Faiths 2025].
• Indoor Green Studio. Bring in only material known to be non-toxic. Check for mould, insects and allergens. Wash hands after handling soil, and wear gloves if there are cuts.

3. Guiding principles

• Nature as partner, not backdrop. Treat place, weather and materials as active participants you do not control. Build their unpredictability into your plan rather than fighting it [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Three-way relationship. Choose your position deliberately: central (working directly with the client while nature supplies the backdrop and tools), or receding as "witness, container, and mediator" while the client engages nature directly [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Client chooses the space and the pace. Let the client pick the location, what happens there and when to touch or approach. Maintaining the chosen space is part of the therapy [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Concrete doing before talking. Allow non-verbal making, building and play to come first. Do not press for verbal interpretation while the client is absorbed [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Flatten hierarchy. Take part physically (carry stones, build alongside) so the client owns the work and the alliance strengthens. Keep therapeutic responsibility yours [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Move between protected and open space. Use the clinic or studio as a safer "laboratory" and nature as less controlled reality. Moving deliberately between them helps clients compare wish and lived reality [source: Berger & McLeod 2006, drawing on drama therapy's "as if" concept].
• Intentional ritual, made with the client. Use simple, secular rituals the client creates to mark transitions. Never borrow another culture's ceremony (see the Indigenous practice note in Section 4) [source: Berger & McLeod 2006; synthesis].
• Natural cycles as frame. Seasons, tides, decay and regrowth can normalise loss and change. Offer them as metaphor, not as doctrine [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Structure and therapist presence provide safety. Your steady presence and a clear session structure supply the containment that an open setting lacks. Kopytin says ecotherapy needs an appropriately structured accompanying therapeutic process [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Personalisation of place. Let clients mark and shape a space as their own, which supports belonging, control and self-esteem [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Meaningful action and mutuality. Where it fits the goals, include small real contributions such as stewardship, planting or litter clearing, so clients experience making a difference and giving back [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Aesthetic response to the earth. Invite clients to attend to beauty and respond to it through art. Atkins and Snyder link beauty with sustainability and give a chapter to "Cultivating an Aesthetic Response to the World" [source: JKP publisher page; UBC Press listing; EGS book listing]. A published response notes that the authors use poetry and storytelling to illustrate this aesthetic relationship to the earth [source: Levine 2020]. How the book turns this into session steps is not reproduced here [uncertain].
• Ethical relation to living things. Treat plants and animals as "other forms of life". Reduce waste and use materials mindfully [source: Kopytin 2021]. Follow Leave No Trace and local plant-picking law [source: Leave No Trace via NPS; BSBI 2017].
• Attribute the spiritual language. Terms such as "sacred space", Berger and McLeod's phrase "touching nature—touching the soul", transpersonal aims, and their likening of the therapist's role to a shaman's are these authors' framings. Kopytin's "ecopoiesis", "subjectification" (experiencing natural objects as subjects one can dialogue with) and "eco-identity" are likewise his theory, not established fact. Offer them only if they fit the client's own worldview [source: Berger & McLeod 2006; Kopytin 2021].
• Cultural fit. Berger and McLeod note that their cases all came from one therapist working with Jewish clients in Israel. They also note that secular or multicultural groups may lack a shared ritual language. Adapt symbols to the client's culture and never impose them [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Equity of access. Green spaces are harder to reach for many people who are not white, middle-class or able-bodied. Offer non-walking and accessible outdoor options [source: Davies 2024, BACP].

4. Intervention inventory

The sources name these methods but do not script them. Step sequences are therefore operationalised from the sources' descriptions. Steps not stated in a source are marked [synthesis]. All example language is illustrative.

4.1 Setting up a Green Studio or portable studio

• Purpose: Create a therapeutic space, indoors or out, rich in natural forms and materials, that the client or community can personalise. Use it when you want nature-based work without (or before) going to wild sites [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Steps:
  1. Choose a type: a permanent room or corner, a temporary studio (Kopytin illustrates one at a residential school), a garden in an institution, or a portable kit carried to parks or beaches [source: Kopytin 2021].
  2. Stock it [synthesis]:
     • natural materials collected lawfully (see 4.11);
     • a few conventional media: paper, charcoal, soft pastels, string, a camera or phone;
     • a mat or tarp, wipes, a first-aid kit and a bin bag.
  3. Invite the client to arrange or claim part of it over time (personalisation) [source: Kopytin 2021].
  4. Keep the frame steady: the same start ritual, a time boundary and closure. Kopytin holds that the therapist's continuous presence supplies safety, containment and order [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Example language (illustrative): "This corner is yours to shape over the coming weeks. Bring in or move anything you like within what we've agreed about what stays and what goes back outside."
• Watch for:
  • allergies, mould and insects in brought-in materials;
  • clients who over-collect;
  • signs that personalisation is working: the client starts to show ownership, choosing and adjusting the space [synthesis].

4.2 Opening with mindfulness instruction and an attention-and-health conversation

• Purpose: Orient the client to sensory attention and give a rationale before the outdoor work. Use it in early sessions and with clients unused to experiential work [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Steps:
  1. Briefly explain that the session will involve slowing down and noticing with the senses [source: Kopytin 2021].
  2. Ask how the client's attention usually works and what drains or restores it [synthesis].
  3. Agree a stop signal and that eyes may stay open throughout [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "Today we'll spend more time noticing than talking. You can stop or change anything at any point. Just say 'pause', or raise a hand."
• Watch for: Mindfulness instructions can raise distress in some trauma survivors. Keep instructions external (sights and sounds) rather than internal at first [synthesis].

4.3 Breathing, relaxation, body-scan and journaling warm-up

• Purpose: Build receptivity, focus and embodiment before exploring [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Steps [synthesis on specifics]:
  1. Standing or seated, take three slow breaths while noticing ground contact.
  2. Do a short body scan from feet to head, naming sensations without changing them.
  3. Spend two to three minutes jotting in a nature journal: words, marks or a quick sketch of the current state.
• Example language (illustrative): "Notice where your feet meet the ground. What is the air doing on your skin right now? Jot down three words, or make a mark, for how you're arriving."
• Watch for:
  • dissociation (glazed look, delayed responses): switch to naming five things seen;
  • cold: shorten the stationary part.

4.4 Exploratory mindful walk ("walkabout" or "path-working")

• Purpose: An unhurried walk through a green area, framed by Kopytin as a mini-pilgrimage. It opens attention to the environment and lets places or objects "find" the client [source: Kopytin 2021]. Berger and McLeod's cases often began with client-led walks [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. Agree the boundaries of the walk and the meeting point [synthesis; boundary-setting before hikes: Thunderbird].
  2. Invite the client to lead the pace and direction. You walk slightly behind or beside [source: Berger & McLeod 2006, client-led].
  3. Suggest a focus: what draws you, what you avoid, a texture, a sound [synthesis].
  4. Pause wherever the client is drawn. Optionally collect one or two found objects lawfully (4.11).
  5. Move to the making phase (4.10 or 4.12) [source: Kopytin 2021 sequence].
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's walk without a destination for fifteen minutes. You lead. If something catches your attention, stop, and we'll stay with it."
• Watch for:
  • avoidance of particular areas, which can be meaningful;
  • fatigue or mobility limits;
  • meeting other people, which calls for the agreed pause signal [synthesis].

4.5 Meditative immersion and "non-doing time"

• Purpose: Absorption in sensory and emotional processes while attending to the environment. Kopytin aims for "quiet fascination" [source: Kopytin 2021]. Berger and McLeod value "non-doing time" and spontaneous play [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Choose a sitting or lying place with the client.
  2. Agree a time (5–20 minutes).
  3. Stay quietly present at a distance the client chooses.
  4. Close by asking for one image or sensation to carry into making.
• Example language (illustrative): "There's nothing to do for the next ten minutes but be here. I'll be just over there and will let you know when time's up."
• Watch for:
  • hypervigilance in open spaces: offer a back-to-a-tree position;
  • boredom or anxiety: shorten the time;
  • deepening breath and softened posture as signs it is helping.

4.6 Client choice and maintenance of the therapeutic space

• Purpose: Hand control of setting to the client. Choosing and maintaining the space is itself therapeutic in Berger and McLeod's framework, which they link to the idea of "sacred space" (their framing) [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. Over one or more walks, invite the client to choose a spot to return to [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  2. Let the client decide its layout and what happens there. In one case, a boy chose a riverbank site under a willow and built a stone barrier around a "tea place" [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  3. At each return, notice together what has changed and what the client wants to restore or alter [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Example language (illustrative): "Is there a place here you'd like to come back to? What needs to happen for it to feel like our place for this work?"
• Watch for:
  • sites that are unsafe, too private or impossible to keep to Leave No Trace standards: negotiate;
  • the client's dismay if the place is disturbed by others, which is material for 4.18.

4.7 Positioning yourself in the three-way relationship

• Purpose: Decide moment to moment whether to be central or to recede as "witness, container, and mediator" between client and nature [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. Early on, or when the client is anxious, take a more central role and use nature mainly as backdrop and source of tools [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  2. When the client becomes absorbed, step back and witness silently [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  3. When the client has had enough "unobserved" play, bring the focus back to the relationship, where painful material can be discussed [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm going to sit here and watch while you work. Call me over whenever you want." Later: "I noticed you went quiet when the wall was finished. What was that like?"
• Watch for:
  • receding too early with clients who need active regulation;
  • staying central so long that the client never owns the process.

4.8 Touching nature: sensory and play-based contact

• Purpose: Direct physical contact with natural materials is proposed to reach feelings that indoor verbal therapy reaches less easily. Examples include warm sand, mud, wet soil, changing light and sound [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. Offer a material and leave approach and timing to the client. In one case the client decided when and how to touch the wet soil [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  2. Allow unstructured play without interpretation [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  3. Afterwards, invite words or images only if the client wants [synthesis].
  4. Hygiene: cover cuts first, keep wipes handy, and wash hands before food [source: St Faiths 2025].
• Example language (illustrative): "The soil's soft here after the rain. You can touch it or just look, whatever feels right."
• Watch for:
  • disgust or shame reactions (mess, dirt), including possible links to past punishment or abuse [synthesis];
  • sensory overload in autistic clients;
  • in Berger and McLeod's case, play preceded verbal access to childhood memories [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].

4.9 Mindful photography (pleasant and unpleasant)

• Purpose: Practise sensory attention by photographing what the client finds pleasant and what they find unpleasant. Kopytin bases this on a mindfulness-based art therapy intervention, citing Peterson 2013 [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Steps:
  1. Give two prompts: photograph things you find pleasant, then things you find unpleasant [source: Kopytin 2021].
  2. Ask the client to take 5–10 of each, slowly [synthesis].
  3. Review them together: what they notice, and body sensations when looking at each [synthesis].
  4. Agree where images are stored. Keep no people's faces, to protect bystanders' privacy [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "Take your time. Before you press the button, notice what it is about this that pulls you in or puts you off."
• Watch for:
  • photographing strangers;
  • clients who only do one category;
  • a growing ability to describe sensory detail as a sign it is working.

4.10 Arts-based responses to nature

• Purpose: Turn the experience of a walk or immersion into form [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Forms Kopytin lists [source: Kopytin 2021]:
  • drawing;
  • photography;
  • environmental constructions;
  • botanical arrangements;
  • outdoor mandalas.
• Steps:
  1. Offer a choice of medium: found materials on site, or paper and pastels brought along.
  2. Ask the client to make something in response to what stayed with them [source: Kopytin 2021 sequence].
  3. When it is complete, invite the client to walk around it, title it and speak from or to it [synthesis; dialogue with natural objects fits Kopytin's "subjectification"].
  4. Decide on its fate (see 4.23).
• On mandalas: the circular form is used here as an arrangement. Mandala symbolism comes from Hindu and Buddhist traditions and from Jungian theory. Attribute it if used, and do not present a religious meaning as therapeutic fact [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "Using what's around us, or the pastels, make something that holds what you noticed on the walk. It doesn't need to look like anything."
• Watch for:
  • performance anxiety about artistic skill: stress process over product;
  • damage to living plants: use fallen material.

4.11 Gathering natural materials ethically

• Purpose: Collect materials for making in a way that is lawful, sustainable and respectful. Kopytin frames the environment ethically as other forms of life and stresses mindful material use [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Rules to apply:
  • Leave No Trace: "leave what you find" (leave rocks, plants and natural objects; do not pick plants; do not build structures or dig trenches). Do not move non-native species. Examine cultural or historic artefacts without touching them [source: Leave No Trace via NPS]. These principles conflict with on-site building (4.12) and land art. Resolve this by working only where the landowner permits, using fallen or loose material, dismantling afterwards and returning materials to where they came from [synthesis].
  • Plant law (England, Scotland, Wales): under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, uprooting any wild plant without the landowner's or occupier's permission is illegal. Schedule 8 species are protected against picking. Nature reserves and SSSIs may ban picking altogether [source: BSBI 2017]. Check local law elsewhere [synthesis].
  • One-in-twenty: take at most one where there are twenty, only from plentiful, widespread plants and from large patches. Leave anything scarce or unusual [source: BSBI 2017].
  • Group leaders: the group leader is responsible for getting permission and for members following the code [source: BSBI 2017].
• Steps:
  1. Check site rules and get permission before the session [source: BSBI 2017].
  2. Explain the rules to the client as part of the work, not as an aside [synthesis].
  3. Gather fallen leaves, twigs, stones lying loose, and seed heads from abundant plants [synthesis].
  4. Return materials at the end, or compost them [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "We'll only use what's already fallen or loose, and we'll put it back after. Part of the work is noticing what the place can spare."
• Watch for:
  • clients unable to stop collecting (possible hoarding or compulsive patterns) [synthesis];
  • toxic or irritant plants;
  • Indigenous lands or sacred sites, where different protocols apply (see the note after 4.23).

4.12 Building a home in nature

• Purpose: A non-verbal, embodied method in which client and therapist build a site together from natural materials. It explores where "home" is, its boundaries, whether it is permanent or mobile, and whether the client has a secure base and a coherent sense of self [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. After the client has chosen a site (4.6), invite them to make a "home" there in whatever form they like [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  2. Take part physically as an assistant: carry and place materials as the client directs, to flatten the hierarchy and share responsibility [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  3. Keep talk minimal while building [source: Berger & McLeod 2006, non-verbal].
  4. When it is done, explore it with the client [synthesis]: Where is the entrance? What is inside and outside? Who may come in? What would happen in a storm?
  5. On later visits, notice changes and repairs and what they mean [source: Berger & McLeod 2006]. In the boy's case, language and the wish to connect grew after the barrier was finished, and he later returned to the site in difficult periods [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  6. Comply with Leave No Trace and landowner rules (4.11). Choose low-impact forms such as a ring of loose stones, and agree how it will be dismantled at the end [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "If you were to make a home here, just for this work, what would it look like? Tell me where to put things. I'll be your builder's mate."
• Watch for:
  • grief or anger about home and family that surfaces through the building;
  • wanting to make it impenetrable, or having no walls at all: note it, do not interpret aloud too early;
  • with children, never read the home as evidence of abuse (Section 2).

4.13 Personalising natural sites

• Purpose: Create artworks and place them at natural sites that matter to the client, expressing identity and supporting belonging, control and self-esteem [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Steps:
  1. Identify a meaningful site together [source: Kopytin 2021].
  2. The client makes an ephemeral work there, or brings one made in the studio [source: Kopytin 2021].
  3. Photograph it, then remove it or leave it to decay naturally if the site permits [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "What would you want to leave here, for a while, that says 'I was here, and this mattered'?"
• Watch for:
  • leaving non-biodegradable items;
  • distress when the work is moved or damaged by others (see Section 5).

4.14 Nature-based sculpture or drama, revisited

• Purpose: Build representations of the client's story from natural materials and revisit them over days, sometimes followed by enactment [source: Berger & McLeod 2006]. In one three-day group, a participant made a sculpture called "the couple" [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. Invite the client to make figures or a scene for a current story or relationship [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  2. The client names the work and, optionally, speaks as each figure [synthesis; drama-therapy practice].
  3. Return to it on later days or sessions and note how weather or time has changed it [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  4. In groups, offer optional enactment of the scene, with de-roling afterwards: participants step out of the role physically, then say their own name and one thing about themselves now [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "Make the people in this story from what's here. Where do they stand in relation to each other?"
• Watch for:
  • over-identification with a figure;
  • in group enactment, screen first and pace the work;
  • stop if a participant re-experiences trauma rather than representing it (see Section 5).

4.15 Therapy as journey and embodying its metaphors

• Purpose: A physical journey in nature is proposed to trigger psychological and spiritual processes. Landscape, weather and animals become resonant images that the client later embodies [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. Frame a walk or route as a journey with a departure and a return [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  2. Afterwards, invite the client to shape what they met, for example as a sand figure [source: Berger & McLeod 2006], or to move or write it [synthesis].
  3. Ask which encounter felt most like their own life just now [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's treat this walk as a small journey. Notice what you meet on the way, and we'll give it a shape when we get back."
• Watch for: Clients who meet a negative image (a dead animal, for example) may need help to place it in a wider cycle (4.18) rather than reading it as an omen [synthesis].

4.16 Intentional creation of rituals

• Purpose: Mark transitions, losses or new beginnings with simple rituals that the client and therapist make up, often secular. Natural cycles such as sunset, sunrise and tides can serve as collective symbols, and unexpected natural events (a wave) can become part of them [source: Berger & McLeod 2006]. Berger and McLeod compare the therapist's role to a shaman's, as structuring and holding meaning. This is their analogy and gives no warrant to perform shamanic practice [source: Berger & McLeod 2006; synthesis].
• Steps:
  1. Identify the transition the ritual will mark [synthesis].
  2. Invite the client to design its form: a place, an action, an object, words or silence, and a clear beginning and end [synthesis].
  3. Hold the frame: arrive, perform, close, and talk about it afterwards [synthesis].
  4. Use only forms from the client's own culture, or newly invented ones [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "If we were to mark this ending, what would feel right to do? It can be very simple. How will we know it has begun and when it's finished?"
• Watch for:
  • religious meaning the client attaches, which you should respect without endorsing or contradicting;
  • groups without a shared symbolic language [source: Berger & McLeod 2006];
  • any slide towards copying Indigenous or other ceremonies (see the note after 4.23).

4.17 Symbolic release

• Purpose: Let go of a feeling or burden through a concrete act. In Berger and McLeod's example, a client chose a natural object at a bridge, named what she wanted to leave behind and threw it into a river [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. The client chooses a natural, local, biodegradable object, such as a leaf, twig or petal, never litter or anything that harms water or wildlife [synthesis; Leave No Trace].
  2. The client names, aloud or silently, what is to be released [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  3. The client releases it into water or wind, or buries it, keeping safely back from the water's edge [synthesis].
  4. Stay with what follows, which is often grief or relief, before moving on [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "Choose something from here to carry it for you. When you're ready, you can say what it is, or just let it go."
• Watch for:
  • premature "letting go" that bypasses grief;
  • an ambivalent client: offer to keep the object instead.

4.18 Working with change and natural cycles

• Purpose: Use nature's changes and cycles to explore continuity, grief and hope. Examples include dried flowers, a river changing colour, decay of made works, and seasons. Cycles of life and death link personal stories to a larger process and can make difficult material feel less exceptional [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. On return visits, invite the client to notice what has changed in the site or the work [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  2. Ask what that change evokes [synthesis].
  3. Connect it, gently and only if the client takes it up, to their own changes [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "The flowers you placed have dried. What do you make of that?"
• Watch for: Bereaved or suicidal clients may hear "death is natural" as dismissive or as permission. Keep the client's meaning central, and assess risk if themes of ending appear (Section 5) [synthesis].

4.19 Moving between indoors and outdoors (the intermediate zone)

• Purpose: Use the clinic or studio as a protected "laboratory" and nature as less controlled reality, drawing on drama therapy's "as if" concept. Moving consciously between the two helps clients compare wish and reality and bring changes into daily life [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps:
  1. Alternate settings deliberately, for example starting indoors, going out, and returning indoors to reflect [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  2. Continue the outdoor work indoors through story and drawing when weather or season demands it [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
  3. Name the transition each time [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "In here we can try things safely. Out there, things happen that we don't plan. What did you bring back in with you today?"
• Watch for: Loss of continuity when you move indoors. Bring a photo or one object from the site to keep the thread [synthesis].

4.20 Movement, sound, narrative and story-making

• Purpose: Integrate complex experience through dance or movement, music improvisation, narrative and ritual [source: Kopytin 2021]. Story-making also appears in Berger and McLeod's cases, for example a story about a starfish told in a group [source: Berger & McLeod 2006].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. After a walk or making, invite the client to move the shape or rhythm of something they met: a tree in wind, water.
  2. Alternatively, make sound with found objects such as stones or sticks, at a moderate volume.
  3. Or tell or write a short story in the third person about a creature or place.
  4. Move from one mode to another (the intermodal transfer characteristic of expressive arts).
• Example language (illustrative): "If that river had a story, how would it begin? Tell it as 'Once there was...'."
• Watch for:
  • falls on uneven ground during movement;
  • self-consciousness in public;
  • choose secluded spots for movement work.

4.21 Meaningful action and stewardship

• Purpose: Make a useful contribution to a real problem at any scale, to foster a sense of making a difference and of mutuality (being a giver, not only a receiver of care) [source: Kopytin 2021]. Kopytin also lists gardening, stewardship and community involvement [source: Kopytin 2021].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Agree a small, achievable task linked to the site, such as planting with permission, clearing litter (with gloves and a sharps protocol) or contributing to a garden.
  2. Afterwards, invite the client to reflect on what it was like to give.
  3. Optionally make art about it.
• Example language (illustrative): "This place has given you somewhere to come. Is there something small you'd like to give back to it?"
• Watch for:
  • turning therapy into unpaid labour;
  • clients whose self-worth depends on serving others: keep it voluntary and reflective.

4.22 Atkins and Snyder's appended activity structures

• Purpose: The book offers four suggested structures for a nature-based expressive arts activity in its appendices (A–D), centred on writing, the body and ritual [source: UBC Press listing; JKP publisher page]:
  • "The Nature of the Body" (Lauren E. Atkins), body-centred;
  • "The Pen and the Path" (Melia Snyder), writing-centred;
  • "Cherokee Drumstick Ritual" (Keith M. Davis), ritual-centred;
  • "Fire by Friction, Humility and Attunement" (Justin S. Cantalini and Erin Rice Cantalini).
• Steps: The appendices' contents are not publicly available and are not reproduced or reconstructed here [uncertain]. Consult the book itself. For any fire-based structure, apply the fire safety in Section 2.
• On the Cherokee structure: cultural authority over Cherokee practice rests with Cherokee communities and the people they recognise. Three Cherokee tribes are federally recognised: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma [source: Federal Register, BIA list of recognised Indian entities, 30 January 2026]. Do not run a Cherokee-attributed ritual unless the appendix itself establishes that it was shared for that use with community authorisation, and ideally then only with a Cherokee practitioner leading [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative) [synthesis]: "Would you rather begin today with writing as we walk the path, or with noticing how your body feels as we walk?"
• Watch for: Writing-centred work suits clients who find talking hard. Body-centred work needs consent and opt-out for any partnered contact [synthesis].

4.23 Closing the session and deciding the fate of made works

• Purpose: Secure closure and settle what happens to ephemeral work in line with Leave No Trace [synthesis; Leave No Trace via NPS].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Give a five-minute warning.
  2. Choose with the client how the work ends: leave it to weather (only where permitted and biodegradable), dismantle it, scatter the materials where they were found, or photograph it.
  3. Use a closing check: one word for how you are leaving, and a body check.
  4. Walk back together and use the return as a transition.
  5. Make sure the check-out message has been sent [source: Davies 2024, BACP, check-in/out].
• Example language (illustrative): "We have five minutes. What would you like to happen to this when we go?"
• Watch for: Clients still highly aroused at the end. Extend the grounding and do not let them drive or leave alone if they are unsafe [synthesis].

Note: Indigenous land and ceremonial practices

This is not an intervention. It sets the clinician's role.

• Atkins and Snyder. The book includes a chapter, "Stories from Indigenous Cultures" [source: UBC Press listing; JKP publisher page]. A published response says it draws on the authors' experiences with members of different Indigenous cultures and the stories those cultures tell about our relationship to the earth [source: Levine 2020]. Its content is not summarised here [uncertain].
• What one Indigenous organisation publishes. The Thunderbird Partnership Foundation's camping toolkit for workers supporting Indigenous youth advises [source: Thunderbird Partnership Foundation]:
  • understanding what treaty territory you are on;
  • contacting local Indigenous Peoples for accurate cultural knowledge;
  • asking whether your group may camp on the land;
  • inviting a local Elder to share teachings.
  Its teachings are attributed to named Elders, and it gives no ceremony instructions to outside workers [source: Thunderbird Partnership Foundation].
• Who holds authority. The Nations and communities whose land and practices are involved hold cultural authority, through the Elders, Knowledge Keepers and bodies they recognise. Your role is to respect, refer and support: [synthesis]
  • find out whose land you are on;
  • seek permission;
  • refer clients who want ceremony to community-recognised Elders or programmes;
  • support their participation as part of therapy if they wish.
• What not to do. Do not perform, adapt or copy smudging, sweat lodge, medicine wheel, drumming or other ceremonies. Do not harvest culturally significant plants (sweetgrass, for example) without community guidance [synthesis].

5. Handling problems

The sources cited say little about clinical problems. Berger and McLeod frame unpredictability as meaningful and require therapist flexibility [source: Berger & McLeod 2006]. Kopytin holds that structure and therapist presence supply safety in uncontrolled settings [source: Kopytin 2021]. Everything else in this section is [synthesis] unless cited.

Stuck or "nothing happens"

• Shift the role. Move from receding witness to central role (4.7). Offer a concrete task, such as gathering five things of one colour or building a boundary, instead of open invitation.
• Change the scale. Try a hand-sized arrangement instead of a landscape, or the indoor studio instead of the wild site (4.19).
• Normalise. Non-doing time is part of the work [source: Berger & McLeod 2006 on non-doing time]. Ask what the stuckness is like and give it a form.

Resistance, scepticism or embarrassment

• Offer a rationale and choice. Give a plain rationale (attention, senses, making rather than talking). Offer modest forms such as photography (4.9) or journaling (4.3).
• Reduce exposure. Choose secluded spots, and allow the client to watch you start.
• Respect a no. If outdoor work does not suit, return to indoor work with natural materials brought in (4.1).

Overwhelm, dissociation or flashback outdoors

• Stop the activity and orient. Have the client name things seen and heard, feel their feet, and hold something textured.
• Move somewhere more contained. Go to a bench, a back-to-tree position or a sheltered place. Reduce talk.
• Do not continue toward the triggering place, material or activity (for example water, darkness or mud) that session. Review it later.
• Before leaving, make sure the client is grounded, and plan how they get home.
• Prevent. Screen for place-linked trauma in Phase 0, and grade exposure to new sites.

Risk escalates in an outdoor or remote setting

• Assess as you would indoors. Follow your service's risk-assessment and safety-planning procedure.
• Practical precautions. Know your exact location and the nearest emergency access. Keep your phone charged, and keep the colleague check-in live [source: Davies 2024, BACP, lone-working].
• If risk is acute, do not let the client walk off alone near water edges, roads or heights. Call emergency services if needed.
• Afterwards, reconsider whether remote sites suit this client for now.

Chance encounters and confidentiality breaches

• Follow the contracted plan (Phase 0). The client decides whether to acknowledge the person, and you do not introduce yourself as their therapist.
• If someone joins in or questions you, say you are "out walking with a friend" only if the client has agreed to that cover. Otherwise politely decline to chat.
• Afterwards, debrief the client on what the encounter was like.
• If it keeps happening, change the site. Busy sites trade personal safety against privacy [source: Davies 2024, BACP].

Weather and non-attendance

• Have a fallback. Run a pre-agreed alternative on alert days (phone or video) [source: Davies 2024, BACP], or move to the indoor studio (4.19).
• Sort out preparation. Repeated weather no-shows may be about comfort: discuss clothing and footwear rather than motivation.
• Use the weather. Ask how the weather matches how the client feels.

Made works disturbed, destroyed or vandalised

• Treat it as material about loss and impermanence (4.18), and about lack of control.
• Acknowledge that it is real and that the client may feel violated.
• Offer next steps: a repair, a ritual (4.16), or a decision to work in a more private site or indoors.

Boundary drift in an informal setting

• Hold the frame. Walking side by side, physical work and shared tasks can feel like friendship. Keep the time frame, the start and end rituals, and your role.
• Food and other boundaries. Do not share food or drink beyond water unless it is planned and hygienic. Do not give clients lifts unless your service allows it.
• Touch. Offer a hand only for safety on terrain, asking first, and accept refusal. Any other touch, in body-centred or partnered activities, needs explicit, specific and revocable consent, with an easy opt-out. Never touch sexual or intimate areas. Take extra care with trauma survivors and where cultural norms about touch differ.
• Discuss it in supervision.

Ruptures

• Common outdoor triggers: walking too fast or too slow for the client, imposing an interpretation of a natural sign, choosing a site the client dislikes, or an unplanned encounter.
• Repair: name it, take your share and return choice to the client [principle: client chooses space and pace, Berger & McLeod 2006].

Physical incidents

• Have first aid ready. Carry a first-aid kit. Know the client's allergies and auto-injector plan, the tick-removal procedure and the hypothermia and heat signs.
• Record and report incidents according to your service's procedure.
• For children, inform parents or carers promptly (Section 2).

Environmental grief and distress about ecological loss

• Expect it. Nature work can surface grief, anger or anxiety about environmental destruction.
• Validate it as a meaningful response.
• Offer outlets: an art form, a ritual (4.16) or meaningful action (4.21) [source: Kopytin 2021 on meaningful action].
• Keep a clinical eye on it. Distinguish it from generalised anxiety or depression and treat those as usual.

Requests for Indigenous or other sacred ceremony

A client may ask you to lead a smudge, a sweat, a "medicine walk" or a ceremony drawn from another culture.

• Decline to perform it. Explain that ceremony belongs to the communities that hold it.
• Refer or support. If the client is a member of that community, or has a legitimate connection to it, help them reach community-recognised Elders or programmes, and support that path within therapy (see the note after 4.23; Thunderbird Partnership Foundation guidance on consulting local Elders and peoples).
• Otherwise, offer client-created secular ritual (4.16).

Spiritual over-reading

This is when the client, or the therapist, treats natural events as messages or omens, or treats nature work as treatment for physical illness.

• Respect the client's own beliefs without endorsing claims that nature contact treats physical disease.
• Keep medical care in place.
• Attribute the authors' spiritual or transpersonal terms as their framing (Section 3).

Accessibility

• Adapt to mobility. For clients with limited mobility, use accessible paths, seating and non-walking outdoor options [source: Davies 2024, BACP], or bring nature indoors (4.1).
• Watch for disabling factors. Financial and cultural barriers to green space can feel exclusionary. Name them.

Competence gaps

• Stay within your training. If you lack expressive arts training, fire, tool or outdoor-leadership competence, leave those elements out, train, or co-work with a qualified practitioner (Section 2: professional frame).

Sources

Pages consulted:

• Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy – Jessica Kingsley Publishers (US)
• Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy – UBC Press listing (description, table of contents, appendices A–D)
• European Graduate School, Expressive Arts – Books 2017 (Atkins & Snyder listing)
• Levine, S. K. (2020). A response: Sally Atkins and Melia Snyder, Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy. Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice 1(2)
• Federal Register 91(20), 30 January 2026: Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Berger, R. & McLeod, J. (2006). Incorporating Nature into Therapy: A Framework for Practice. Journal of Systemic Therapies 25(2), 80–94 (repository copy)
• Berger & McLeod (2006), copy hosted by ecopsychology.org
• Kopytin, A. (2021). Ecological/nature-assisted arts therapies – Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice
• Kopytin, A. (2021). Ecological/Nature-Assisted Arts Therapies and the Paradigm Change. Creative Arts in Education and Therapy 7(1) – DOAJ record (abstract)
• Davies, S. (2024). Walking and talking. BACP Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal
• Leave No Trace Seven Principles – US National Park Service (principles © 1999 Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics)
• BSBI Code of Conduct for picking, collecting, photographing and enjoying wild plants (2017)
• Thunderbird Partnership Foundation – Indigenous Camping Toolkit
• St Faiths Forest School – Risk/Benefit Analysis for the Forest School Site (2025)
• IEATA – What is REAT?
• IEATA – REAT Standards and Requirements

Books cited (details from publisher information):

• Atkins, S. & Snyder, M. (2017). Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy: Integrating the Expressive Arts and Ecotherapy. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 9781785927263.
• Kopytin, A. & Rugh, M. (Eds.) (2016). Green Studio. Nova Science, as cited in Kopytin 2021.