Saturday 18 February 2012

Wilderness Therapy Uses Nature to Help People Heal : Wildlife Promise


Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above. 

'Many of us have stories about taking solace in nature’s simple beauty, but few realize just how crucial a lifeline it can be.....

...More and more research and anecdotal evidence indicates that nature experiences buoy our mental and emotional well-being...—just last week Melinda Koslow wrote about Beyond Tucson, a day-long nature experience intended to help the Arizonans come to terms with the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

As it turns out, the young woman in the story above traveled to DC in late September with Sierra Club volunteers to advocate for the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act, which would give states funds to develop plans to get more children into the outdoors. 

Fortunately, you don’t need to climb a mountain or go into an intensive counseling program to reap nature’s emotional benefits. “Even going on nature hikes can be really calming — simple hikes, time spent reflecting in nature, journaling in nature, ...There’s a lot of different ways you can use nature for therapy. Miller wants her outdoor activism focused on children, whom she says can benefit from connecting with the outdoors even if they don’t need therapy.'

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