Nature Connection and Compassion for Psychological Resilience to Natural Disasters?
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by David Roland
Our adaptation to climate change is requiring psychological resilience in the face of frequent natural disasters. Is there a place for compassion focussed therapy with nature connection in arming us to rebound from natural disasters?
I have experienced how connection with nature through the senses: touch, taste, smell, vision and sound eases mental and physical tension and brings joy and wonder. Actively engaging the senses with natural surrounds is noticeably more beneficial than passive contact with nature. After completing training as a forest bathing guide between 2022 to 2023 with FT Hub, making it my personal practice and helping others to do the same has been life changing for me. Now I incorporate nature connection within my practice as a psychologist.
Recently, Professor James Bennett-Levy and members of his research team at Southern Cross University were awarded a $3.8 million government grant (MRFF) to undertake a world-first clinical trial of a stepped care model for disaster-related communities with PTSD. This research project will be conducted in Northern NSW, Australia, where I live. Over the past six years, we have experienced three disastrous floods and two seasons of bushfires, leaving a trail of mental health problems within our population. Chief amongst these is the extremely disabling condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Based on research (Longman, et al, 2023), it is estimated there are 1000s of people with disaster-related PTSD in Northern NSW. This fallout warrants new ways of thinking and the provision of care for those affected now and those who will be in the future.
An innovative series of studies will address this mental health fallout with modalities that follow a stepped-care model. Stepped care offers levels of interventions that match the needs of the population they serve. It is an approach that widens access to a greater number of people. ‘Low intensity’ interventions are intended to meet the mental health needs of people without relying on health professionals to provide the service. High intensity interventions are offered to those who require the assistance of a mental health professional or service after going through low intensity interventions.
The two low intensity interventions that will be trialled are an arts-based compassion-focused group and a nature-based compassion-focused group. The arts-based intervention was piloted previously with an Indigenous population with encouraging results (Bennett-Levy et al, 2020). An arts-based approach supervised by an art therapist, was found to be more enjoyable for participants to engage with, than the conventional highly verbal approach. Compassion-focused therapy based upon the work of Professor Paul Gilbert has been shown to reduce self-criticism and shame and enhance greater ease with the flow of life events.
Forest bathing is an experiential practice where participants are guided through a series of sensory activities with a trained forest bathing guide to connect with the natural environment. It is a group process that creates a sense of fellowship and safety. Forest bathing is the literal translation of ‘shinrin-yoku’, a Japanese practice developed in the 1980s shown to increase physical wellbeing and reduce anxiety and depression. It is hoped this approach will improve the mental health of inhabitants who have survived natural disasters and go towards healing their connection with nature. During the second half of 2024, we will develop the protocol for the nature-based intervention and train counsellors to provide the compassion focussed component of the groups.
Commencing early 2025 the research team will run two group programs of five weeks duration, 3 hours per session with approximately 260 participants identified with PTSD resulting from recent natural disasters. Participants will be randomly assigned to the arts-based or nature-based group program, 10 at a time. All groups will commence with a 20-minute session covering one of five compassion practices and finish with 40 minutes of debriefing and discussion. The arts-based or nature-based practices will be carried out during the two hours in between. A wait-list control group will be used to compare the experimental outcomes. One of the aims of this study is to optimise both approaches for this client group.
I will lead the nature-based approach and assist in the training of guides so we can spread this expertise within our region. A protocol manual will be developed so that the same approach can be replicated in other locations. Those participants who require further care after completing the group program will be provided with another level of intervention provided by mental health professionals.
Our climate emergency impels us to find new ways to adapt and resource. Although turning to nature might seem paradoxical, it is because we have lost nature connection that we need to find our way back.