Outdoor Therapies: An Introduction to Practices, Possibilities, and Critical Perspectives

by Nevin J Harper (Editor), Will W. Dobud (Editor)

Drawing on the leading voices of international researchers and practitioners, Outdoor Therapies provides readers with an overview of practices for the helping professions.



Sharing outdoor approaches ranging from garden therapy to wilderness therapy and from equine-assisted therapy to surf therapy, Harper and Dobud have drawn common threads from therapeutic practices that integrate connection with nature and experiential activity to redefine the "person-in-environment" approach to human health and well-being. Readers will learn about the benefits and advantages of helping clients get the treatment, service, and care they need outside of conventional, office-based therapies.



Providing readers with a range of approaches that can be utilized across a variety of practice settings and populations, this book is essential reading for students, practitioners, theorists, and researchers in counseling, social work, youth work, occupational therapy, and psychology.

Genres: Nature

218 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2020

Reviews

[Amanda Talley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very birds eye view of various outdoor therapy options. This book offers a decent introduction from an academic perspective for anyone interested in this specific field. A nice compilation that isn’t offered elsewhere, but doesn’t offer any new information to other resources available. As many other academic works, it lacks sufficient practical experience.

[Kei · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone learning or interested in Environmental Psychology.

[Olga · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compilation of essays written by different people that introduce a reader into the recent developments in various outdoor therapies. There are chapters on the foundations of outdoor therapies, which were inspiring, then many, rather dry (and sometimes political), intros into those various approaches with case vignettes - adventure therapy, wilderness, horticulture, animal-assisted, etc., as well as an invigorating chapter on critique and one on perspectives of the approach.
It is not pop science, so all information is concise, factual, and with many references - the part that I appreciated.
The book is good as a reference, as a way to keep abreast with the latest developments in outdoor therapies, and can inspire one to dig deeper into ecotherapy, biophilia hypothesis, and so on, which I will definitely be doing.