Green Care: A Conceptual Framework - Frisk i naturen

have a working knowledge of both horticulture and the ‘care’ of vulnerable
people. Whilst the therapist may listen to clients’ difficulties and problems
and help them to talk through such issues (offering advice as appropriate),
formal psychotherapy or counselling is not usually part of their role.
However, in specific circumstances the natural environment can serve as an
ideal ‘consulting room’, free from the constraints and inhibitions imposed
by being indoors. This is the approach taken by Sonja Linden and Jenny
Grut (2002) in their work with the Medical Foundation for the Care of
Victims of Torture.
“Through gardening and contact with nature, the Natural
Growth Project seeks to help refugee torture survivors
put down roots in the host community, both literally and
metaphorically. It is aimed primarily at those clients of the
Medical Foundation whom a natural setting may help to
engage in the therapeutic process and who otherwise may
find this difficult.” (Linden and Grut, p. 33)
Care farming is a much more diverse activity and the role of therapist is
generally separate from that of farm worker, although the therapist may,
as part of the programme, be engaged in farming work alongside clients or
patients. This arrangement is similar to the ‘star model’ for animal assisted
interventions. Using this description for ecotherapy, where for example the
clients or patients are undertaking canal restoration or hurdle-making, the
model is triangular (the therapist and ‘trainer’ are the same person); this
would normally be the same for bushcraft and wilderness therapy (where
the therapist may also be a ‘guide’). The models of intervention vary across
these types of green care. In some, the experience of contact with nature
is the main focus; reflection about the participants’ behaviour and thinking
is not specifically relevant, nor is the relationship with the therapist and its
examination. In others, however (i.e. contemporary ecotherapy), purposeful
reflection on thinking and behaviour patterns is formulated alongside the
conservation/restoration work with nature and the confluence of the triad
of client-therapist-nature is used to draw metaphorical therapeutic meaning
(Burns, 2007; Burls, 2008) and can be integrated with other approaches
such as CBT and solution-based therapies.
34 Green Care: A Conceptual Framework