Reimagining therapy outdoors
Therapy Today, October 2023

I’ve woven the outdoors into my life almost unconsciously, and it was only recently that I became aware of the impact it has on me. I rarely finish a hike without feeling calmer and more connected than when I began, and noticing this feels as important as the act itself.

Another realisation came to me on a holiday in Pembrokeshire, where my partner and I spent five days hiking stretches of the South Wales coastal path. The scenery was beautiful, the seas crystal clear, nature felt unspoilt. Though it was quiet, we’d occasionally cross paths with other hikers, some beginning to look familiar by day three or four. One woman, though, stood out immediately – a black woman, hiking solo. I’d spot her day after day and we would give each other an understanding nod, both fully aware that our presence on the Pembrokeshire coast was unusual and conspicuous. I reflected on my own experiences with nature, of being the only person of colour in groups of friends who enjoyed hiking.

In an effort to explore the relationship with the outdoors and my identity and race, I signed up to my first hike with a people of colour* (PoC)-led walking group. As I arrived, I was swept up in the immediate sense of camaraderie. Seeing the crowd of black folk smiling and welcoming each other without questioning that any of us should be there, I felt something that being in nature had never fully offered me before – a sense of belonging. I gradually shifted from feeling like an unconventional outdoor enthusiast to feeling like part of a community. An introvert and a natural observer, I began to witness the beauty and impact of being part of a community that centres around nature.

Ecotherapy is a developing practice in Western psychotherapy that uses natural settings and activities as an integral part of the therapeutic process.¹ Grounded in principles of the interconnections between nature and humankind, ecotherapy builds on perspectives that were a part of black and indigenous traditions long before it emerged as a therapeutic modality.² However, for many reasons, ecotherapy remains a visibly white, middle-class pursuit, and not always inviting to PoC.³

Research reveals limitations on access to nature for black and Asian people. Only 26.2% of black, and 25.7% of Asian people spend time in nature, compared with 44.2% of white people.⁴ However, there is no literature that specifically addresses the application of ecotherapy in culturally diverse communities, and ecotherapy research similarly fails to significantly delve into an examination of its cross-cultural suitability.

Outside the mainstream, black-led organisations have been reimagining therapy, based on ancestral traditions rooted in community, spirituality and African-centred concepts of what it means to be human.^5,6 In this article, I explore how we can develop a person-centred practice that (re)connects PoC with nature and offers conditions for therapeutic change.

(Re)defining therapy outdoors

Definitions of ecotherapy are broad. They include outdoor activities that have a positive impact on mental health (horticulture, conservation work, ‘green’ exercise),⁷ spiritual reconnection with the natural world,⁸ and taking psychotherapy out into natural, ‘green’ settings.^2,9

This last definition in particular lends itself to various psychotherapeutic modalities: for example, adapting person-centred counselling to incorporate nature. Building on Rogers’ suggestion¹⁰ that therapeutic change occurs as a result of conditions within the therapeutic relationship, Brazier proposes that this concept can also be extended to include the conditions nature provides to promote mental health and wellbeing.¹¹

Therapy outdoors can take on a more holistic approach, incorporating an ecological consciousness, focused on the reciprocity of the relationship with nature. However, ecotherapy based on the same principles as traditionally white psychotherapies will likely miss a valuable opportunity to redefine therapeutic relationships to include PoC and the outdoors.

White therapies

In my experience, black-led hiking groups not only exist but thrive at the intersection of therapeutic relationships and nature. Although both are usually spaces where questions of belonging arise for PoC, bringing together a collective of walkers with shared ancestry or a common experience of marginalisation reveals a huge potential for growth, self-discovery and therapeutic change, in a process that resembles that of person-centred counselling.

But why don’t we feel at ease in green spaces? And why isn’t psychotherapy for us? In order to understand the value of lessons to be learned from these groups, it is important to understand the challenges faced by PoC in accessing both therapy and the outdoors.

Counselling theory, research and practice have at their heart a set of values, norms and beliefs that shape the way in which counselling is delivered and received by clients.¹² It affects who defines counselling theory, those working in academia, those shaping the supporting structures, courses and ethical framework, those teaching, and the institutions in which they teach, right through to who can access courses to train and go on to deliver therapy, and who receives therapy.

Whiteness, and being part of the majority white, Western group, is integral to all of the above.^13,14,15,16 Furthermore, although person-centred theory does acknowledge the unequal environment in which we exist, a focus on the internal world of the client risks ignoring that ‘oppression and discrimination cause psychological and emotional pain’.¹⁷ Consequently, a therapy modality informed by and for the same systems that uphold structural oppression does not serve the needs of clients of non-white ancestry.

The lack of engagement with the outdoors seen in the UK’s black and Asian population is layered and deep-rooted. Racism, feelings of not belonging and fear all deter people of colour from connecting with nature and consequently drive further boundaries between them and the natural environment.¹⁸ Experience from countries of heritage might shape a relationship with nature as one of shame, internalising perceptions of being primitive, or associated with a trauma of poverty, slavery and colonialism.³

Despite being drawn to the outdoors I have by no means escaped the baggage that comes with existing as a PoC in nature. A recent ‘where are you really from’ encounter – being asked the question that is a persistent reminder for PoC of their otherness and the sense of not belonging – while on a solo hike reminded me why these walking groups exist. Drawing on her ethnographic research and practice, Collier argues: ‘In many cases it is the relationship with other humans that have made being in nature feel unsafe and out of reach [for PoC].’³

Lessons from my black-led walking group

Most PoC-led walking groups seek to create a safe space for PoC to feel comfortable getting outdoors.¹⁹ For some walkers, the group might be an introduction to nature. However, many of us (including me) seek these groups for a safety we do not experience when out on our own. As one contributor to my own research told me: ‘[Given] the microaggressions often experienced by the virtue of merely “existing while black”, an exclusive space for walkers of colour is absolutely necessary. We even get microaggressions “walking while black”, but it’s better absorbed when experienced as a group.’

Similarly, some of us have experience of feeling alienated, frustrated and unsafe in therapy. Where possible, we seek a therapist with shared heritage but, unfortunately, a common outcome is to feel therapy is ‘not for us’, because of negative experiences or financial barriers.¹⁶

Land justice activist Evie Muir states, ‘While a white-led outdoors sector grapples with “diversity and inclusion”, we create our own safe spaces.’¹⁹ Mirroring the movement of black-led psychotherapy organisations, these groups forge their own path in making spaces accessible for PoC.

Healing in community

Black activist bell hooks writes: ‘Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.’²⁰ A group of people of black ancestry don’t all share the same heritage, culture or experience but we have a shared understanding – we do not need to ‘teach’ the other what it means to be black or experience racism.

In the walking group, I feel less of a power imbalance, inferiority or incompetence when it comes to being in nature. I get to explore and learn without judgment. Here, the shame attached to not knowing or feeling like I do not belong dissolves and makes way for healing the relationship with nature. When I walk in the group, there is no need to contort myself to be something else. I am no longer ‘other’.

This sentiment, that something therapeutic, comforting, and valuable comes from walking in community, is echoed in what other hikers shared with me in my research:

‘I think people generally underestimate the value of being in nature with like-minded people and in particular the therapeutic benefits.’

For me, the outdoors is great therapy – not that I need it – but it is rewarding, and I delight in the growing participation of people like me in an enjoyment of the great outdoors. If it were not for Ebony Hikers, I might not have known and grown.’

There is a sense of peace when walking in nature with others, there is comfort in knowing you’re not doing it alone and you are all encouraging each other.’

Acceptance and openness

Feelings of belonging and connection in nature are entwined with acceptance and openness.²¹ I propose that, additionally, Rogers’ six necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change can be present in the black-led walking group whose purpose it is to create and nurture a safe environment outdoors.

First, both the relationship to the environment and relationships within the group – perhaps likened to psychological contact – play a role in creating conditions for growth. Second, group membership is often driven by actual or feared negative experiences in nature. Add to this the understanding that racism can cause psychological distress, and Rogers’ second condition of a client in distress, incongruence or vulnerability is met. Third, there is a clear connection between group ecotherapy and person-centred theory in that it includes ‘two (or more) people together, creating (or co-creating) certain conditions which are different from those conditions of worth which the person who is the client experienced previously and/or experiences elsewhere’.²² As a group, our community-centred practice relies on empathy, absence of judgment, and a willingness to be congruent to maintain the safety of the space, challenge our conditions of worth, and heal Rogers’ core conditions and the quotes from members shared above demonstrate Rogers’ sixth condition: that the core conditions have indeed been received.

At the same time, I feel it’s also important to look beyond a person-centred approach. Weaving together lessons from access, community and healing, reimagining ecotherapy could serve as an affirmation of the black experience with therapy, shedding the limitations imposed by a purely Western model of counselling and promoting a new practice that centres, rather than prohibits, race within the therapeutic relationship.

Discussions on race and the person-centred approach tend to coalesce at the conclusion that without ‘leaning outside’ person-centred therapy and explicitly examining power dynamics, race and whiteness, therapy will be ineffective. Given the complexities of intersecting race and the outdoors, for example, it makes sense to integrate lessons from outside the therapy room.

Certain concepts of the person-centred approach are easily integrated with an eco-conscious model of therapy. Brazier builds on the idea that being outdoors is, in itself, therapeutic, and proposes that conditions for change, growth and the collaborative process in nature create a therapeutic container.¹¹ She also reminds us of the potato tuber and its potential for growth – or tendency to actualise – given the right conditions. Blair²³ and Tudor²⁴ argue that the natural world is best represented by Rogers’ formative tendency, shifting the focus from an individual’s tendency to actualise to a more ecological view that incorporates all life but maintains implications for a non-directive approach.

Developing field

Integrating new perspectives generates new ethical challenges. Practising ecotherapists consistently raise confidentiality and competence as ethical concerns for conducting therapy outdoors.^25,26 Ina developing field like ecotherapy, it’s understandable that there are logistical questions around practice where this has not yet been robustly defined. I would also argue that a psychotherapist working with a demographic of clients they have little understanding of raises equally troubling ethical concerns, given that striving for an equitable and adequate provision of services is a key value of the BACP Ethical Framework.

Rameri Moukam, psychotherapist at an African-centred organisation, points out: ‘When black people truly understand who we are, it is a truly wonderful thing. It is then that we can feel healed and loved. It is then that we can feel safe to be our full selves. And when we are our full selves, we can breathe.^’5

This resonates with my experience in the black walking group. Before we can begin to heal, to freely breathe in the many benefits the outdoors has to offer, we must first be able to heal our sense of self in the natural world – free from the fear, trauma and shame that have disconnected us from our relationship with nature.

*Throughout this article I use the term ‘people of colour’ but acknowledge that the experiences of people from black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups in the UK vary hugely.