Environmental arts therapy is the therapeutic use of natural materials, natural locations,
natural themes and natural cycles. As in all arts therapy the therapeutic goals are the same however the context and references are drawn from the natural world, using myths and metaphors that relate to the time of year and the geographical and cultural location within which the therapy takes place.
Environmental arts therapy is practiced outdoors and enjoys a profound and intimate relationship with the natural world, inspired and shaped by the locations it inhabits.
The foundation of Environmental arts therapy is its unique relationship with the cycle of the seasons, and the metaphors, myths and traditions relating to each month; its therapeutic processes are imbedded in the natural passage of time.
Environmental arts therapy is multimedia, combining visual arts, sculpture, drama, movement, voice-work, poetry and ritual, all practiced outdoors.
Statement and Aims
Environmental Arts Therapy is a new and growing practice developing through the creative arts therapy community here in the British Isles. This statement provides a formal structure for the organisation, training and development of Environmental Arts Therapy. Its development will continue to take place through shared interest and collective participation.
The aims of EAT UK are to:
- Promote Environmental Arts Therapy in the UK
and worldwide - Provide support and inspiration for Environmental Arts Therapists in the UK and worldwide
- Promote opportunities for CPD as required by HCPC
With this in mind EAT UK aims to:
• Promote professional, safe and informed therapeutic practice in a range of in-door and out-door environments
• Provide a support, information and research network for practitioners
• Develop and promote training events and workshops across the UK
• Provide information to the wider public about environmental arts therapy practice, training, research, workshops, talks and events
• Provide CPD validation for workshops and events provided by qualified practitioners and members of EAT UK
Core Principles
Uphold the principles of safe therapeutic practice
Define the values of environmental arts practice
Develop a Code of Ethics for practitioners
Training & CPD Courses
Environmental Arts Therapy UK provides teaching and training materials, course designs and training delivery in Environmental Arts Therapy in the UK.
All courses are designed, run, and overseen by leading practitioners and supported by specialist mentors.
The course design, course handbooks, training materials and training delivery covered by this QA agreement includes the following:
- 1 day seasonal workshops (London)
- 4-6 day Introduction to Environmental Arts Therapy training course (London)
- 24 day (one weekend per month), one year Environmental Arts Therapy training for qualified arts therapy practitioners (Devon)
A monthly practitioners Circle of Trees group is held in Highgate Wood, London, and a one year Circle of Trees specialist practitioner course is also running in Devon, supporting non arts therapy practitioners in taking their own practice outdoors and aligning it to the turning year, although this is not a qualification in EAT.
Gallery
Artworks & Exhibition
Touching Nature: Touched by Nature:
An Environmental Arts Therapy Exhibition October-November 2020
The 2020 Environmental Arts Therapy exhibition brought together a range of visual art responses to working in nature from twenty artists. They included trainees, practitioners or participants of environmental arts therapy, and therapists who have a passion for working out of doors or bringing nature in to the studio. The exhibition focused on art works made (constructed in, made-from) nature, natural materials and locations.
Networks and Events
Environmental Arts Therapy Workshops and events
Scotland
- Monthly Circle of Trees group on Saturday afternoons near Edinburgh, 11.00 - 3.00pm
- You can join for an initial workshop and are then encouraged to sign up for 3 subsequent workshops over the next 6 months. Upcoming dates:
- All welcome - A block of 3 sessions costs £90, or £30 per session. Contact Rachel-Clare Campling to book a place at: RachelC@phonecoop.coop
Devon, Cornwall & South West
- A women's Eco Art Therapy group is running at Shipham Village Hall, New Road, Shipham, WINSCOMBE North Somerset BS25 1SG Time: 10:30 to 12:30.
- The new year dates are to follow
- Contact Chel Edinburgh at: artcures@hotmail.co.uk.
- A practitioners Circle of Trees group facilitated by Marianne Siddons Heginworth near Exeter: mariannebonneta@yahoo.com
- Circle of Trees Workshops at Poole Farm, Plymouth - last Sunday of each month 1.15pm - 4.30pm facilitated by Virginia Farrow-Jones & Caz Hoar
~ Winter - November 26th, December 31st, January 28th
~ Spring - February 25th, March 24th, April 28th
~ Summer - May 26th, June 23rd, July 28th
~ Autumn - September 22nd, October 27th 2024
- COST: £40 per workshop PAID IN ADVANCE on booking place.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-circle-of-trees-registration-207196629697
ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY in BRISTOL
QUARTERLY SUPERVISION GROUP
Lydia Boon and Anna Lichtensteiger
Email info@openspacealchemy.co.uk.
- One day of supervision (9am-5pm) will be £145, and will be offered on January 13th, April 13th, July 13th, and October 12th in 2024, at Grow Wilder in Bristol, BS161EL.
Kent & South East
Circle of Trees Monthly Practitioners Group
- Vanessa Jones runs a monthly practitioners Circle of Trees in Highgate Wood, London: www.vanessajones.org
- Sunday 13th October, 17th November & 8th December 2024.
- Time - 10.30 -12.30am - For more info, contact: vanessajonestherapy@gmail.com £25 per session (Sliding scale fees available). We welcome you all.
- Circle of Trees: a Monthly Environmental Arts Therapy Group every second Friday of the month, 4-6pm Cost: £30 per session, or a package of 4 sessions for £100
To book please contact: abigail.arttherapy@hotmail.com
Tooting Bec park, SW16 1AP
Introduction to Environmental Arts Therapy Course
- with Gary Nash and Vanessa Jones - staring 20th April 2025 - at Highgate Wood, London.
- Saturdays 10-4pm: 4 sessions over 4 months
Course dates: Saturday 12th April; 10th May; 7th June;
05th July2025.
- Further information and booking deposit go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/638829023807
International
Alexander Kopytin (editor) has launched an online open access environmental expressive arts therapies journal available at:
www.en.ecopoiesis.ru
Publications
Environmental arts therapy and the Tree of life
Ian Siddons Heginworth
Environmental arts therapy and the Tree of life guides us through the Celtic calendar to explore the relationship between the feeling experience of the human heart and the turning year. Practical, poetic, innovative and magical, it invites us to make environmental art and ritual a vital and healing part of our lives once again and teaches us how to take the personal issues that bind and oppress us out into Nature where they can be met, confronted and transformed.
Price: £14.95
Environmental Arts Therapy: The Wild Frontiers of the Heart
Ian Siddons Heginworth & Gary Nash (editors)
Environmental Arts Therapy: The Wild Frontiers of the Heart describes what happens when we take the creative arts therapies and the people whom we work with out of doors in order to provide safe, structured and accompanied creative therapeutic healing experiences. The theoretical themes are developed along with illustrated examples of clinical practice across a variety of settings and locations.
Price: £34.99
There is a 30% discount when you purchase via www.routledge.com by entering PBC30 at the checkout. Offer valid until the 31 October 2021.
Jamie Bird has written a review of the new book Environmental arts therapy: The wild frontiers of the heart which appears in the latest edition of Ecopoiesis, please access following this link:
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