HEALING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FIRE:
An Ecotherapy Case History
© 2009 Linda Buzzell
A lot of people ask me what an ecotherapy session actually looks like in practice
and how it might differ from a traditional therapy session. Like most therapists,
ecotherapists deal with a wide variety of presenting problems and treatment
methods, so perhaps there is no “typical” session, but I’ve put together a sample
composite case history on one particular issue, based on a number of recent
sessions with different clients. Please understand that the “client” in this portrait
is a fictitious composite, and doesn’t represent any individual.
G came to see me because he was feeling anxious and having frightening
nightmares following the near-destruction of his home by a recent wildfire. The
dreams were of fire chasing him.
One of the basic premises of ecotherapy is that the rest of nature is alive, and is
not just an inanimate “wallpaper” backdrop behind the all-important human lives
in the foreground. Therefore, I saw this as interpersonal work. “Fire” had spoken
to G (in fact, to our whole community) in a shockingly intrusive way, both in his
conscious life and in his dreams. What did Fire have to say?
G and I met outdoors, at first looking up at the fire scars on the nearby mountains
and then finding a comfortable spot in a garden “office” under a sheltering
sycamore tree.
After G explained in more detail his concerns and what he wanted us to work on,
we started out by exploring who Fire is. We looked at Fire from many different
perspectives – ecological, historical, mythological (the fire gods in various
cultures), the impact of fire on human evolution (empowering us but still
dangerous), plus G’s personal associations with fire. We acknowledged Fire as
one of the sacred four classical elements of nature, a powerful archetypal figure.
We also looked at Fire as this powerful element expresses itself in Southern
California, where we all live in Fire country. Now that global climate change is an
escalating reality, we have a local fire season that lasts 10 months a year, so
everyone in our communities is being confronted with the more insistent voice of
Fire, not just G.
Ecotherapy focuses not only on the individual human-nature relationship, but
also the collective experience. So we looked not just at G’s own personal history
and emotions, but also at the community’s historical and present relationship with
fire.
Psychologically, this shift to a collective, mythological, ecospiritual and
environmental perspective allowed G to view his “adversary” in a more
dispassionate and even compassionate light, and he became fascinated with
exploring his nemesis in a more analytical way. He also felt less alone with his
experience. He was now moving “towards” Fire rather than backing away in
terror, and thus his anxiety levels began to lessen and he felt more empowered
as we moved into the dialogue phase.
Through role play, eco-dreamwork and then journaling, G explored who or what
this Fire was and what he/she had to say not just to G but to all of us in our
geographical area. Both personal and collective ecological issues began to
emerge. For example, in one dialogue Fire was urgently demanding that G and
his community pay more attention to how we are treating and relating to our
homeland and the plants, animals and landscape of his neighborhood.
One of the very personal issues that arose for G in this dialogue process involved
G’s anger and profound grief over the fire’s destruction of the wild garden on the
edge of a neighbor’s large property. This was a beloved natural retreat he had
visited many times over the years, a special place for his personal and spiritual
“ecotherapy.” Although he had tried to help his traumatized, grieving neighbor as
best he could, he had been afraid to return to the garden since the fire as he
“couldn’t face” looking at the destruction.
G did some role play and journaling as this garden, which he privately called
“Eden,” allowing it to speak of its painful experiences during the fire. G also
allowed the dying plants and fleeing birds and animals their voice.
Through the above processes, G was able to find the courage to plan a special
visit into the fire-destroyed landscape he had so loved, to confront the actual
devastation, bear witness to its ordeal, tend its wounds and reclaim its
sacredness in his life.
With his neighbor’s permission and involvement, he prepared a few ceremonial
actions to express his feelings and participate in the land’s anticipated Phoenixlike resurrection from the ashes during the coming winter and spring. He brought
native wildflower seeds to put down roots in the hoped-for rains, and a few
objects to leave on a stone cairn he created under a charred tree in Eden to mark
his continuing reverence for this special place and commitment to its continuing
care.
The experience of visiting the fire-damaged landscape he loved was very
emotional, and G returned from it with a deeper relationship with his neighbors
(both human and non-human) and a renewed promise to do his part to protect all
wild places in his area. On a practical level, he also vowed to work with a local
environmental group promoting natural methods of fire-mitigation.
By this point in his therapy, G noticed that his anxiety levels had dropped and
that the troubling nightmares had faded. New dreams of Fire arose, but with a
greater sense of ongoing partnership rather than the previous adversarial
relationship.
Many other ecotherapy techniques could have been used, of course. More work
could have been done out of doors in parks or wilderness areas. Animal-assisted
therapy, wilderness therapy or garden therapy might have been appropriate.
Doing an assessment of G’s nature-connection methods and current lifestyle
could have been relevant in different circumstances.
But whatever the specific methodology applied, the core work in ecotherapy is
always the healing of the human-nature relationship at both the individual and
collective levels.
____
This article was first published in the Sept 2009 issue of “Santa Barbara Therapy
News,” the newletter of the Santa Barbara chapter of the California Association
of Marriage and Family Therapists.