| The purpose of this research study was to explore and understand how childhood relationships with nature may be reparative of trauma and/or the loss of primary caregivers, and may function as mediating factors toward positive developmental outcomes.;Following the idiographic, and reflexive model formulated by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), seven participants, ranging in age from 19 through 57 years, were invited to become co-researchers and "experts" into their own experience. There were three inclusion/exclusion criteria for this study: A participant should have: (a) no available or competent caregiver prior to the age of twelve; (b) experienced significant trauma prior to the age of twelve; and (c) experienced significant relational experience with nature.;The interpretive framework for this study posits parallels exist between the psychodynamic perspectives of self-psychology or intersubjectivity (human-to-human relationship) and ecological psychology (human-to-nature or nature-to-human relationship). The range of possible clinical interventions for children at risk may include enhancement of the therapeutic alliance with an extension into the natural world, further solidifying an individual's sense of being in the world, and sense of agency, regulation of affect, safety and protection, as well as cohesion.;The notion that children wait for and are aware of nature's affordances appears to be a fundamental key for engaging this potential in the remediation of trauma and for affirmative lifespan responses. Expanding the repertoire of clinical experiences to connect with elements of nature in outdoor settings may additionally normalize children's responses to difficult experiences, as well as reduce the tendency of clinicians and clients alike to view traumatic events as determining pathological processes. |
