An enormous amount of research shows that talking therapy is effective when dealing with depression and anxiety, less so because of the different methods and modalities used, and more so because of the relationship of trust and empathy developed between the therapist and client. Could we consider that introducing clients to nature introduces another important relationship, that with Mother Nature?

Mother and daughter Jungian psychologist team, Linda Wheelwright Schmidt, & Jane Hollister bring these two modalities together. They are the authors of The Long Shore: A Psychological Experience of the Wilderness, and in 1991 suggest:

“… much of Western psychology today focuses on the pain and anxiety of abandonment caused by children being separated too early from the “safe place” with their mothering person (female or male)…Psychotherapy and other forms of psychic healing have moved into this breach, with their methods of providing a safe place, a re-creation of the original “safe place” with the mother person (male or female). From this safe place clients can explore and find healing for not only the wound particular to their own life, but also the abandonment wound everyone shares.”

The second abandonment wound Jane and Linda refer to is our disconnection from Mother Nature. They add later in their manuscript:

“The death of wildness would be an incomprehensible experience beyond cycles and rhythms of birth and death. It would be a sterilization, a one-sidedness as shocking as prison…The reason human-made, human-sized phenomenon (like a garden or a park) can work for us is that it is a reference to something greater, something infinite….A garden without a wilderness to refer to would no longer connect us to the infinite. The call to save the wilderness is a call to save us all…Because we emerged from the wilderness; we need to re-emerge with it to heal our feeling of abandonment.”

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2023) an estimated 5% of adults suffer from depression at any one time, which in 2023 denoted approximately 280 million people. And in the same year the WHO (2023) suggested “anxiety disorders” affected 301 million people as the world’s most common mental disorder.

Emily May Alford, a recent psychotherapy graduate highlights the following nature therapy and ecotherapy findings in her 2025 literature review:

• sunlight has been shown to increase serotonin levels (Lambert et al., 2002) and causes the body to release feel-good endorphins (Fell et al., 2014) both of which can improve mood. 
• Exposure to negative air ions in forested and mountain areas significantly reduces depression (Terman et al., 1998, Goel et al., 2005). 
• Natural sounds reduce cortisol levels and activate our calming parasympathetic nervous systems (Alvarsson et al., 2010)
• The “biophilia hypothesis” (Wilson, 1984) suggests that as the human brain evolved in nature, we have a genetic and psychological need to connect with it. 
• Kaplan & Kaplan (1989) suggest our ordinary lives are too focused causing deep fatigue, which can be restored by the “soft fascination” we get by looking at and engaging in natural environments. 
• Japan has a long tradition for “shinrinyoku”, which translates to “forest bathing”, an activity recommended for those with low mood, anxiety or depression which has been documented and shown to reduce the modern day “stress state” (Hansen, 2017, Song et al., 2016). 
• A study in Korea conducted during the Covid-19 lockdown showed significant improvement of mild to severe depression or anxiety when people engaged in therapeutic gardening outdoors (Yang et al., 2023). 

In the end, perhaps the question is not whether nature therapy should replace traditional talking therapy, but whether we have underestimated what becomes possible when the two are allowed to meet. The research is clear: human beings heal in the presence of trust, empathy, and attuned relationship. For decades we have understood that this relational field between therapist and client is the engine of change. What Jane Hollister and Linda Wheelwright Schmidt remind us is that this field may be larger than two people in a room. It may include the original “mothering presence” we all emerged from — the living world itself.

If early abandonment wounds shape so much of our inner landscape, then our cultural abandonment of nature forms a second wound that quietly shapes us too. Re‑entering natural environments — whether through sunlight, soft fascination, forest air, or the simple act of tending a garden — offers physiological, psychological, and symbolic nourishment that talking alone cannot provide. The evidence is mounting: nature regulates, restores, and reconnects us to something older and steadier than our own thoughts.

Perhaps the most effective path forward is not a comparison but a weaving. When the safety of the therapeutic relationship meets the regulating, expansive presence of the natural world, clients gain access to two forms of holding: one human, one more‑than‑human. Together they offer a deeper sense of belonging, a counter to the abandonment that so often sits beneath anxiety and depression.

In this integration, therapy becomes not just a conversation about healing, but a lived experience of returning — to ourselves, to each other, and to the wider world that has been waiting for us all along.

You deserve not only to bounce back, but to root more deeply in your own life. Let the wild teach you what it means to truly endure and thrive—together, and in harmony with the earth and each other.

 You deserve to feel at home—in your mind, in your body, and in the world. Let the wild show you the way back to yourself.

I invite you to explore upcoming Nature Therapy Safaris the Healing Power of Dolphins or A Walk on the Wild Side in Hwange National Park. Each experience is designed to hold you gently in nature’s wisdom, weaving reflection and resilience for the journey ahead. These are not ordinary escapes—they’re invitations to come home to yourself, guided by the wild.