IOL South East Conference, November at Plumpton College.

IOL South East Conference. Wednesday 19 November 2014 at Plumpton College.
I went to a training day run at Plumpton College by Institute of Outdoor learning (IOL). They offered small workshops across the day to give a taster of some new learning which could be exciting for any outdoor practitioner. The choices included; Mountain biking, natural navigation, climbing, adventure therapy, managing challenging behaviour, bush craft and bushido, forest schools, mountain training, risk analysis, and South Downs management update. You could only do 3!As you can imagine it was hard to choose, but I narrowed to down to natural navigation because I’m interested and quite good at that, managing challenging behaviour during outdoor learning, I was thinking of supporting our work at Adventure camp, and Adventure therapy which uses outdoor work to therapeutically help people psychologically. First there was business, the South East branch of IOL had there AGM.
AGM
There was a welcome speech and apologies then the minutes of the last AGM were presented. The chair made a report and spoke about how well the region was doing to farther CPD. The new officers were elected which was simple as it was last year’s officers. The same occurred with the committee.
Then they moved on to Any Other Business. This was talking about the need for people to gain LP/AP/RP qualifications. I was a bit lost here as it was full of jargon about qualification I don’t know about, but the gist was that the outdoors industry is being saturated with people who have low level qualifications. To progress in one’s career and to stand out to potential employees, outdoor practitioner must very quickly be doing the next level of qualifications.
There was then a talk from Tristan Gooley, who is an expert in natural navigation, about his experiences and career as an outdoor practitioner.
Workshop 1- Adventure therapy and practical counselling by Martin Jordan from the University of Brighton.
I chose this workshop for 2 reasons; my natural interest in people, who we are, and how our life experiences effect our behaviour and mental health. My awareness that sometimes at Craggers events, people may need psychological support, because even though we may leave most of our lives behind on an outdoor trip, the ‘stuff’ in our minds and emotions can travel with us.
Martin wanted to give a short class room session before taking us outside to run a therapy session!
In the classroom he touched upon the definition of adventure therapy, wilderness therapy, Eco therapy (which interestingly is an emerging field which MIND has just written a report about), nature based therapy, horticultural therapy, and counselling and psychotherapy outdoors (which in the future people will be able to get on prescription.).
There are lots of companies and organisations using this approach which is now becoming underpinned in science theory. The Outdoor Behaviour Healthcare website is worth a look. Also www.ecotherapy.org .The school of lost burdens use a Rites of passage model to create a framework for youths to transition to adulthood. This is a tradition used in more primitive societies for year which we have lost in our ‘developed world’ society – think Vision Quests.

Therapeutic Process
Participation – Just by being in nature is healing and has therapeutic value. Studies have shown that even 20 mins outside reduces the stress hormones in your body! E.g. camping, climbing, bilking, gardening, being by the sea, running.
Caplan and Caplan have a proposed a theory called, “Attention Restoration Theory”. This means that just being outdoors clears our minds from the business of life i.e. work, family worries, media bombardment of all kinds.
The countryside restores us!!
Projection – The therapeutic process we looked at on the day involved projection. So this means an active relationship between our inner and outer experience, and using metaphor from the natural surroundings to mirror our feelings and experiences.
Personal and existential processes – This mean connecting to nature on a deep level emotionally, developing a surer sense of oneself in relation to the’ bigger picture’ i.e. where do I figure in the universe? Connecting to the cycle of seasons to represent life cycles i.e. winter = death, spring = birth etc. It enables us to develop a sustainable identity which is rooted in our connection to the nature experience.
Outdoor therapy session –Yes I was a bit nervous!!
We moved out doors. Martin took us to the middle of the field which was very wet and soggy. On the ground he set up a compass wheel inspired by North American native culture. Each point of the compass represented a personality trait and a season. We had to choose which the most resonant direction for us was. Martin then invited us to take a 20 min walk while holding in mind one problem whilst noticing all the time how the environment made us feel and linked to the problem.
So I chose North West. This is what I thought about when I encountered natural obstacles without telling you the nature of my problem.
• Mud/water – it’s difficult to walk, I feel resistance to looking at my problem and walking this stupid walk.
• Electric fence – there is danger ahead. I need to find another path
• Find the path lady! – I need to be intrepid with this problem.
• Danger sign – I notice suddenly I have lots of fear inside.
• Mushrooms – Hmm they are very cute but hey I’m letting myself get distracted from my purpose.
• Into the woods – Hmm I’m alone here. It’s uncomfortable being alone with my problem and makes me feel worse about it.
• Brambles – Can’t always find the way. It’s ok to find another way.
• End of the path – It’s ok to take stock and see where I am. I notice I want there to be any easy path.
It was quite a powerful session and I definitely felt very calm afterward. This is something I would like to learn more about in the future.
Natural Navigation by Tristan Gooley.
Tristan Gooley finds his way outdoors by observing natural signs in the environment all around. He has written several books on the topic and runs full workshops for people who would like to develop this skill.
I did this workshop because I like the feeling of integration I get by finding my way naturally, rather than with a compass and map, which can leave me feeling disconnected from the loveliness around me outdoors, as I concentrate on bearings and pacing and map features.
Tristan took us outside almost immediately and here are the tips I picked up:
• Check the day’s winds and clouds while you are still orientated at the beginning of a journey.
• First off – cheat madly until you really know what you are doing! You will soon learn the clues by heart.
• Create a sound map in your mind of where you are i.e. a busy road, a waterfall.
• Follow existing paths – they are there for a reason. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel by hacking through undergrowth.
• Start to understand the stars, sun, sky and prevailing weather where you are.
• The sun has fixed point in the day and across the year. Find out where they are. I.e. Solstice points in winter and summer.
• There are 19 different ways to navigate with trees.
• Dogwood is always more red on the south side in the Northern hemisphere.
• Asymmetry of trees gives us a big clue. There are more roots in the direction of the prevailing wind. So here that is SW. The north side of trees here send branch straight up not horizontal.
• Phototropism – is growth regulated by light. Leaves in the sun are smaller and lighter, leaves in the shade are bigger and darker.
• IGNORE the moss; it’s an old wives tale. Lichens are better.
• Zantharia lichen on roof and walls gives us a colour compass – North – there will be none. South it is gold.
Workshop 3Challenging behaviour.
Sadly I didn’t get to attend this workshop. It was moved about due to other timetable issues.
It was to be about how to engage difficult clients in an outdoor setting. I was thinking about the teenage group at Blacklands farm when I signed for this one.
However the talk leader, Catherine Brennan, [email protected], from Releasing Potential, which is a business in Havant, so not far from Brighton actually run day sessions of training. I think this may be a good one for someone to attend in the future so we can best support the young adults on our trips.