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are the following basic concepts: a worldview of interrelationship,
ecological presence, ecopoiesis and the arts in service of life.
A worldview of interrelationship
Nature-based expressive arts therapy embraces a systems view
of life, the belief that the world consists of layers within layers of
interrelationship. As Alice Walker expresses it in The Color Purple , “it
come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate
at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed” (1992,
pp.195–196). From this perspective the idea of a skin-encapsulated
individual self expands to become part of earth, air, fire, water
and all of the other living beings of the world. The world then is
experienced as a communion of subjects rather than a collection
of objects (Berry 1988). The word communion suggests that our
interrelationship with the world is both intimate and sacred.
Ecological presence
The concept of presence, both as a personal quality of attention
and as a relational process, is a basic concept in expressive arts
work. Ecological presence involves bringing the relational process
and quality of multi-leveled attention into our relationship with
the Earth, being in the world with sensory awareness and with the
storied awareness of the imagination. We are called, in the words of
Mary Oliver, “to pay attention, this is our endless and proper work”
(2003, p.27). In nature-based expressive arts the concept of presence
is expanded to include a respect for the deep intelligence woven into
all living beings. As Gary Snyder puts it:
The world is watching: one cannot walk through a meadow or
forest without a ripple of report spreading out from one’s passage.
The thrush darts back, the jay squalls, a beetle scuttles under
the grasses, and the signal is passed along. Every creature knows
when a hawk is cruising or a human strolling. The information
passed through the system is intelligence. (1990, p.19)