I want to do it my way...

While working in Spain I had the privilege to work with a young man who had anger issues over a period of a week. One the first day we went up into the hills to one of the national parks in Spain. With addictions I always like to start with 'Meet a Tree' this is a really good game for getting someone to see that there is something more powerful than ourselves without taking them too far out of the box that it would freak them out to the point that they may not come back again.

The young man and I agreed that this would be the exercise that we would start with, having explained the rules to him. I then took him blindfolded through the woods to a tree that I had chosen before we had even started. It is worth noting at this point that the woodland we were using was about 100 x 100 metres containing the same species of tree which were all roughly the same girth and distance apart from each other and to all intense and purposes it would be difficult to tell them apart without a blindfold.

There is no rush to this game it is about getting results and not necessarily about finding the tree although that is also part of the process. We spent about 15-20 minutes walking through the woodland in all different directions; I did this so that he could not tell where he was by using tracks or sources of light through the trees as a way of direction finding in order to locate his tree. On returning to the start point I removed his blindfold and asked to find his tree. He said that he wanted to do things his way, I said fine go ahead, he then proceeded to search the edges of the woodland trying to identify his tree visually, this simply meant that he was in his head, he did not want to let go of control and he was not quite in a position to trust me yet.

At this point I choose to ignore him and let him get on with what he believed was right for him, as for me I got my binoculars out and did some birdwatching, but in my peripheral I was paying attention to what he was doing, and I was watching his body language for clues to what he might be thinking and feeling. After some time he decided to come over to me and ask for some help in finding is tree. This was the first major step in him trusting me and reaching out to me. I showed him how to connect with his heart, this is key to finding his tree; his head would not help him, as it would lie to him based on how he views the world around him. He got himself into peripheral vision and off he went through the woods sensing where his tree might be.

Some 20 minutes later he left the woodland crossed a track and approached a tree that was standing out on its own from the rest of the wood; it was also a different species as well. He moved slowly and kind of knowingly towards it by that he appeared to recognise the tree, this is quite common and when he touched it he smiled, turned to me and said "this is my tree", he was of course correct, we then processed the events that took place. Afterwards, we started to head back to the rehab and as we walked down the track a Chaffinch landed if front of us... (See The Chaffinch and the Young man's Anger)

Question: What if he had not found his tree, well it is not always important to physically find the tree, however I would like to suggest that the feelings and emotions that come up during the process and the understanding that a person may arrive at is metaphorically speaking their tree.

I am just a Zebra conforming

During the taster day that I held in London just a few days ago something came to light that I found very interesting indeed and I shall now be keeping my eyes open for it in future, well at least the energy behind someones behaviour.

It was during the game Animal Tag, I had someone sat in the middle of the circle that the group had formed, she was blindfolded and had taken on the role of a young deer, The hunter was a friend of mine he was tasked with staking the deer in tunnel vision with the intent to catch his prey so that he could feed his cubs, he was playing the role of a fox.

While the game is being played I always watch for the reactions of the people in the circle, their responses may present me with something to work with in terms of carrying out an intervention. While the fox was stalking its prey the intensity of his focus was very strong, so much so that one member of the group in the circle felt that intensity and he felt that he needed to react to it. However, his body language then change he seemed to relax and he started to look around his environment, even putting his head back to look up at the sky.

During a normal session I would normally ask what was going for that person in that moment. However, on this occasion he offered up the information and what he had to say was very interesting indeed. He said that when he felt the intensity that the fox was sending out, he just wanted to respond to it by taking off. However, just like a zebra on the plains of Africa, once he had realised that he was not the prey and that the lion (fox) was after different animal he relaxed just as a herd of zebras would do in the wild. He said that because he felt that he was in any danger, that he did not need to respond and that he could just relax and watch what happens and was quite happy to just watch the fox make its kill.

How can I relate this to someones addiction? Who knows but I shall be looking out for it in future and I am open to see where it takes me and the group.

Two Trees

I had a first this week.

During the Taster Day one of the group took his blindfolded partner to two trees during the Meet a Tree activity. On their return I asked the blindfolded person to remain blindfolded and I asked her to locate the tree she was most drawn to out of the two she was taken to. She set off and actually went to both of the trees she had been introduced to by her partner, both trees are seen here in the photo.

When I asked what she had experienced she said the that the tree she is standing by in the photo, felt like it was a female and that she felt safe with this tree and the other in the foreground of the photo was more like a male which had suffered during it's life.

This is why I love this work, there are so many things to experience and understand and to be a part of, it's the shared journey that all us including the trees are on it, how can we be separate when you encounter so many miracles.

Concentric rings underwater...

I once worked with a guy who lived in the Caribbean and he shared with me and the group of his experience while diving in the sea regarding nature awareness and the concentric rings.

He made the connection only after having played 'Meet a Tree', he told us that when he would go diving, the marine life would always come up close to him showing no sense of fear or danger. However sometimes they would not come near him and he could not understand why, that is until 'Meet a Tree' from which he learnt about the concentric rings, which we all give off.

The connection he had made, was that the marine life would stay away from him just before he would be about to use drugs, and this may have been days before he himself became conscious of his need to use.