Rochelle Calvert, PhD, CMT, SEP, has written a remarkable, exceptionally useful book called Healing with Nature: Mindfulness and Somatic Practices to Heal from Trauma. She offers a wealth of practices with nature for becoming more aware of bodily sensations, in an open, nonjudgmental way. She teaches ways to become somatically aware of the trauma(s) that are stored in our bodies, our minds, and our habits. We can explore new ways to heal old trauma, and we can draw strength from the natural environment to support the process of healing.

The book shares practices on developing mindfulness with nature, understanding somatic healing with nature, and living into aliveness with nature. It discusses ways to integrate our own personal healing into helping nature to heal.

Calvert has years of experience working with mindfulness-based methods. She was first exposed to mindfulness training as she pursued her PhD in clinical psychology. She moved on to serve as staff psychologist and director of clinical training for the University of California San Diego Center for Mindfulness. “At this point psychologists were looking at the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR) and starting to infuse it with additional forms of psychological knowledge such as cognitive therapy,” she recalls. “The center was developing, researching, and teaching these new programs, and I was part of that.”

In 2010 Calvert left the UCSD Center in order to do direct therapeutic work to help people who are struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma, and other problems. She founded the New Mindful Life Center in order to support people clinically in a variety of ways, tailored to client needs.

In recent years she found that practicing mindfulness in nature offers significant benefits. She started working with people outdoors, in beautiful settings. “When we’re outside, the body naturally wants to relax or soften. If I was working with someone I might say, now just let your eyes wonder around this natural environment and tell me what you see out here right now. It’s a way of helping people be more present in their bodies and in the moment.”

She finds that working with people in a natural environment supports them and helps them deal with embedded patterns of trauma. One core reason she wrote this book “is that I care deeply about people having a healthy relationship to their trauma,” Calvert says. “Most people tend to pathologize trauma. I find we can look at it from a different lens and find healing modalities that can help so we aren’t walking around with a reactive trauma as a permanent part of our experience.” She adds that she is thinking of trauma very broadly, to include accidents and pain conditions, illness, assaults and combat, bullying, climate crisis and racism, and also experiences of loss and grief. “There are so many different ways people experience suffering in their lives. Depending on whether they were able to support themselves in a skillful way through that difficulty, that informs whether the trauma heals or causes long-term problems.”

Moving Toward the Trauma

One chapter of the book is called “Moving Toward the Trauma,” and that’s not how we usually think about trauma. Usually we say, “This is a problem, it needs to go away. I need to fix it.” But once we learn to be more present with all the sensations in our bodies, including those associated with our trauma, we can let go of our habitual interpretations and open to new ways of experiencing ourselves. “My goal is to give the reader skills to move safely towards that,” Calvert says. “Do we feel our nervous system is supported? Are we getting enough sleep? Do we practice in an environment where we feel relaxed? Nature helps us use our senses to awaken to what’s here right now. As we feel grounded and stably supported, that makes it possible for us to move towards traumatic and painful areas and start to work with them.”

In a remarkable chapter called “Finding the Healing Currents,” Calvert maps out specific ways to explore trauma in a healing way, without being overwhelmed. She describes a core healing practice called pendulation, in which we shift attention between two different objects of awareness. “You first establish awareness to an experience in your body that is grounded, steady, stable, and secure; or to something in the natural environment that feels this way” she writes. This creates “a sense of calm and ease to support you in working with the trauma.”

Then, “slowly and gently you begin to move your awareness to the place in the body where you experience a sensation associated with your trauma, such as tightness, constriction, tension, or numbing…. It’s important to bring a willingness to just be with any of these sensations as it is, not judging, not needing it to be different, not trying to change or fix it,” Calvert writes.

You shift your attention between the sensation of groundedness and the sensations associated with trauma. Gradually you increase the time you stay present in each of them. “This practice cultivates your capacity to be trusting, patient and open. As you repeat it, space for healing will open…. You may experience a release or shift in the area associated with your trauma.” Calvert emphasizes that it’s important to start small and work slowly in this sort of practice, gradually increasing our ability to attend to trauma. “Treat your trauma with care, respect, and regard as you transform it into healing,” she says.

Practice in a Variety of Settings

In order to provide nature-based therapy in a variety of settings, New Mindful Life has acquired a Sprinter Van, converted to support therapy and mindfulness practices. It now includes a small kitchen, couch, bathroom, and an awning that extends for outdoor shade. The van can support mindfulness-in-nature classes or retreats, providing water and tea, cushions and chairs. It can also offer an intimate, private space for personal counseling services, while still being close to nature so clients can directly experience the benefits of nature-based mindfulness therapy.

For the past 18 years Calvert has been based in San Diego, which has a reliable warm climate with limited rain, and supports her work with clients outdoors in nature. In the near future she plans to relocate to Taos, New Mexico. I asked her how these methods will be effective in a more challenging climate.

The van will go with her and will provide a relatively sheltered outdoor space. “I have been thinking about ways to manage the more extreme variations in the seasons,” she says. “However, having taught nature-based work now for several years, I see there is a benefit when practicing in varying climates and conditions. More challenging experiences with nature can deepen and support your experience of these practices, what they teach and reflect to you, and how you can heal.”

Many Townsend Letter readers are coping with major illnesses and long-term illnesses that Western medicine doesn’t have effective ways to treat. Does nature-based healing offer something unique for these situations? “When we’re in deep places of pain or difficulty, sometimes we may experience radical shifts, new ways to experience ourselves and connect to the world in a more intimate and integrative way,” Calvert says. “There may be doorways we haven’t thought about before, that traditional Western medicine doesn’t really explore. I believe nature has an inherent healing wisdom for us. When we deepen our relationship with nature, that can be of profound benefit and help us face deeply challenging times.”

Resources

Healing with Nature: Mindfulness and Somatic Practices to Heal from Trauma

will be published on June 8, 2021

Website: https://newmindfullife.com/

This website includes links to courses and events, a newsletter, and a schedule for the van. Look especially for the Six-Week Introductory Training in Mindfulness, an online course.

Also look for the newmindfullife YouTube channel. You will find wonderful training sessions such as:

20 Minute Body Scan

Seated Mindfulness Meditation

Guided Mindful Movement I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seuQnn-ZXG4us