Adoption CAMHS
Circle of Life Rediscovery offers tailor-made nature-based therapeutic experiences for teenagers and young adults who have been referred by ADCAMHS, a specialist adoption service.
We work with adopted teenagers and young adults who are experiencing challenges or emotional distress at school or home and are struggling to cope with day-to-day life.
We aim to maintain and improve confidence around building secure and meaningful relationships, improve well-being and offer opportunities for interaction, understanding responses to others in a different setting and learning from participation.
The objective being to maintain health, wellbeing and support prevention and recovery through the medium of nature via nature based activities.
What do we offer?
We offer bespoke nature-based therapeutic interventions for groups of people experiencing similar needs. These ‘green-care’ group packages are tailor-made for particular client groups, in this case adopted teenagers and young adults.
What are the benefits?
The woodland environment is a great “leveller” for clients referred by ADCAMHS. Benefits include improved physical, psychological and social well-being, as well as reduced stress levels and social isolation.
Clients’ self-worth and sense of belonging is increased through an understanding of their own place within the natural environment. Self-reflection around feelings of being “lost” and misunderstood is encouraged and supported.
How long is the Programme?
We provide 10 weekly sessions over different seasons, each session is three hours long. We also offer one or two night residentials.
How do our Programmes work?
Our mission is to improve people’s health and well-being through connection with the natural world. Research indicates effective nature- based interventions “involve a deeper interaction with nature than some of the other forms of green care, allowing service users to engage with and shape nature” (p11, Bragg & Aitkens, 2016).
We have a model of change which informs all of our bespoke nature intervention packages. Consistent with the 2016 Natural England Report’s (Bragg & Aitkens) literature review, our therapeutic model combines the following components to bring about benefits to mental health: i) the natural environment, ii) meaningful activities and iii) the social context.
Activities may include:
- Craft/tool use
- Cooking & healthy eating
- Understanding life choices through conversations activity based learning
- Conservation and tree care
- Valuing self and environment
- Nature art
- Foraging
- Sensory-based ideas
- Focused ‘connection’ and conversation time