Family Coaching
Richard Louv coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” in his book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. Nature-deficit disorder proposes that, in the last thirty years, most people no longer experience contact with natural environments. Many research studies show a link between an absence of exposure to nature and an increase in stress, anxiety, mild depression, and obesity. Contact with nature has been shown to have therapeutic affects on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism. Rachel and Stephen Kaplan’s research on attention restoration theory supports Louv’s findings. The Kaplans’ studies showed that people who sat in nature for only fifteen minutes a day experienced improved concentration, reduced stress, and a better sense of well-being.
I am hesitant to use the term nature-deficit disorder since our society seems to be overburdened with psychological disorders. On the other hand, this term describes an absence of nature in the everyday lives of individuals, both for children and for adults. Nature-deficit disorder is not an official diagnosis; it is a way to describe the costs of human separation from nature. Children are more vulnerable since they are still developing and nature play is important to early childhood development. Many adults suffer from this form of self-imposed alienation from nature. We all suffer on some level from stress and anxiety brought on by our recent isolation from the natural world.
According to Louv, children said that they would rather play indoors because there were more electrical outlets inside. Most people now spend at least 44 hours a week in front of some kind of electrical device. When children do play outside, they typically never venture further than 100 feet from home. Louv states that modern media has “scared children straight out of the woods” and prompted parenting that favors safe, strictly-controlled sports instead of creative, engaged nature recreation. Structured play has been shown not to have the same benefits as play in a natural environment.
I provide families several ways to reconnect to nature locally. I offer family walks through Wilder Ranch State Park, UC Santa Cruz organic farm, Arboretum, and Alan Chadwick Garden. These walks connect families to sustainable environments that include a variety of plants, organically grown vegetables, domesticated and wild animals.
If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in ~ Rachel Carson
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