It’s been rather too long since my last post for many reasons, some personal and some due to the ongoing Covid crisis. We followed this with a very busy time in the Summer and Autumn of 2021 and early 2022 delivering the COOPT Certificate of Best Practice in Outdoor Play Therapy to 73 participants, including a number of overseas attendees from Israel, Ireland, Canada, The United States, Australia and the Netherlands. We have been delighted to meet everyone and appreciate all the affirmative feedback we have had and the constructive comments on some small changes we could make.

One of the highlights for us was finally being able to meet face to face with course members both in Northumberland, hosted by the Tracie Faa-Thompson at Turn About Pegasus and at our usual haunt, Bedminster Quaker Meeting House in Bristol.

We have also been giving some time to considering how we move forward in 2022 and have agreed to continue with the networking aspect of COOPT as a membership organisation, with a modest annual joining fee and two or three network meetings a year and to continue to run the COOPT Certificate of Best Practice in Outdoor Play Therapy through our training arm which may also offer other specific COOPT courses or those delivered by our members that we feel we can endorse.

However, COOPT is now at a crossroads. We have lost three valued members of the steering group; Julie West, Leona Johnson and Helen Rook (who has recently published Urban Wild, pictured left ) and have welcomed Shuna Mercer and Leone Ellis as new members and course facilitators. But we are a small team with a growing community and much of the work of COOPT is voluntary. We would now like to expand our Steering Group and particularly need help with our website and social media presence, communications and general admin. The Steering Group generally meets online around 4 -6 times a year with additional meetings if activities and courses are being planned. If you are interested in joining the group, please contact us at cooptuk@gmail.com and briefly tell us a little about yourself and how you feel you can support the work of COOPT.

We hope you will all feel you can join us on the next stage of development for COOPT and will be circulating details of the membership process in due course. We continue to have a presence on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/COOPTUK so will also post updates on training etc there. And finally, we continue to plan for a face to face networking campover event and will publish full details once we can confirm the dates and venue. Until then, take care and spend whatever time you can continuing to develop your own connection to nature and all she has to offer us.

Certificate of Best Practice in Outdoor Play Therapy

We have to apologise for the error with the dates for Unit 3 of the above course. The Saturday date for unit 3 should read 3rd APRIL

Sorry for the confusion.

As this strange year draws to a close everyone at COOPT wishes you as peaceful and joyous a midwinter season as possible in your particular circumstances. For some this may mean isolation and the disappointment of not being with family and friends when you had planned to be while for others it may mean being able to meet briefly to celebrate before there are more restrictions on Boxing Day. Some of you may be sitting with sadness at the illness or loss of someone close to you and needing to find strength and stillness. But wherever you are and whatever you are doing, everyone here at COOPT sends warmest wishes and will hold you in mind over the coming days and weeks.

Our own plans for a rescheduled Easter 2021 campover conference may well get scuppered , but we live in hope, and are determined to go ahead with it whenever we can. The pull of the shared campfire is too great to ignore!

And finally, some exciting news for 2021…….

Firstly we are launching our Certificate of Best Practice in Outdoor Play Therapy in the New Year and will send more details during January. Essentially we will run a number of units based on the ideas that came from members during our recent on-line network meeting. Each unit can be completed as a ‘stand alone’ training or used to complete the full certificate course and will include sessions on basic setting up, underpinning theory and professional requirements. We are including a unit about developing our own relationship with nature but will only run this when we are able to meet and be together safely outside. In addition we will be looking at what new areas of working outdoors would make for an interesting training session for more experienced outdoor therapists so please let us know if you have any suggestions or feel you can offer something.

Secondly, The Routledge International Handbook of Play, Therapeutic Play and Play Therapy has finally been published. Edited by Sue Jennings and Clive Holmwood and with chapters by several BAPT members including myself, it contains many and varied chapters from practitioners across the globe and will be an invaluable resource for institutions offering training in all aspects of play and play therapy It is currently available in hardback or as an e book.

We will be back in 2021 and wish you all a Happy New Year with many outdoor adventures and may the light of spring and summer bring us all some respite from the dark days of 2020.

As the days grow shorter and the winter solstice waits just around the corner, we find ourselves locked down once again amidst grey skies, strong winds and rain and even for us hardy outdoor therapists it takes a little more motivation to layer up and venture forth. But the rewards are just as great and nothing stills me more than a huge sea like the one here today in windblown Dorset. Standing at the end of Portland Bill, the sea heaved and breakers rolled in to crash against the rocks, spray flying high into the air while ahead and straight out to sea, the ‘race’, rolled and boiled, The tidal race is caused by the very strong south-going streams from both sides of the Bill meeting the east- and west-going streams off the bill and at its height poses a real problem for sailors who have not checked the tide as trying to navigate it in anything small is a serious challenge. And yet, despite a wind strong enough to blow me backwards, a little way further along the coast to the east and towards Weymouth the sea flattened a little and we watched half a dozen local surfers hanging in water waiting to catch the next wave and looking for all the world like seals bobbing in the water.

These contrasts that we continually find in nature as the elements find their own paths over the landscape are an important aspect of taking our therapeutic work outside. They provide us with concrete examples of change, particularly important for young children, and show us the possibilities for personal change and growth.

Although during lock down, we are able to take exercise freely, meeting up with friends and colleagues has some limitations. Having had to postpone our Campover Conference at the end of October, we were delighted to have been joined by seventeen people for our Zoom Network Meeting on the same day. It was really good to meet up with some old friends and very exciting to be joined by many new Coopters! Julie West, Kate McCairt, Loz Foskett and myself were joined by Leona Johnson from Live Wild and Helen Rook from Go into the Woods to facilitate a morning of conversation, short videos of where we work , creative activities, meditation and helpful suggestions for future on-line sessions and several people who could not attend, paid for the video of the session which we managed to get to them in an openable format!

Following this very successful event, I spent and hour in conversation with Leona for her Connection Matters podcast which you can hear below

Julie, Loz, Kate, Leona, Helen and myself will be planning a programme of events which we will be circulating in the coming weeks so until we really are able to sit around the campfire together, stay safe, keep well and enjoy your time outside.

Like many other organisations, sadly our plans for the year have been badly affected by Covid-19 and we have had to postpone our planned conference next month as the campsite we were planning to use remains closed. However we are in negotiation with them and looking for a new date next spring or early summer when things may be more settled again. This is deeply disappointing for us all here at the COOPT steering group but we are planning some online events for the intervening months and will keep you all posted via e mail, this blog and our Facebook page.

Meanwhile, change is in the air as Autumn approaches – the season of ‘mellow fruitfulness’. Gardeners amongst you will be clearing dying summer blooms and planting winter greens and leeks and when we pack our rucksacks and bags we’ll be adding an extra layer as the air becomes cooler and the sun less strong.

As a child, I spent several weeks every summer holidaying at Constantine Bay in Cornwall. I learned to swim in the rock pool at Treyarnon Bay, surfed on wooden body boards and at home joined the local swimming club which met at an outdoor pool. I went on to swim competitively at club and county trials level, training at the start of the seasons in water temperatures of around 54F degrees. In adult life, swimming in an indoor heated pool felt quite luxurious! Living in Weymouth now, I have taken to sea swimming with a view to trying other wild waters in time. Over the summer, the water has been warm but as it begins to cool, I’m considering a wetsuit so that I can swim through the deep winter months alongside the many others who can be seen cutting through the waters of the bay on any evening. The health benefits of cold water swimming are widely recognised including improved mental health and well being, a boosted immune system, improved circulation and sleep, increased metabolisom and most importantly, a deep, embodied connection with nature.

It is this that will support us through the coming months and any increased restrictions we might have to face. To be outside in wind and rain, to feel the cold and then to come inside and feel warmth will be the things that help us to feel alive. The sights and smells of autumn which we had hoped we could share together will still be there – the palette of colours as leaves turn, the ripe berries along the hedgerows and the smoke from bonfires. I hope you can take time to go out and enjoy everything the changing seasons have to offer and tho we can’t join together around the conference campfire, maybe you can share a fire with 5 friends, and warm your hearts together. So look out for each other, take care of yourselves and we will see you soon.

The notion that we have all been ‘in it together’ during lockdown is a myth. Many of us will have been lucky enough to have a garden we have been able to spend time in or a nearby park or other greenspace or even a beach to venture along. But many families have been confined to their homes, shielding family members, self isolating or stuck because they have no easy access to outside space. At COOPT we all know the benefits of being able to access the outdoors for physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being. Many of us, whilst understanding the need to only venture out once a day and from home for our daily exercise will be desperate to be able to roam farther afield, to familiar landscapes and pathways that sooth our souls and heal our minds. These days are closer now but still out of reach and for those who are restricted in their access to greenspace, a return to normality, even a new normality must seem a long way off.

No doubt many of us will have been reflecting on our need to be outside, connecting with nature and nurturing ourselves. I was recently given a copy of a book on watercolour painting by Ann Blockley, a renowned watercolour and mixed-media artist with an impressionistic style which is “evocative, atmospheric and intuitive.” Ann has a passion for nature which shines through in her work which I have found inspirational.

In her book, she asks the novice artist to reflect on what it is about nature that they are drawn to, what is it that catches their eye? As a novice my self, I found these really helpful questions, not just so I can develop a focus for my art, but also in more general terms. What is it when I am out and about that causes me to stop and look, to breath in the beauty of the moment and to try to hold the picture in my minds eye? For the moment I have settled on colours and textures, the contrasts that exist to differentiate and define. But this was the easier part, painting what I see and feel is the tricky bit! You can see more of Ann’s work at https:/annblockley.com.

An opportunity to do some artwork of your own will be available at our October Campover Conference which we are still planning to go ahead with. I will be contacting you all again towards the end of the month with booking and payment details and I’m pleased to say that there has been good interest so far. Times are still very uncertain, but we want and need to have something to look forward to. We are realistic ‘tho and aware that as yet, no-one can say when we will be free to roam further afield but we are also hopeful that we will be able to meet together around the campfire and share our experiences of ‘lockdown’ and consider life thereafter.

So take good care of yourselves, your families and friends, follow the guidance given and I will look forward to seeing you in October. Fingers crossed!

Ali Chown May 2020

The notion that we have all been ‘in it together’ during lockdown is a myth. Many of us will have been lucky enough to have a garden we have been able to spend time in or a nearby park or other greenspace or even a beach to venture along. But many families have been confined to their homes, shielding family members, self isolating or stuck because they have no easy access to outside space. At COOPT we all know the benefits of being able to access the outdoors for physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being. Many of us, whilst understanding the need to only venture out once a day and from home for our daily exercise will be desperate to be able to roam farther afield, to familiar landscapes and pathways that sooth our souls and heal our minds. These days are closer now but still out of reach and for those who are restricted in their access to greenspace, a return to normality, even a new normality must seem a long way off.

No doubt many of us will have been reflecting on our need to be outside, connecting with nature and nurturing ourselves. I was recently given a copy of a book on watercolour painting by Ann Blockley, a renowned watercolour and mixed-media artist with an impressionistic style which is “evocative, atmospheric and intuitive.” Ann has a passion for nature which shines through in her work which I have found inspirational.

In her book, she asks the novice artist to reflect on what it is about nature that they are drawn to, what is it that catches their eye? As a novice my self, I found these really helpful questions, not just so I can develop a focus for my art, but also in more general terms. What is it when I am out and about that causes me to stop and look, to breath in the beauty of the moment and to try to hold the picture in my minds eye? For the moment I have settled on colours and textures, the contrasts that exist to differentiate and define. But this was the easier part, painting what I see and feel is the tricky bit! You can see more of Ann’s work at https:/annblockley.com.

An opportunity to do some artwork of your own will be available at our October Campover Conference which we are still planning to go ahead with. I will be contacting you all again towards the end of the month with booking and payment details and I’m pleased to say that there has been good interest so far. Times are still very uncertain, but we want and need to have something to look forward to. We are realistic ‘tho and aware that as yet, no-one can say when we will be free to roam further afield but we are also hopeful that we will be able to meet together around the campfire and share our experiences of ‘lockdown’ and consider life thereafter.

So take good care of yourselves, your families and friends, follow the guidance given and I will look forward to seeing you in October. Fingers crossed!

Ali Chown May 2020