The Nature Connection (Formerly Animals as Intermediaries)

CONTACT:

P.O. Box 155
Concord, MA 01742
978-369-2585
www.aai-nature.org

Sophie Wadsworth, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

Here is a fresh idea that needs testing and development: that the natural world can be so deeply and delicately appealing to humans, that it can be used to overcome pathological isolations, and to open connections for therapy.

AAI is a unique and accomplished travelling program that brings animals, nature, and related arts to people of all ages, in institutional settings isolated from direct contact with the natural world -- elderly people in chronic care hospitals or hospices, children in psychiatric units or special needs programs and schools, and individuals with physical or mental disabilities in day or residential programs.

Good things happen: a child meets an injured owl and learns about living with his own physical challenges; an adolescent girl finally starts to speak, while playing with a dog; an elderly Greek woman smells seaweed and suddenly starts talking again to her own family, about her childhood.

AAI's award-winning book (Bring Me the Ocean, 1995) has been translated into Japanese, and continues to inspire individuals and professionals to adopt AAI's methodology as an alternative way to reach people in their care. Through an interdisciplinary graduate course on incorporating the natural world into educational and therapeutic contexts, AAI has also introduced many professionals to this field. AAI needs institutional development, and further testing to identify its generalizable lessons. Want to be a pioneer in an extremely worthy and promising venture? Here's your chance.

(1998: HUMAN SERVICES: Health and Aging: General)