**1. Introduction**

Traditional room-based psychotherapy has come a long way since the nineteenth century, however, psychodynamic approaches and therapeutic traditions have maintained their place in the psychotherapy field to this day. One of the better-known paradigms that psychotherapy training courses still use as a core element and foundation to their teaching, is humanism, and the work of psychologist, Carl Rogers. In the 1950's Roger's created a person-centred/client-led psychotherapeutic framework that included 'Core Conditions', which he deemed as necessary in order for the psychotherapy to be effective [1]. Decades later, plentiful scientific research has supported this notion, and understandably this framework still forms an important part of many psychotherapy exchanges around the world.

Roger's core conditions of 'empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard' form part of the second foundational aspect of a safe and effective psychotherapy framework, which is the importance and strength of the relationship between therapist and client [1]. Generally speaking, this humanistic approach forms the underpinnings of many newer modality frameworks, and lends itself to being adaptable to other frameworks based on the evidence-based effectiveness of its principles. Furthermore, the neurobiological aspects of humanism are poignant when considering a non-cartesian, embodied approach in nature, which considers the whole of the person as opposed to separating mind and body. For that reason, throughout this chapter, it can be assumed that any nature therapy discussions or examples are being referred to as within the context of a humanistic approach.

Nature therapy shares many aspects of humanism, and at its core is the parallel notion that clients seeking therapy do so in a state of incongruence, thus the therapeutic intervention can restore the client to a state of congruence. Additionally, humanism and nature therapy share important understandings of human existence, not least of all that we are all interconnected to one another, our internal and external environments and their processes, and indeed nature itself. In this chapter we will consider some alternative ways for working with clients outside in nature, within the context of a therapeutic framework.
