Relationality, Reciprocity and the Nature of Self: Encountering Expansive Connectedness in the Natural World

• Author / Creator

  David S. Reize

• By moving within and between frameworks of relationality and personal knowing, this exploration seeks to grapple with the meanings and connections between home, the natural world, and an expansive and related sense of self. Beyond the construal of self as a definite and individuated entity, my premise is an expanded sense of self, taken more as a context of relational movements than as a static noun, upon which predicates can be attributed; The balanced, dialectical, ever-moving ever-relating quality of Nature is explored as a viewpoint through which this sense of self may accrue depth and dynamic. From this basis I explore the relationship between themes of belonging and autonomy within home, in Nature and the cosmos, viewing these in relation to longings, motivations and coping strategies that accompany and underlie substance use and addictions, that inevitably result in narrowed and sequestered experiences of a self. My role as a therapist and participatory observer among the young men of Shunda Creek, a 90-day mindfulness-oriented wilderness addictions program in the Canadian Rockies, offers a wealth of rich and engaging descriptions, generating important dialectic resonance with my own knowings and discoveries. The heuristic approach and participatory stance that I employ in this study is complimented by these experiences as well as selected material of data collected within this program.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • nature therapy
  • eco-therapy
  • relationality
  • self

• Graduation date

  2021

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-yk5v-2296

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.