Therapeutic factors in nature-based therapies: Unraveling the therapeutic benefits of integrating nature in psychotherapy.

The psychological benefits of human connection to nature have instigated the development of nature-based therapies (NBTs). This article focuses on the distinct therapeutic factors that characterize NBTs, from the perspective of practitioners from various NBTs, shedding light on the therapeutic value of psychotherapy conducted in the natural environment. To gain a general understanding of the distinct therapeutic factors, currently lacking in the broad field of NBTs, grounded theory methodology was applied. Data included in-depth interviews conducted with 26 nature-based practitioners from five countries, with various professional backgrounds, and six field observations of multiday nature-based group interventions. The findings of this study illuminate four distinct and common therapeutic factors enhanced by the natural environment and linked to the beneficial effect of NBTs: (a) the natural environment, delineated as a unique growth-oriented setting fostering health and wholeness; (b) challenge, described as a therapeutic means by which limiting perceptions of self may expand; (c) the role of nature, perceived as actively influencing the therapeutic process; and (d) expansiveness and interconnectedness experienced through nature eliciting a broad perspective on life and sense of belonging. New perspectives are revealed regarding the first two therapeutic factors that have been discussed previously in the literature, and two factors that are new to the broad field of NBTs are revealed providing us with new understandings regarding the therapeutic value of integrating nature in psychotherapy. All four factors are discussed in the context of examples of practice in the field and their practical implications for mental health professionals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Wilderness Solo Experience: A Unique Practice of Silence and Solitude for Personal Growth.

Silence is now acknowledged by science as a significant construct of healthy human development and well-being, linked to humans' neurobiology, psychology, physiology, and spirituality. This paper focuses on a particular form of silence experienced through the solo experience in the wilderness. The solo experience, involving varying periods of time spent in solitude and silence in the wilderness is a common method of intervention implemented among therapeutic and educational nature-based approaches. Numerous studies and personal accounts in the field underscore the solo experience as one of the most significant nature based interventions linked to various beneficial outcomes. These studies emphasize the significance of the wilderness, far from daily demands, and devoid of technological stimuli allowing the silence, time and space for self-reflection and contemplation on the sacredness and meaning of life. Although new to modern culture, solitude in nature is an ancient form of initiation used ceremonially by indigenous cultures worldwide. These practices challenge the individual who alone in the wilderness battles fear and loneliness only to discover inner strengths and true identity. The solo experience, viewed as enacting these ancient rituals in modern form may serve as an antidote to the loneliness, stress, and depression on the rise in the current era, which have been linked to our overly stimulated urban environments and lifestyles. This paper sheds light on how the wilderness solo is experienced and understood, specifically as contributing to therapeutic outcome and personal growth. The empirical and theoretical literature is reviewed pointing to the significance of solitude and silence as basic components of the wilderness solo. These are linked to profound personal outcomes including the discovery of new and expansive ways of knowing the self and the world, specifically as interconnected in the larger web of life, enhancing a sense of personal belonging and purpose.

Attachment and leadership: review and new insights.

Attachment theory has inspired a new view on the topic of leadership, enabling a better understanding of leader-follower relations by acknowledging how attachment dynamics and the evolutionary foundations of human relationships apply in organizational contexts. Early research mainly focused on individual differences and demonstrated the association between attachment orientations (security, anxiety, and avoidance) the emergence of leaders and their behaviors (i.e., leadership style). More recent research has focused on the attachment orientations of both leaders and followers, the role of moderating and mediating variables, and the provision of secure-base support and caring orientations of leaders. However, recent research on `followership' highlights the centrality of leader competence and followers' capacity to identify, and willingness to follow, leaders who demonstrate this quality. We analyze the significance of competence in the context of attachment and leadership and suggest a new Care and Competence Model based on evolutionary claims.

Creating Art Together as a Transformative Process in Parent-Child Relations: The Therapeutic Aspects of the Joint Painting Procedure.

The relationships between parents and children contain implicit aspects, which are non-conscious and non-verbal, in addition to explicit ones. Both explicit and implicit aspects are central to understanding the dyadic dynamics and are implicated in psychotherapy processes and outcomes. Visual symbolization has a unique value as a channel of expression that can capture the implicit characteristics of relationships. Creating art together goes even further because it allows the presence of implicit representations of the relations in vivo. These representations can then be transformed through the joint process of creation, which has a unique potential to unleash reflective capacities when it is experienced in a playful and safe context. This paper presents a qualitative study that is part of larger mixed-methods research with 87 mother-child dyads (with children 9 to 12 years old). Dyads were administered the Joint Painting Procedure (JPP), which includes dyadic painting by the parent and child on the same paper and is used for evaluation and treatment in the field of parent-child therapy and art therapy. The study's objectives were to uncover and better understand the unique therapeutic aspects that such method allows and its potential to impact parent-child relationships. The findings of the qualitative study indicated that the JPP enabled several dynamic processes such as pleasure and fun, bi-directionality, mutual regulation, mentalization, and mutual recognition, which together created a salient positive transformation in the relationship. Through the JPP, a new transformative aspect of relations emerges and enables new and different modes of communication and interactions in about half of the dyads and a lesser and partial positive transformation in about a third of them.

When somatization is not the only thing you suffer from: Examining comorbid syndromes using latent profile analysis, parenting practices and adolescent functioning.

Understanding somatization presents a challenge to clinicians because it is often associated with other syndromes. We addressed somatization's comorbidity with other internalizing syndromes (anxiety, depression, withdrawal) using latent profile analysis. A representative sample of 3496 Israeli middle and high-school youths reported their internalizing symptoms, perceived parenting practices, psychosocial functioning, and health behaviors. Four profiles, similar across age and gender, were identified: overall-low (65.4%), moderately-high anxiety/depression/withdrawal (24.4%), high somatization (4.8%), and overall-high (5.4%). MANOVAs and follow-up ANOVAs revealed that for the most part the overall-high profile evinced the worst parenting, psychosocial functioning, and health behaviors (smoking and drinking), while the overall-low group evinced the best. For most variables the high somatization and moderately high profiles displayed midway results. However, the moderately-high profile reported higher levels of harsh parenting than the high somatization profile. The high somatization profile reported similar or higher levels of smoking, risk taking, vandalism, and rule violation than the overall-high group. High somatization, either alone or alongside anxiety, depression, and withdrawal, was associated with disruptive and risk-taking behaviors. This link might reflect problems in emotion and anger regulation and become stronger in adolescence because of dysregulation processes characterizing this period. Implications for practice are discussed.

The viability of the Parenting Representations Interview for assessing and measuring change in parents of adolescents.

Parents' representations include parents' views of their adolescent, of their own parenting and of the parent-adolescent relationship. Two longitudinal studies of parents and their adolescent sons and daughters support the validity of scales coding mothers in the Parenting Representations Interview-Adolescence (PRI-A). The studies, conducted in Israel during the transition from home to military service, demonstrated that three dimensions derived from the PRI-A: positive representations of adolescents, negative emotionality and inadequate boundaries were associated with adolescents' AAI variables, relatedness-autonomy behaviors with mothers, and with other indicators, such as adolescents' wellbeing, romantic intimacy and individuation. Examining parenting representations could help practitioners pinpoint targets for intervention and evaluate the changes that families go through during psychotherapy, as well as the therapeutic process and its outcomes. The findings support the viability of the PRI for use in attachment based interventions for adolescents.

The freedom to choose secure attachment relationships in adulthood.

This study was based on the attachment-security hypothesis (H. Latty-Mann & K. E. Davis, 1996) that predicts that all individuals, regardless of attachment style, should demonstrate a preference for secure partners who are most likely to offer attachment security. It was therefore expected that with the transfer of attachment functions from parents, who are mostly not freely chosen as attachment figures, to other figures outside of the family of origin, individuals will try to establish secure relationships with these new figures and to assign them a high position in the attachment hierarchy. Participants were 149 Israelis (97 women and 52 men 20-72 years of age) and they completed questionnaires related to their attachment relationships and network. As expected, with age the attachment hierarchy included a higher proportion of chosen figures (r = .38, p < .05), and relationships with chosen figures were characterized by higher security and lower insecurity compared to relationships with nonchosen figures with moderate to high effect sizes. In addition, the higher the figure's level of importance and centrality in the hierarchy, the greater the level of security with that figure (low to moderate effect sizes). Results were discussed in light of attachment-security hypothesis and correction versus replication processes.

Intergenerational concordance in Adult Attachment Interviews with mothers, fathers and adolescent sons and subsequent adjustment of sons to military service.

The study examined: (1) the intergenerational concordance between parents and their adolescent sons using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) categories and state-of-mind scales; and (2) the contribution of parents' state of mind with respect to attachment to their sons' adjustment during a stressful separation, as well as the possibility that sons' AAI mediates the associations between parents' AAI and sons' adjustment. Eighty-eight adolescents and their parents were interviewed using the AAI during the son's senior year in high school. Approximately a year later, during the first phase of compulsory military service, the adolescents and their peers reported on the sons' adjustment. Results demonstrated AAI correspondence between mothers' (but not fathers) and sons' categories (autonomous versus non-autonomous) and associations between mothers', fathers' and sons' AAI state-of-mind scales. The adjustment of sons of non-autonomous mothers (in particular, preoccupied mothers) was inferior to the adjustment of others. Mothers' and fathers' state of mind scales were associated with sons' adjustment, but sons' AAI did not mediate this association. The uniqueness of adolescence, the importance of parents' state of mind and the differences between mothers and fathers are discussed.

Leaving the parental nest: adjustment problems, attachment representations, and social support during the transition from high school to military service.

Adjustment to the transition from high school to military service in Israel was examined in a longitudinal study with a sample of 120 late-adolescent girls. During their senior year in high school (Time 1) the young women were administered the Adult Attachment Interview. Their coping and adjustment to the new environment were assessed (at two further points in time after the transition) by reports of the young women, their mothers, their fathers, and their friends. Young women with preoccupied attachment representations demonstrated the lowest levels of adjustment at both the second and third time points. Young women with dismissing attachment representations did not differ from those with autonomous attachment representations. Satisfaction with social support from parents mediated the association between attachment representations and adjustment (assessed by the young women's reports).

Disorganizing experiences in second- and third-generation holocaust survivors.

Second-generation Holocaust survivors might not show direct symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder or attachment disorganization, but are at risk for developing high levels of psychological distress. We present themes of difficult experiences of second-generation Holocaust survivors, arguing that some of these aversive experiences might have disorganizing qualities even though they do not qualify as traumatic. Based on in-depth interviews with 196 second-generation parents and their adolescent children, three themes of disorganizing experiences carried across generations were identified: focus on survival issues, lack of emotional resources, and coercion to please the parents and satisfy their needs. These themes reflect the frustration of three basic needs: competence, relatedness, and autonomy, and this frustration becomes disorganizing when it involves stability, potency, incomprehensibility, and helplessness. The findings shed light on the effect of trauma over the generations and, as such, equip therapists with a greater understanding of the mechanisms involved.

Finding the authentic self in a communal culture: developmental goals in emerging adulthood.

Finding and cultivating a sense of authentic self is an important life goal for emerging adults. In collectivist cultures, youngsters might need to distance themselves to find and discover their authentic selves separate of the expectations of society and significant others. Creating an autonomous time bubble that focuses on the present allows youngsters to forge a sense of personal meaning and authenticity that subsequently paves the way to reintegration into long-term life goals. The results focusing on Israeli emerging adults demonstrate that a sense of authentic self plays a central role in their well-being and socioemotional functioning.

The quality of mentoring relationships and mentoring success.

The quality of the relationships that mentors forge with their protégés is assumed to significantly affect the success of mentoring interventions. Building on previous research, this study examined the association between relationship qualities and protégé functioning. Multiple reporters (e.g., mentors, protégés and teachers) were used in a prospective research design spanning eight months in Israel's largest mentoring program-Perach. The sample consisted of 84 protégés ranging in age from 8 to 13 years (M = 10.75). Qualities in the mentoring relationship such as closeness, dependency and unrealistic expectations for the continuation and deepening of the relationship, beyond the planned period, were positively associated with the children's social and academic adjustment, and contributed to perceived academic competence, social support and wellbeing. Generalization of positive mentoring experiences to other relationships (such as the mother-child relationship) and the role of unrealistic expectations and dependency as key elements are considered. Implications of the findings for research and mentoring intervention are discussed.

Too close for comfort: inadequate boundaries with parents and individuation in late adolescent girls.

This longitudinal study examined the ramifications of psychological control-guilt induction, parentification, triangulation, and blurring in parent-adolescent relationships for girls' individuation and adjustment. The study followed 120 girls in their transition from high school to military service. Results from the variable-centered and person-centered analyses merged in underscoring the somewhat different developmental path of two groups of inadequate boundary constellations. The group with high guilt induction and psychological control, which involves rejection and invalidation of the child's autonomous self, evinced the worst coping and adjustment to the transition and the lowest level of individuation with a combination of angry entanglement and strivings for overindependence. The blurred-parentified group resembled the adequate boundaries group regarding some indicators (e.g., low levels of engulfment anxiety and high conflictual independence), but further revealed overdependence and immaturity (e.g., high nurturance seeking, low emotional independence, and the lowest functional independence). Implications for preventive work with adolescents and their families are suggested.

Socioemotional characteristics of elementary school children identified as exhibiting social leadership qualities.

Elementary school teachers identified characteristics in 4 major socioemotional domains associated with children's social leadership: self-perception, social anxiety, attachment orientation with peers, and interpersonal goals and skills in close friendships. Participants were 260 4th- and 5th-grade students (126 boys, 134 girls) from 10 classes in a school in northern Israel. Social leadership skills were associated with positive self-perceptions in various domains, low social anxiety, secure orientation to peers, higher levels of relationship-maintenance goal, lower levels of revenge goal in close friendships, and-unexpectedly-lower levels of accommodation as a strategy to solve conflicts with a friend. Positive self-concept and attachment security were indirectly associated with leadership qualities through their significant association with prosocial orientation skills. The authors discuss these findings as reflecting an internalization of positive model of self and positive model of others in children who exhibit social leadership qualities. The authors also discuss implications of these qualities for school and class ecology, as well as the importance of culture.

Late adolescent girls' relationships with parents and romantic partner: the distinct role of mothers and fathers.

The distinct role of mothers and fathers in shaping the quality of relationships with romantic partner was explored. One hundred and twenty 17-year old girls were observed during their senior year in high school with each of their parents during a Revealed differences task [Allen, J. P., Hauser, S. T., Bell, K. L., Boykin, K. A., & Tate, D. C. (1994). Autonomy and relatedness coding system manual, version 2.01. Unpublished manual] and filled out questionnaires pertaining to their relationships with romantic partners. A year and a half later (7 months after conscription to compulsory military service) they again filled out questionnaires. Whereas self-reports did not distinguish between relations with mothers and fathers observational data revealed that relationships with each parent are associated with somewhat different aspects of the romantic relationship. Better quality of relationship with mother was associated with delays in the girl's entrance into sexual romantic relationships, and with better quality of romantic relationship concurrently whereas better quality of relationship with father was associated with better quality of romantic relationship once they are formed concurrently and longitudinally. The findings highlight the central role that mothers and fathers play in shaping the quality of the romantic relationships that late adolescent girls form and underscore the importance of using observational data as well as questionnaire data.

Reliance on leaders and social institutions: an attachment perspective.

The ramifications of attachment processes in adulthood at the societal level are explored, specifically, why and under what circumstances followers form attachment relationships with a leader, and how the variability in these relationships can reflect the followers' internal working models of attachment. It is argued that in crisis situations, individuals tend to form affectional bonds with (mostly charismatic) leaders that function in many respects like an attachment relationship between a child and a parent. Relations between individuals and various social institutions, such as community or state, are likewise portrayed as involving attachment dynamics. The provision of security and protection (the safe haven and the secure base functions) by social structures, institutions, and leaders is seen as needed because of the inherent perceived imperfection and fallibility of "regular" attachment figures in adulthood (e.g., parents, friends, and romantic partners). This reliance on leaders and social institutions is seen as reflecting the normative diversification in attachment dynamics that takes place with development. Cultural and individual variations in these processes are also considered.

Adolescents' attachment representations and developmental tasks in emerging adulthood.

The association between attachment representations and adolescents' coping with 3 developmental tasks of emerging adulthood-leaving home, advancing in the capacity for mature intimacy, and developing individuation-was examined. Israeli male adolescents (N = 88) were administered the Adult Attachment Interview during their high-school senior year. A year later, they and their friends reported on the adolescents' adjustment to mandatory military service. Three years later, participants and their parents reported on the adolescents' capacity for intimacy using an in-depth interview and on their individuation. An autonomous state of mind was associated with better coping with basic training and with a higher capacity for mature intimacy but was not associated with markers of individuation. The results highlight the importance of attachment representations in shaping an individual's developmental trajectory.