Joshua McSparin, assistant director of the Moravian University Counseling Center, is a certified mindfulness-based ecotherapist. Once a week, he conducts one-on-one outdoor therapy sessions with students.
On Thursdays during the fall or spring semester, you won’t catch Joshua McSparin in his office. The assistant director of the Moravian University Counseling Center is a certified mindfulness-based ecotherapist. “Every Thursday, I conduct one-on-one outdoor therapy sessions with students,” he says.
McSparin will meet with a student at the Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center on Schoenersville Road, and they take a leisurely walk on the trail that runs along the Monocacy. The sessions are timed so that students don’t bump into each other as one leaves and the next joins. Still, students must sign an informed consent form because there’s no guarantee of confidentiality; it’s possible to meet people they know on the trail.
Prior to accepting students for these outdoor sessions, McSparin makes sure there are no clinical issues that would recommend against outdoor therapy.
McSparin says he will get cancellations for indoor sessions but almost none for outdoor therapy. “The feedback from students who have done both is that they prefer outdoor sessions. Some have commented that it made processing trauma easier for them because as we were walking, it felt like they were moving through their trauma.”
McSparin shares the story of one client who preferred outdoor therapy but had to sign up for indoor sessions due to a schedule conflict. On the last session this past spring, the student looked out the window of the office, noted the tree across the street lush with pink blossoms, and remarked, “I feel like that tree was changing with me.”
“Nature touches people even in an indoor therapy session,” says McSparin.