Soak Mun’s personal journey with Nature & Ecotherapy...
- hearthecopsych
- Dec 23, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 4
Rekindling an early “Love affair”…
Since her early years, Soak Mun has always been drawn to nature. She remembered being intrigued by trails of ants busying themselves on the concrete floor; spending time observing them and wondering what they were saying to one another, and what a day in their life would feel like.
She enjoyed running up the slopes of a hill near her home, feeling the aliveness of her hastened heart beats, and basking in satisfaction from the hilltop view.
She was humbled and enthralled by her first long trekking trip in Nepal, where she woke up to majestic mountains and fresh crisp air, and experience the kind and innocent nature of the Nepalese.
The shapes and hypnotic nature of gentle snowflakes never fail to send timeless joy to her, as did the silence of sitting on snowcapped mountains.
The vastness of nature and its cycle of death and renewal also supported her in gaining perspectives on her own struggles with grief and losses, while the assurance of Nature’s ability to hold and embrace her when she was lost has given her the unwavering strength and patience to seek and find connection with herself and her soul purpose, which affords her courage to walk some less conventional paths.
"Nature as my sanctuary"
Consciously and unconsciously, nature has been her ‘go-to’ place through various points of her life. No matter whether it was when she needed perspectives, felt ‘stuck’ in life, hungry for time away from human complexities, or needed a safe outlet and holding space for her vulnerable emotions, nature has always been the consistent, steady, and reliable companion that saw her through all these times.
Despite so, she has humbly come to realize that she had not truly appreciated the deep wisdom of what Nature has afforded to her- that is, the beauty of the reciprocal relationship between human and nature. It was not until her recent engagement with an Ecotherapy course that she learns to appreciate and begin to embody human’s ubiquitous and magical relationship with Nature.
So, here she is… just like a young innocent child who has grown into an eager adolescent, she is learning to move from a position of receiving to learning to foster a deeper and more reciprocal relationship with nature. She hopes to have the privilege of sharing this gift with her clients and other individuals while she continues on this journey of exploration.
Four decades on, she has thus officially rekindled her early ‘love affair’ with nature…😊
Her journey into Ecotherapy…
In her years as a psychologist, Soak Mun frequently sought out different therapeutic interventions and approaches to support her clients in alleviating pain, suffering and feelings of loneliness.
Whilst her professional training as a psychologist places much focus on “treating” mental health symptoms; and she respects that psychiatric diagnoses have their place in mental health treatment, Soak Mun has been increasingly drawn to approaches that address the underlying sense of isolation and disconnection felt by her clients within themselves, with others and the environment.
She observed that while traditional psychotherapy works on individuals’ minds, it is the integrative shifts in one’s emotions, body and mind through which lasting change occurs.
Serendipitously, Soak Mun’s love and comfort with nature crosses over to her professional life when she was researching for alternate ways to engage youths residing in residential homes who were not receptive towards traditional psychotherapy conducted in the constraint of a therapy room. The pilot program she was involved in then provided encouragement for her to keep exploring this modality in her therapeutic work. This thus marks the beginning of her journey into bringing ecotherapy into her professional practice.
From her personal and professional journeys, Soak Mun has witnessed and experienced how therapeutic work in nature has the enormous capacity of holding individuals’ emotions.
She saw the power of such spacious containment and how the deep knowing of being held in an unconditional way often serves as healing medicine, bringing about relief, insights and newfound resilience.
This led her to the completion of an Eco- therapist certificate that deepens her understanding of ecotherapy and formally enables her to work with clients in nature.
Through connection with nature, she hopes that she can support individuals in learning how to develop a deeper connection within themself and with others.
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