Cornell's Nature Games as a Therapeutic Measure and a Way Towards Greater Spirituality
by Bogdan Zorz / Slovenia
The Cepovan Residential Home, a developmental project financed by the state, became one of the first private institutions of its kind in Slovenia. It is a family project run by my wife Zdenka and myself and it serves as a home to children and adolescents with various problems, such as behavioral, personality, and emotional disorders, problems connected with school achievement, and psychosomatic disorders. These children remain in our home for a period of a few weeks to several months. They attend school regularly and spend the weekends with their families.
By designing special programs for them and for their families, we try to help them overcome or at least facilitate to some extent the problems they face. During holidays the residential home becomes a place of organized youth camps, the majority of which are the so-called spirituality weeks for the young, where we try to strengthen their sense of spirituality and arouse interest for it.
The residential home is situated in a hilly forest area some distance from a small village, with a brook running along and the forest line close by. This location has been carefully chosen on the basis of our previous positive experience in taking children and youth at risk for trips into nature. We have discovered that nature is an excellent teacher and therapist, and that in nature, children and adolescents become far more open, communicative, and responsive.
In 1994 I came upon the translation of Cornell's book "Sharing Nature with Children," published that year by the Slovene publisher Mohorjeva Druzba, and I was immediately drawn to it. I felt that what I had been missing so far, was now offered to me: a carefully planned and systematic guidance of children into nature through play, the medium they can identify with the most. Soon I discovered that the games in the book were also effective therapeutic tools. Let me list a few examples:
For our purposes the games have been slightly adapted, mostly only simplified, because the number of our participants is usually small (3- 5 people). Due to only partial and frequently interrupted participation (our children and youth can participate in a game for a very short time, with the exception of the games that are carried out at dusk), the games are only played for as long as there is willingness to participate. An important element of the games is the follow-up conversation: we encourage the children to talk about their experience, their excitement and feelings.
The second important contribution of Cornell's games is in the area of the spirituality of children and adolescents. The weekly camps are attended by 10 - 15 year old children from the Nova Gorica parish. This is quite a large Catholic parish for a small town, and a week's stay in nature is a special treat in itself for the town children. Through Cornell's games children gain an intimate contact with nature which also gives rise to the need for an authentic contact with oneself and with God.
The greatness of nature as well as the multitude of its minute miracles enable them to recognize the greatness and openness of its Creator. This is again reached through a guided conversation which follows each game directly on the spot. In these conversations we encourage the children to narrate their experience and simultaneously reflect on life's messages that have been given them. Here concrete assistance in guiding the conversation is required. These conversations are most interesting because each individual can discover in them some personal message or experience even if she or he has initially not shown much interest for the game itself.
As an example of such a game I would like to describe briefly the "Blind Trail", which is undoubtedly one of the most popular games. Its spiritual dimension makes it also the most valuable adventure during our spirituality week.
We prepare the blind trail in quite a demanding terrain so as to include some "traps" (for example a rock, where the participants might slip and fall, branches on the ground they might trip over, a slope where they might slip, or a thick bush where they might "lose" the rope). Three children enter the trail with a short interval in between, and because of the above dangers I discreetly follow them and intervene if necessary. When all the children have successfully passed through the trail, we sit down in a circle and talk.
The experience of the trail is still very much alive and intense, therefore they enjoy narrating it. It is interesting to note how 12- 13 year old children (with some guidance in conversation) can already recognize the similarity between the blind trail and one's life's path. They walk along the trail blindfolded, which they find similar to actual life, where we also do not know what is awaiting us at the next step.
Although the trail is the same for all, the ones who walk along slowly and with their senses alert, experience more - just as it is in real life. The same obstacles are passed by lightly by some and are stumbled upon by others. This, however, does not depend on luck, but on how they approach the barrier and how they actually encounter it. The children reflect especially on the role of the rope: it safely leads them to their goal, but sometimes along quite a difficult terrain, where they would almost prefer to let go (which some of them actually do and then stray off into the woods).
The rope helps the children to recognize the importance of human conscience, values and faith. Those letting go of the rope relate how insecure and lost they have felt, and how fearful they have become. They thus realize how freedom in life does not mean just being free, since they did not feel free at all. They recognize how in such moments of being lost they can only be saved by calling for help which can either come from fellow men or from God's mercy. Following this game, the children do not he "philosophizing" of the adults on the questions of spirituality, faith, freedom, values, and God as something of no great avail, but rather as relevant and interesting topics for them as well!
Bogdan Zorz was born 1948, B.A. in psychology; for about thirty years he has been offering help to children and adolescents with various behavioral, personality, and emotional disorders and problems connected with school achievement. Recently, he has published the book CRISIS CAN BE A CHALLENGE where he summed up his experiences and findings from the developmental project described in the present article.
by Bogdan Zorz / Slovenia
The Cepovan Residential Home, a developmental project financed by the state, became one of the first private institutions of its kind in Slovenia. It is a family project run by my wife Zdenka and myself and it serves as a home to children and adolescents with various problems, such as behavioral, personality, and emotional disorders, problems connected with school achievement, and psychosomatic disorders. These children remain in our home for a period of a few weeks to several months. They attend school regularly and spend the weekends with their families.
By designing special programs for them and for their families, we try to help them overcome or at least facilitate to some extent the problems they face. During holidays the residential home becomes a place of organized youth camps, the majority of which are the so-called spirituality weeks for the young, where we try to strengthen their sense of spirituality and arouse interest for it.
The residential home is situated in a hilly forest area some distance from a small village, with a brook running along and the forest line close by. This location has been carefully chosen on the basis of our previous positive experience in taking children and youth at risk for trips into nature. We have discovered that nature is an excellent teacher and therapist, and that in nature, children and adolescents become far more open, communicative, and responsive.
In 1994 I came upon the translation of Cornell's book "Sharing Nature with Children," published that year by the Slovene publisher Mohorjeva Druzba, and I was immediately drawn to it. I felt that what I had been missing so far, was now offered to me: a carefully planned and systematic guidance of children into nature through play, the medium they can identify with the most. Soon I discovered that the games in the book were also effective therapeutic tools. Let me list a few examples:
- Observational games and those requiring intense movement, i.e., energetic games, are, according to our experience, suitable for children with psychomotor unrest and concentration disorders. In such an energetic game the child can release his unrest and simultaneously learn to control what has originally been his/her major problem.
- Night games are appropriate for children who suffer from various anxieties, especially from the fear of the dark and from sleep disorders. They are also suitable for children who have been victims of violence and other kinds of abuse.
- Games requiring children's participation in nature, such as orientational and similar games, are most suitable for children who exhibit problems in communicating with others, for aggressive children and for those with a poor self-image. In these games they have the opportunity to discover their abilities and learn healthy ways of communication, first non-verbal then verbal.
For our purposes the games have been slightly adapted, mostly only simplified, because the number of our participants is usually small (3- 5 people). Due to only partial and frequently interrupted participation (our children and youth can participate in a game for a very short time, with the exception of the games that are carried out at dusk), the games are only played for as long as there is willingness to participate. An important element of the games is the follow-up conversation: we encourage the children to talk about their experience, their excitement and feelings.
The second important contribution of Cornell's games is in the area of the spirituality of children and adolescents. The weekly camps are attended by 10 - 15 year old children from the Nova Gorica parish. This is quite a large Catholic parish for a small town, and a week's stay in nature is a special treat in itself for the town children. Through Cornell's games children gain an intimate contact with nature which also gives rise to the need for an authentic contact with oneself and with God.
The greatness of nature as well as the multitude of its minute miracles enable them to recognize the greatness and openness of its Creator. This is again reached through a guided conversation which follows each game directly on the spot. In these conversations we encourage the children to narrate their experience and simultaneously reflect on life's messages that have been given them. Here concrete assistance in guiding the conversation is required. These conversations are most interesting because each individual can discover in them some personal message or experience even if she or he has initially not shown much interest for the game itself.
As an example of such a game I would like to describe briefly the "Blind Trail", which is undoubtedly one of the most popular games. Its spiritual dimension makes it also the most valuable adventure during our spirituality week.
We prepare the blind trail in quite a demanding terrain so as to include some "traps" (for example a rock, where the participants might slip and fall, branches on the ground they might trip over, a slope where they might slip, or a thick bush where they might "lose" the rope). Three children enter the trail with a short interval in between, and because of the above dangers I discreetly follow them and intervene if necessary. When all the children have successfully passed through the trail, we sit down in a circle and talk.
The experience of the trail is still very much alive and intense, therefore they enjoy narrating it. It is interesting to note how 12- 13 year old children (with some guidance in conversation) can already recognize the similarity between the blind trail and one's life's path. They walk along the trail blindfolded, which they find similar to actual life, where we also do not know what is awaiting us at the next step.
Although the trail is the same for all, the ones who walk along slowly and with their senses alert, experience more - just as it is in real life. The same obstacles are passed by lightly by some and are stumbled upon by others. This, however, does not depend on luck, but on how they approach the barrier and how they actually encounter it. The children reflect especially on the role of the rope: it safely leads them to their goal, but sometimes along quite a difficult terrain, where they would almost prefer to let go (which some of them actually do and then stray off into the woods).
The rope helps the children to recognize the importance of human conscience, values and faith. Those letting go of the rope relate how insecure and lost they have felt, and how fearful they have become. They thus realize how freedom in life does not mean just being free, since they did not feel free at all. They recognize how in such moments of being lost they can only be saved by calling for help which can either come from fellow men or from God's mercy. Following this game, the children do not he "philosophizing" of the adults on the questions of spirituality, faith, freedom, values, and God as something of no great avail, but rather as relevant and interesting topics for them as well!
Bogdan Zorz was born 1948, B.A. in psychology; for about thirty years he has been offering help to children and adolescents with various behavioral, personality, and emotional disorders and problems connected with school achievement. Recently, he has published the book CRISIS CAN BE A CHALLENGE where he summed up his experiences and findings from the developmental project described in the present article.