ABSTRACT
The majority of clients who come to play therapy have experienced some loss of control over aspects of their lives, resulting in significant feelings of disempowerment. This chapter talks about the practice of play therapy in the outdoors, and provides guidance on best practice in outdoor learning and education and psychotherapeutic work with adults. It describes the three stages of play therapy in nature, such as: settling, transition and transformation. It is hard to find many explicit references to the idea of democracy within the play therapy relationship in the literature, although perhaps there is an implied notion of it in the term 'therapeutic alliance'; an assumed understanding that the partnership is equal. When one begins to think about moving from the playroom, there are some basic issues that need consideration such as: safeguarding, insurance and first aid training.
