ABSTRACT
This chapter explores each of the seven key components of TraumaPlay®, a flexibly sequential play therapy model for treating trauma and the ways each component can be pursued as therapeutic work is taken into the natural environment. The neurobiology of trauma, the neurobiology of play, and the therapeutic benefits of play in nature are described. Play-based interventions that can be experienced in the natural environment are offered that enhance safety and security, augment adaptive coping, soothe the physiology, enhance attachments, increase emotional literacy, provide an opportunity for play-based gradual exposure, address the thought life, and help make positive meaning of the post-trauma self. The processes of titration, containment, exteroception, interoception, and involuntary attention are also explored in the context of nature.
