On the 14th, 15th and 16th of November we celebrated the LTTA of the project in Espinho, Portugal. During these three days of training, participants from Germany, Greece, Denmark, Spain and Portugal had the opportunity to learn about ecotherapy not only in theory but also in practice, as well as to get to know the project’s objectives and materials first hand.
On the first day of the training, participants were introduced to the theme of the training, ecotherapy, and explored its benefits, examples and good practices across Europe. There was also space for debates and discussions in which participants talked about the current place of ecotherapy in education, how the process of change should be seen and when and in which environments it would be interesting to introduce the ecotherapy approach.
The second day began with participants learning about the necessary considerations when working with people with substance use disorders. During this session, participants were able to consider from a more psychological perspective how to work when introducing ecotherapy and the risks and barriers involved. After this session, participants had the opportunity to explore and test the materials developed by the project partners: the toolkit, currently available on the project website (link), and the MOOC, which will be available soon.
At the end of the day, the participants visited the Convívios Fraternos Social Centre where, accompanied by the centre’s psychologists, they learned how this institution works and how the recovery process of people with substance use problems is carried out. The day ended with a visit to another centre, this time for equine therapy, where they are starting an ecotherapy project with horses.
On the last day of the training, the participants had the opportunity to practice different individual and collective ecotherapy activities and to reflect on how these could be applied in their own contexts when they return to their home countries. In this way, the participants concluded their participation in the ecotherapy project training, taking with them new experiences and knowledge that will undoubtedly be of great help to them when trying to carry out ecotherapy activities in the future.
