Authors: Denise Mitten
Language about nature helps shape how people think about and relate to nature. Lan-guage can encourage or discourage healthy relationships with the more-than-human worlds (another way to refer to nature or natural environments). Much of the common language used to describe natural environments and humans’ relationships to them in Western countries and adventure therapy outdoor programs comes from Eurocentric approaches to understanding human connections to nature. I encourage practitioners to explore repairing estranged human relationships with more-than-human worlds in part by changing the language used from Eurocentric approaches and attitudes to a more relational ideology. This includes understanding how Eurocentric ideology has caused many people to have power over and estranged relationships with the natural worlds.
