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If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline toll-free from anywhere in the U.S. at 1-800-273-8255.<\/p>\n
Tangerine flames swirled as Gerry Ward sat fireside, deep in thought, with campfire crackles and wafts of ember taking his mind far beyond the Scottish Highland surroundings. It\u2019s a scene many of us know well: a starlit woodland evening spent cozied up around a fire ring. Yet for Ward, this solo backpacking trip beneath Scotland\u2019s Cairngorms mountains was about more than stars and s\u2019mores. Ward, now 56, had spent most of his adolescence and early adult years navigating deep-seated childhood trauma, which eventually led to issues like chronic anxiety and alcohol abuse. Solo treks through his native Scotland during the height of his struggles, his thirties, provided rare solace from stress, trauma, and depression. \u201cI was connecting with nature as a remedy to escape from all of that,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
When Ward became a father at age 42, he knew he had to get clean. \u201cI got professional help, but what helped me most of all was going back to nature,\u201d Ward says. For him, the fire-building process, from gathering raw materials to starting and then watching the blaze, was the most therapeutic part. \u201cOnce the fire\u2019s going, that\u2019s when the real connection starts. The fire cracks, the smells\u2014it goes back into our subconscious minds. We connect with our primeval brain, and that connection is a quarter of a million years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ward spent every spare weekend for more than a decade navigating recovery via these solitary fireside meditations. After realizing how much it helped him, Ward invited a friend who was struggling to join, too. It turns out, campfire camaraderie was what they both needed. \u201cWhen you get two people around the fire, the inevitable happens: you start talking,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were sharing things we would never normally share, like deep-rooted trauma. By just talking about something, you\u2019re breaking the power it has over you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 2021, Ward has been using the healing benefits of fire to help those struggling with mental health challenges and addiction through his Scotland-based nonprofit, Fire and Peace Recovery<\/a>. He runs monthly retreats in Scotland\u2019s great outdoors that harness the healing power of campfires. He\u2019s not the only one tapping into fire\u2019s therapeutic effects.<\/p>\n As the popularity of eco- and adventure-therapy grows, so, too, does the role of campfires. \u201cFire, like the other natural elements, has the ability to help someone be more comfortable in the discomfort of change processes like therapy,\u201d says Brian Strozewski, a certified clinical adventure therapist and founder of Ohio-based Everchanging Counseling and Consulting<\/a>.<\/p>\n Campfire therapy is simple: the idea is to use the fire ring\u2019s healing and soothing benefits to help people open up while navigating trauma. A 2014 study<\/a> in the journal Evolutionary Psychology suggested that fireside sitting can decrease blood pressure, foster relaxation, and improve social interactions. Counselors and organizations around the world have watched these results unfold before their eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cSitting around campfires, being around likeminded individuals who have gone through similar trauma experiences, then having the opportunity to talk in a safe environment about your trauma\u2014those are all healing things,\u201d says combat-wounded Marine Corporal Jed Morgan<\/a> of U.S.-based White Heart Foundation<\/a>, a nonprofit that uses eco-therapy and specialized care to help post-9\/11 veterans improve mental and physical health.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a critical need; suicide is the second-leading cause of all post-9\/11 veteran deaths.<\/p>\n The White Heart Foundation hosts eco-adventure therapy retreats to help veterans and first responders cope with trauma and psychological stressors from the frontline. The trips, run among the pines and peaks of Wyoming, Utah, Oregon, and Colorado, fulfill participants\u2019 adrenaline needs with adventures like rock climbing and whitewater rafting. \u201cThe healing comes when people sit around the fire,\u201d Morgan says.<\/p>\n Fireside sharing is peer-led. Veteran mentors, such as Morgan, a Purple Heart recipient who lost his legs during an IED accident in Afghanistan, start with their own personal stories. \u201cWe\u2019ve had groups with people extremely closed off, they hardly say a single word during the first couple of days of the trip,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cBy the end, they\u2019re sharing their story with everyone. It\u2019s an amazing transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n