This book contains practical activities for teachers, counselors, and other helping professionals utilizing elements in nature. The premise for the utilization of nature therapy is that if people develop an awareness and reverence for life, they will also develop self-understanding and self-respect. The first four chapters provide a rationale for nature therapy. The therapeutic approaches of nature therapy are defined for instrumental, relationship, passive, cognitive, and spiritual therapies. The next three chapters explain the approaches to nature therapy, which is broken down into animal assisted, horticultural, and natural environment therapies. Each section contains the history, research, problems, evaluation, and resources for each therapy. The last five chapters form a handbook which contains ways to utilize nature therapy. Individual and group techniques are discussed, and examples are provided for experiences and activities in the area of nature therapy. The experiences are written as lesson plans, and are organized into animal, horticultural, and environmental activities. Guidelines are provided for bringing animals into the office or classroom. Federal and state laws are described, and issues are discussed concerning breeding the office or classroom pet, animals used in science projects, insect collections, white mice, hamsters and gerbils, rabbits, birds, cats, dogs, farm animals, and wild animals. A sample Humane Society project is included that can be conducted during the summer or after the school day during the school year. (LLL)