What is Nidotherapy?

To get the best introduction to  nidotherapy just look at the film clip below.  This was shown to MP’s and other distinguished visitors at the House of Commons in London in  2018.  Afterwards one of the MP’s, Norman Lamb, said, ‘this is inspiring, and we need more of it in health services, especially if it saves money’.  Do you agree, or is this another over-statement?  Look at the film, and then read some of the other pages on this web-site.  And if you become really interested, buy the latest books on nidotherapy from Cambridge University Press or from any good publishing house, or read ‘Taming the Beast Within: Shredding the Stereotypes of Personality Disorder’, or ‘Overcoming Personality Disorder: It’s in Your Hands’ which explain why adapting to the environment can change the lives of people with personality problems.  But there is lots more.   You can read Mental Health Unblocked, a personal page on the main web-site, which includes all you wanted to know about mental illness but were never satisfied as your questions were always deflected, look at the BBC films in the Media section as they illustrate how acting and drama can be so helpful in environmental strategies, and see the details of our annual nidotherapy workshops.

​

Nidotherapy (first two syllables rhyme with ‘Fido’) is devoted to changing the environment in all its forms so a better fit is established between a person and every aspect of their surroundings.  If you would like a shorter soundbite in the spirit of the age the approach can be summarised as ‘find content in the environment’. In this context environment refers not only to the physical environment – where you live and work – but also the social and personal environment, so covers every aspect of your interaction with your surroundings.  Although we have been aware of the importance of environment and its effect on mental health for many years we have not examined it systematically in the scientific sense and worked out which are its important elements and which might be cast aside.  This website is a start in this process and we would like it to be an interactive one in which everybody could contribute.  We would therefore encourage you to contact us with suggestions of how the website could be improved and made more comprehensive.

​

If you look below you can learn more about the ideas behind nidotherapy. But if you want to know more about specific initiatives please look at the menu above.

​

Nidotherapy is a new concept in mental health. For years we have laboured under the happy notion that with humanity, determination and a little science, we could correct all the disabilities and handicaps associated with psychiatric disorder. But we have over-reached ourselves. A large number of mental disorders are labeled ‘chronic’, as health professionals have very little impact on their symptoms and course. Nidotherapy can be an asset to many people, but the ones who may have most to gain are those who have become stuck in the mental health system, and have been fooled by the word ‘recovery’ into thinking that by receiving more and more of the treatments that have failed they will remarkably get completely better.

​

Nidotherapy is particularly useful as a component of Adaptive and Acceptance Therapy for personality disorders.  The mistake people have made many times in the past is to claim they can treat personality disorders.  Sorry, they can’t do so and expect the personality to change.  But in Adaptive and Acceptance Therapy the change is made to the environment to get the best fit for personality and and so nullify the problems that appear to make the person disordered. Personality disorder is an unstable diagnosis; personality status is relatively fixed. An understanding of nidotherapy and Adaptive and Acceptance Therapy will explain why.

​

Although  we all take notice of the environment in mental health, we seldom go about systematically analyzing it and changing it to fit the person in a highly personal and specific way.  We have to stop thinking of the environment as something out there that just happens – we need to embrace and foster it, use it as a companion and a guide. Once we do this and hit the right environmental changes all aspects of mental health are improved. These changes, and how they are brought about, are the focus of nidotherapy and should give optimism to both practitioners and patients, many of whom who have been close to abandoning hope.

​

This is a short introductory film about nidotherapy that was shown at the House of Commons in February, 2018

​

​

​

To Steve Pearce – pioneer of therapeutic communities – sent (anonymously) after hearing he has inoperable oesophageal cancer

​

Looking back, you know

You've achieved so much

Visited that forgotten field

Marked out its boundaries

Added fresh loam, tilled the soil

Harnessed helpers, including those in need

To create a concord of easy harmony

So now it grows

Pleasing on the eye  

And the soft wind caressing each golden ear

Tells of the harvest

Yet to come

​