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Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness: book review



 

Bird Therapy (2019) is a memoir set in the United Kingdom from 2013-2017. 

 

Physical injuries are fine to discuss with friends – and even brag about – but, for the author and many others, mental injuries are not. Author Joe Harkness turns to counselling, medication, and self-help, but his wellbeing is still in serious trouble.

 

When he becomes interested in birdwatching, his life turns around. This is an account of how birdwatching – bird therapy – saved his life. This is not a depressing read. Instead, it’s uplifting, practical, and hopeful. 

 

Amongst nature, away from the bustle of the city and work, the sight of a bird makes all of the author’s troubles fade into insignificance, and life is peaceful and positive. Here he documents why he feels better, as he begins to log his experiences and feelings over three years.

 

Ecotherapy – being outdoors, in nature – is the beginning of the journey. From his first viewing of a little bird at the bird-feeder in his garden to searching further afield for birdwatching sites, he recounts his feelings of ‘reassurance, familiarity and comfort.’ It’s an escape route.

 

Being still, being quiet, breathing slowly, focusing outwards, honing in on every little feature and every little movement of a bird, a flock, he is conscious of his changing mood. Patterns and repetitions, order and regularity, same locations, different seasons, ‘a snatch of birdsong’ and the pecking of a parrot, birdwatching brings balance and stability. Visual experiences, imagery and beauty take over from the negative scenarios of everyday life.

 

He discusses poets and birds – John Keats and his ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ‘To a Skylark.’ From William Wordsworth to World War trenches, Harkness wanders from waders to wider networks of connections to understand his own feelings. The action of record-keeping – of the birds and of himself – are part of the skill and effort, and therefore part of the therapy. 

 

Being hyper-aware, being actively engaged in the senses of sight and sound is ‘good for the brain’ he says, making every observation restorative. 

 

Truthful and detailed, insightful and thought-provoking, Harkness lays his thoughts bare, provides observations, and uses himself as an experiment in re-focusing, in small ways, in practical ways, towards calmness and confidence. He presents the multi-faceted ways of birdwatching, finding himself ‘back in love’ with his local area. It’s an interesting process for almost instant results.





 



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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

 

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