Forest test: a test that exposes your emotional universe

Blocks that veto our happiness, entrenched fears, values ​​that govern our choices and behaviors… The forest test attempts to elucidate many of these issues based on the approach from which it was designed: relational psychoanalysis. Thus, and within this theory, Our psychological suffering is rooted in an underlying architecture that we must bring to light in order to heal and move forward..

For those who have not heard of this projective and relational test, it is enough to say that it is not exactly a conventional instrument. The forest test does not have sufficient reliability and validity to be part of ordinary clinical practice.. However, we cannot take away its relevance within the context and theoretical framework from which it was created, and which is undoubtedly worth knowing.

Relational psychoanalysis is a more or less recent way of doing psychotherapy that has represented an advance within psychoanalysis itself as we know it. Its main objective is to promote the emotional development of the human being and to do so, it must treat those knots and blockages that limit us and cause pain. In this approach, and only as an example, the classic concepts of ego, ego and superego are left aside.

What the relational psychotherapist aims to do is reconstruct the patient. To do this, it will guide you so that you can interact (relate) with your environment in a healthier way. It will train you to be able to see the world from all angles and without fear, helping you navigate those darker areas that you previously did not dare to enter. Thus, The forest test is a good test to start from to understand the underlying architecture of the person a little better.

What does the forest test measure and what is its origin?

The forest test, more than measuring a dimension, competence or ability, aims to act as a projection of the person’s emotional world.. In our space we have already talked on more than one occasion about the so-called projective tests, such as the tree test or the family test, for example. These are essentially psychological instruments that serve to complement an evaluation.

By themselves and applied exclusively, they can never be valid. Other strategies such as interviews, observation and other psychological tests with proven reliability and validity are needed to reach an adequate diagnosis. or to a starting point from which to begin the intervention. Thus, within the relational psychoanalysis approach, this test is undoubtedly one of the most used for the following reasons:

Reveals the emotional state of the patient.It reveals possible unresolved childhood conflicts and the weight of the past in the person’s present.You can see the coping strategies that the patient has or lacks. Values. Reference persons of the patient. Fears. Personal desires, expectations.

The forest for psychoanalysis

The forest is a setting with a very clear mystical-emotional component for any culture. Carl Jung himself explained in his book “Archetypes and the collective unconscious” that in these scenarios our greatest dangers and most atavistic fears have been contained since ancient times. In some way, traveling through them sometimes means a return to that ancestral past where we reconnect with the deepest part of our being.

From psychoanalysis, the forest is considered the very reflection of the subconscious. It is that symbolic relationship that sometimes manifests itself in our dreams, where many of our phobias arise: the fear of the dark, of sinking or falling into a hole, the fear of insects or wild animals…

How is the forest test applied?

The forest test is carried out based on a visualization. The therapist will be accompanied by a pencil and paper to guide the patient through each question and then write down each answer that the patient provides in the process. The test is simple, and all that is needed is to create a comfortable and safe environment so that the person can carry out this inner journey naturally.

The first step is invite the patient to visualize a forest. A quiet setting surrounded by trees through which you advance in solitude. Once you see yourself there, you will ask yourself the following questions:

Are the trees widely spread out? Is it a dense, labyrinthine forest or is there a certain order? Can you move forward comfortably or do you have to overcome many obstacles? Is it night or day?Is the forest healthy or is it burned or destroyed?Now as you move forward you find a key. What do you do with it? Now you continue walking and you find an animal. Which is it? Does it threaten you, do you feel afraid or do you approach it to pet it? Next, on your walk through the forest you arrive at a cabin. You knock on the door and someone opens it. Who is that person? Finally, visualize yourself entering that cabin. You are inside and everything has suddenly disappeared, everything is blank for a few seconds because you are arriving at another place. Tell me where you are after this step. Tell me what you see and how you feel.

To conclude, as we can see, the questions that make up the forest test give shape to a very revealing inner journey. If the patient collaborates and performs the exercise effectively, feeling like a participant, we will obtain a lot of information. We will be able to intuit his emotional state by the shape and state of that forest (if it is burned, if it is night…). We will see in turn what his fears are, what his main reference person is and what the most important or decisive scenario for him.

This information, put in context with interviews and other tests, can be useful to relational psychoanalytic therapists.

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