What is Ecotherapy?

So you’ve heard about Ecotherapy and it has piqued your interest, and maybe you’d like to try it for yourself, but you really have no idea what it is or how it’s supposed to be beneficial for your mental health. In truth, Ecotherapy can take on many forms, from a walk in the park to a chat with a bird and even a month-long immersive wilderness quest. Just as nature takes on many forms, there are many ways people can engage in Ecotherapy and for many reasons. But before we get in to it, let’s first start with the basics.

Definitions

In terms of psychology, you should first understand the term Ecopsychology. Ecopsychology, developed by Theodore Roszak, is the concept that our health as a human species is directly dependent on our relationship with nature and the health of our planet. As the American Psychological Association puts it, Ecopsychology “explores humans’ psychological interdependence with the rest of nature and the implications for identity, health and well-being. Ecopsychology topics include emotional responses to nature; the impacts of environmental issues such as natural disasters and global climate change; and the transpersonal dimensions of environmental identity and concern.”

To put it in Layman’s terms, a healthy Earth = a healthy human society and an unhealthy earth or detachment from it = an unhealthy human society.

Ecotherapy is the application of Ecopsychology. It is the process of deepening your connection to the environment, thus deepening your connection to yourself and exploring how the environment impacts your health on a personal level. Try to think about how you would feel sitting inside a grey, flourescently-lit office all day with no windows and a computer screen constantly in your face (you probably don’t have to try too hard to envision this). Now, try to imagine how you would feel spending a day by the seaside with the sun on your face, or hiking along a forest path, leaves crunching under foot. Sitting in the office, you might feel trapped, isolated, depressed, or anxious, and free, happy, light, relaxed, and expansive by the beach.

Our Relationship with Nature

When we separate ourselves from the natural world, we are inherently doing something unnatural that negatively impacts our health. City scapes, artificial light, and screen time are all things we have developed as a society to make life more convenient, however they are a far cry from what our genetics are meant to experience. Our human ancestors lived closely with the land, using it as medicine, following the patterns of the weather, eating only food that was available geographically and seasonally. They took wisdom from the Earth and tended it with care so that it could continue to provide for their communities.

Types of Ecotherapy

Ecotherapy is all about helping people understand how their separation from nature is impacting them and how they can learn to return to nature for health, insight, and guidance. While each Ecotherapy practitioner conducts their sessions in a different way, there are a few general modalities you may generally expect to encounter:

Walk and Talk Therapy

Walk and Talk Therapy takes therapist and client outside to talk about the client’s issues while moving through a natural space. Sometimes moving through a space physically can help someone navigate their internal world with more ease. With less eye contact and more approachable body language (walking side by side instead of facing one another as in typical talk therapy), some people who are hesitant about talking to a therapist may feel less pressured with Walk and Talk Therapy. Walk and Talk Therapy is a great way to ease into Ecotherapy and can be done by most practitioners as nature simply plays the role of backdrop, allowing clients to process info as they would in any regular therapy session while reaping the benefits of time in nature.

Mindfulness

For those who are dealing with stress and anxiety, practicing mindfulness or meditation in a natural setting can be very restorative. Time in nature has been shown to positively impact mood and stress levels, and the act of quieting your mind in a natural setting enables your nervous system to slow down and process simpler inputs like bird song or a gentle breeze, further helping you to relax. In an Ecotherapy session, your therapist might have you listen to the waves of the ocean as you meditate or breathe as you let your gaze softly focus on the rippling leaves of a tree.

Nature Dialogue

This modality of Ecotherapy invites nature into the therapeutic conversation as a responsive Other. Some may have heard of the “empty chair technique” in traditional psychotherapy, wherein a person speaks to an empty chair as if someone else were there, enabling them to freely express themselves without judgement. Nature dialogue takes this a step further, asking a person to engage in a conversation with something in the natural world around them as if it were a person, thought, or emotion, and then to listen for the messages, insights, or lessons it has to give in return. Nature dialogue is best done with the guidance of a trained Ecotherapist as it can bring up strong emotions.

Nature Art & Play Therapy

Nature offers plenty of opportunities for people to play and express their inner child. Making art with found objects, playing in mud, running through the rain, or making a fort are just some of the ways people can express themselves. In our modern life with all its expectations of adults (and even children), it can often be difficult to find time to play or allow ourselves to be free and uninhibited enough to let loose. By finding a secluded place in nature to play, we can start to remember what it is like to have a positive relationship with the land we live on in a way that is nurturing and non-judgemental.

Wilderness Therapy

While the above modalities are some of the most accessible forms of Ecotherapy, Wilderness Therapy is much more immersive and intensive. This form of therapy, most widely used to treat at-risk teens, takes groups of individuals into the wild, sometimes for months on end, for 24-hour time in nature. Often involving solo time, fire making/primitive skills, and group therapy, it provides a contained environment for participants to escape problems at home and work through their relationship or behavioral issues while under constant supervision and coaching. When a group of people are placed in a wilderness environment with nowhere to go except forward on the trail, a number of issues begin to bubble to the surface, enabling an opportunity for some serious therapeutic work to be done.

These are just some of the many things you could experience in an Ecotherapy session. Each session will differ based on therapist training and specialty, as well as on client need. If you’d like to explore Ecotherapy and see if it’s right for you, give me a call today!