Ecotherapy and its underpinning framework

Ecotherapy is the practice of spending time in nature to reconnect with ourselves and our natural environment. It is founded on the belief that our connection with nature is deeply rooted in our evolution as humans. This means that the environment around us considerably influences our overall mental and physical health. The field of Ecopsychology underpins the therapeutic work conducted during ecotherapy sessions.

Ecopsychology is the study of how nature impacts mental health and psychological and emotional wellbeing. Ecopsychologists believe that environmental degradation and disconnection from nature contribute to mental health issues, and they advocate for healing by fostering a sense of ecological interconnectedness.

According to Craig Chalquist,

• Current disconnection from the natural world in which we evolved produces a variety of psychological symptoms that include anxiety, frustration, and depression. These symptoms cannot be attributed solely to intrapsychic or intra-familial dynamics.

  
  

• Reconnection to the natural world—whether through gardens, animals, nature walks outside, or nature brought indoors—not only alleviates these symptoms, but also brings a larger capacity for health, self-esteem, self-relatedness, social connection, and joy.

  
  

• Reconnection also works across treatment modalities to replace a pathological sense of inner deadness or alienation from self, others, and world with a rekindling of inner aliveness and enjoyment of relatedness to self, others, and world.

Readers who are interested to know more about Ecopsychology and Ecotherapy may like to consult the work of Theodere Roszak and colleagues (e.g., Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth/Healing the Mind) and Linda Buzzell and colleagues (e.g., Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind).