The post Eco-Psychotherapy appeared first on Confer.

By Emma Palmer and Mary-Jayne Rust

Abram, D. (1996) The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. Pantheon Books, New York.

Alaimo, S. (2000) Undomesticated Ground: Recasting Nature as Feminist Space. Cornell University Press.

Badiner, Hunt, A. (1990) Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology. Parallax Press, California.

Bateson, G. (2000) Steps to an Ecology of Mind. University of Chicago Press edition.

Bernstein, J. (2006) Living in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma. Routledge.

Berry, T. (2000).The Great Work. Three Rivers Press.

Birkeland, I. (2005). Making Place, Making Self. Ashgate Press.

Bond, D. Stephenson (1993) .Living Myth: Personal Meaning as a Way of Life. Boston. Shambhala Publications.

Boring, F. Mason (author, ed., contributor) et al. (2013) Returning to Membership in Earth Community: Systemic Constellations with Nature. Stream of Experience Productions, UK.

Brody, H. (2001) The Other Side of Eden. North Point Press.

Brazier, C. (2011) Acorns Among the Grass: Adventures in Eco-Therapy. O Books.

Burns, G. (1998) Nature Guided Therapy – Brief Integrative Strategies for Health and Well-Being. Taylor & Francis.

Buzzell, L. & Chalquist, C. (2009) Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind. Sierra Club Books.

Carson, R. (1962) Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin, USA.

Clayton, S. & Opotow, S. (eds). (2003) Identity and the Natural Environment: the Psychological Significance of Nature. London: MIT Press.

Cooper Marcus, C. & Barnes, M. (1998) Healing Gardens; Therapeutic Benefits and Design Recommendations. Wiley and Sons.

Cullinan, C. (2003) Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice. Green Books, Totnes, UK.

Dodds, J. (2011) Psychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos. Routledge: Hove and New York.

Eisenberg, E. (1998) The Ecology of Eden: Humans, Nature and Human Nature. Picador. London.

Fisher, A. (2001) Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life. State University of New York Press.

Fromm, E. (1978) To Have or To Be? London: Jonathan Cape.

Greenway, R. (1994) ‘Ecopsychology: A personal history’. Gatherings 1, Winter edition.

Griffin, S. (1978) Woman and Nature: The Roaring Insider Her. Harper & Row Publishers.

Harding, S. (2006) Animate Earth. Green Books.

Hathaway, M. & Boff, L. (2009) The Tao of Liberation: Exploring the Ecology of Transformation. Orbis Books.

Henderson, R (1999). ‘The Place of Deep Ecology and Ecopsychology in Adventure Education: An Introduction’. In Miles, J. C. & Priest, S. (eds.) Adventure Programming. Venture Publishing.

Huxley, Sir J. (1957) New Bottles for New Wine. London: Harper and Row. 1957.

Johnstone, C. (1994) ‘The Lens of Deep Ecology: Pain for the World, Systems Theory, and Finding Our Power to Make a Difference’. Institute of Deep Ecology UK.

Jordan, M. (2015) Nature and Therapy: Understanding counselling and psychotherapy in outdoor spaces. Routledge.

Jordan, M. & Hinds, J. (2016) Ecotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice.Palgrave.

Jung, C.G. & Sabini, M (ed). (2002) The Earth Has a Soul: C.G.Jung’s Writings on Nature, Technology and Modern Life. North Atlantic Books, US.

Kahn, P.H. (1999) The Human Relationship with Nature: Development and Culture. Cambridge, MIT Press.

Kahn, P.H. & Kellert, S.R. (eds). Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural and Evolutionary Investigations. 2002. London. MIT Press.

Emma Palmer. (2016) Other than Mother: Choosing Childlessness with Life in Mind. Earth Books, UK.

Kaza, S. (2008) Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking. Shambhala Publications.

Kidner, D. (2001) Nature and Psyche. State University of New York Press.

Laszlo, E. (1989) The Inner Limits of Mankind: Heretical Reflections on Today’s Values, Culture and Politics. Oxford: One World.

Lertzman, R. (2017) Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic dimensions of engagement (Psychoanalytic Explorations). Routledge.

Louv, R. (2005) Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC.

McGeeney, A. (2016) With Nature in Mind: The Ecotherapy Manual for Mental Health Professionals. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Macy, J. & Young-Brown, M. (1998) Coming Back to Life: Practices to Re-Connect our Lives, our World. New Society Publishers.

Macy, J. (1991) World as Lover, World as Self. Berkeley. Parallax Press.

Macy, J. & Johnstone, C. (2012) Active Hope: How to Face the Mess we’re in Without Going Crazy. New World Library.

Maiteny, P (2011) Vital Signs Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis. Karnac

Maiteny, P (2011) Longing to be Human: Evolving ourselves in healing the Earth. Karnac

Maiteny, P (2015) Trees of knowledge, death and possible life: ancestral warnings of ecosystemic holocaust, its psycho-spiritual causes, and clues to resolution. Taylor & Francis

Metzner, R. (1999) Green Psychology: Transforming our Relationship to the Earth. Park Street Press.

Naess, A. (2016) Ecology of Wisdom. Penguin Classics.

Norberg-Hodge, H. (1992) Ancient Futures. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco.

Orange, D. (2017) Climate Crisis, Psychoanalysis, and Radical Ethics. Routledge: New York and Oxford.

Plotkin, B. (2003) Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche. New World Library.

Plotkin, B. (2008) Nature and the Human Soul – Cultivating Wholeness in a Fragmented World. New World Library.

Plotkin, B. (2013) Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche. New World Library.

Randall, R. & Brown, A. (2015) In time for tomorrow? The Carbon Conversations Handbook. The Surefoot Effect CIC, UK.

Rappaport, Roy A. (1979) Ecology, Meaning and Religion. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.

Roszak, T. (ed.) (1992) The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology. Phanes Press, US.

Roszak, T. (1995) Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth/Healing the mind. Sierra Club Books, California, US.

Rust, MJ & Totton, N. (Eds) (2011) Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis. Karnac, London.

Ryley, N. T. (1998) The Forsaken Garden. Four Conversations on the Deep Meaning of Environmental Illness. Quest Books.

Seed, J., Macy, J., Fleming, P., & Naess, A. (1998) Thinking Like a Mountain. Towards a Council of All Beings. New Society Publishers.

Shepard, P. (1996) The Others: How Animals Made Us Human. Washington DC. Island Press.

Shogan, D. (1988) The Paradox of Physical Activity in the Wilderness. World Leisure Congress, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.

Siddins Higworth, I. (2011) Environmental arts therapy and the Tree of life. Spirit’s Rest books.

Snyder, G. (190). The Practice of the Wild. San Francisco: North Point Press.

Soper, K. (1995). What Is Nature? Culture, Politics and the Non-Human. Oxford, Blackwell.

Totton, N. (2011) Wild Therapy: Undomesticating Inner and Outer Worlds. PCSS Books.

Vaughan-Lee, L. (2013) Spiritual Ecology: the Cry of the Earth. The Golden Sufi Center, California.

Vickers, Sir G. (1968) Value Systems and Social Process. London: Tavistock.

Weber Nicholsen, S. (2001) The Love of Nature and the End of the World. The Unspoken Dimensions of Environmental Concern. MIT Press.

Wilson, E. O. (1990) Biophilia: the Human Bond with Other Species. Harvard University Press.

Weintrobe, S. (2012) (ed.) Engaging with Climate Change: Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary. Routledge.

Winter DuNann. D. & Koger, S. (2003) The Psychology of Environmental Problems: Psychology for Sustainability. Psychology Press.

The post Reading list appeared first on Confer.

By Nick Totton

Appropriately enough, ecopsychology has grown like a forest, with few dogmas, rules, and institutions, and with no fence defining what is inside and what is outside. Or in a different metaphor, it resembles a complex river delta with many water courses flowing side by side, branching and braiding until it is impossible to identify which is which. Although the version of ecopsychology associated with Theodore Roszak (1993, 1995) is a crucial component, many enter the forest by other paths: adventure and outdoor therapy and bushcraft, art and art therapy, spirituality, horticulture, permaculture, ecology, environmental activism, and of course counselling and psychotherapy (including animal-assisted therapy), have all led people to ecopsychology. Because of these factors, ecopsychology/ecotherapy contains an extremely wide range of diverse practices; and an equally wide range of theories to go with them.

Naturally enough, people tend to bring with them to ecopsychology the theories and approaches that have been meaningful to them in their previous work, and to find ways of applying them to the new field. It is particularly noticeable how a number of pre-existing models have been taken over from psychotherapy and used to help make sense of our difficult relationship with the rest of the living world in terms of various kinds of psychopathology. These include among others attachment theory (Jordan, 2009), addiction(Glendinning, 1995, Maiteny, 2012), eating disorder (Rust, 2008), dissociation (Totton, 2012) and autism(Chatalos, 2012). However these connections sometimes function as productive analogies as much as direct models. A more central concept is ecosystemic thinking (Bateson, 1980; Totton, 2011), discussed elsewhere in these papers.

A matrix for ecopsychological theories

The diverse range of ecopsychological theories can be at least partially analysed through two polarities on two axes, with each specific approach placing itself in relation to these. One axis is between ‘other-than-human-centred’ and ‘human-centred’; the other, between ‘scientific’ and ‘poetic’ – what many people now call ‘left brain’ and ‘right brain’ (McGilchrist, 2012).

Human-centred theories focus on the value to human beings of contact with ‘nature’ (the reason for the quote marks will become apparent), and on the ways in which human beings can make use of the natural world to cure ‘nature-deficit disorder’ (Louv, 2010), increase our psychological well being (Mind, 2013), heal trauma (Linden & Grut, 2002) and develop spiritually (Wilber, 2001). Some of these theories see it as the job of human beings to manage the other-than-human world as efficiently as possible (for an excellent discussion of the difference between what he sees as the two false extremes of ‘planet managers’ and ‘planet fetishizers’, see Eisenberg, 1998).

Other-than-human centred theories focus on the intrinsic value of the world beyond humanity; they emphasise that humans, like everything else, are a part of nature, and argue that othering the ‘natural’ is a symptom of the alienation from the web of existence which is our fundamental problem (Winter, 1996), and that using ‘nature’ for our psychological benefit is just another of the many ways in which humans are exploiting the world around us. They therefore propose a task of reconnection (Macy & Brown, 2014), of learning to ‘think like a mountain’ (Seed et al., 1988). They tend to see the task for human beings as to ‘re-wild’, to leave the other-than-human alone so that ecological processes can restore balance (Monbiot, 2014; Totton, 2012).

Scientific theories find their locus of evaluation in the scientific world view, utilising one or another specific area of scientific research or often a combination. They are concerned to show the value of connection with the other-than-human and more-than-human in the terms which they assume to be most evidential, drawing on neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, ecology, biology and many other disciplines, sometimes including ‘soft sciences’ like sociology and anthropology. These approaches implicitly privilege reason over emotion, intuition and sensation. Poetic theories do the exact opposite: they privilege the intuitive, emotional and sensate. Although they will often incorporate material from the sciences, they use it primarily to provide metaphors and images, alongside and on an equal footing with mythology, literature, art, dreams, and unique individual narratives, sometimes described as ‘anecdotal evidence’.

This will become clearer with some examples of how different ecopsychological theories can be placed on the matrix, in relation to each of its two axes. Given the limited space I will just indicate one or two key representatives of each quadrant, starting in the top right – other-than-human centred/poetic – with David Abram (1997, 2010), who asserts that:

Reality shapeshifts. Underneath our definitions, prior to all our reality explanations, the world disclosed by our bodily senses is a breathing cosmos – tranced, animate and trickster-struck. – (Abram, 2010, p.298)

and holds a vision of ‘a clarified encounter between the human animal and its habitat’ (ibid, P.299).

In the top left – other-than-human/scientific — we find, for example, someone like James Lovelock (2000), who draws on robust scientific understandings to demonstrate the interdependence of all beings, to argue that the planet itself, Gaia, is a meta-being, ‘an entity that is alive … a control system for the earth’ (2000, p. 11), and to portray human life as a ‘people plague’ (ibid, Ch 8) which endangers the whole of Gaia.

The lower left quadrant – scientific/human-centred – is massively populated, by a large number of research papers exploring the effect of exposure to ‘nature’ on various mental health problems, and also by research meta-studies (Annerstedt and Wahrborg, 2011; Chalquist, 2009). While some of this work comes from people who are themselves committed to a deep relationship with the other-than-human, it represents a deference to the cultural hegemony of reason. I would also place in this quadrant much of the discipline of conservation psychology (Clayton & Myers, 2015), together with others who believe that it is the task of human beings to take control of the other-than-human in order to preserve it (see Monbiot, 2014, Ch. 12).

Representatives of the lower right quadrant – poetic/human-centred – are extremely varied, but would include all sorts of work which to varying degrees focuses on ‘nature’ as a source of spiritual or psychological development for humans, rather than for its intrinsic value. Examples include Imagining Animals (Case, 2005), To the River (Laing, 2011), Edge of the Sacred (Tacey, 2009), and the books of Robert Macfarlane.

Below is a diagram of the two axes with one example in each quadrant. We can imagine a much, much larger array, with a large number of theoretical approaches included, each in its own precise relationship with the polarities – for example one somewhat less scientific but somewhat more human-centred than its neighbour, and so on. It is clear that a system like this is inherently subjective, in that there is no objective way to assess how each approach relates to the two axes; however it perhaps offers a helpful way to hold different approaches within an overall context.

It should be emphasised that these different polarities do not necessarily contradict each other. Science and poetry, the human and the other-than-human, are themselves held together in an ecosystemic web which transcends these dichotomies. Left brain and right brain together make up a whole brain; and nothing that harms the planetary network can truly benefit humanity – as Wendell Berry writes:

It is not possible … for humans to intend their own good specifically or exclusively. We cannot intend our good, in the long run, without intending the good of our place – which means, ultimately, the good of the world.

(Berry, 1991, p.213)

Other important polarities

The field of ecopsychological theory of course cannot be fully encompassed by two simple axes; and some other polarities we may notice are perhaps more inherently conflictual. (Conflict and competition are inherent to any functioning ecosystem.) For example, many ecopsychologists believe that there is an inherent political dimension to ecopsychology — that the reasons for our disconnect from the other-than-human are wholly entangled with the reasons for the lack of global social justice, and the struggle for one has to be linked to the struggle for the other (Fisher, 2013; Bookchin, 2005; Totton, 2011; Chaplin, 2008). One important branch of this ‘radical ecopsychology’ is the powerful tradition of ecofeminism, pioneered by Vandana Shiva (Mies and Shiva, 1993) and many others (Hogan, Metzger & Peterson, 1998; Hawthorne, 2002), which sees patriarchy as the root of both environmental and social exploitation:

This capitalist-patriarchal perspective interprets difference as hierarchical and uniformity as a prerequisite for equality. Our aim is to go beyond this narrow perspective and to express our diversity and, in different ways, address the inherent inequalities in world structures which permit the North to dominate the South, men to dominate women, and the frenetic plunder of ever more resources for ever more unequally distributed economic gain to dominate nature.

(Mies and Shiva, 1993, p. 2)

Both radical psychology and ecofeminism can appear in any of the four quadrants discussed above, although they are perhaps more likely to occupy some rather than others. A number of other ecopsychologists do not have a political bent, and do not see their work as part of a project of general political change. (Any assumption that the current organisation of society is ‘normal’ is politically conservative, but this is often not acknowledged.) Their focus may be on environmental destruction as a specific issue, without exploring its embedding in the more general structure of society; or perhaps they use a spiritual/transpersonal perspective to understand our disconnection from the other-than-human (Maiteny, 2012). Of course spirituality and politics can go hand in hand, strengthening both, but this is perhaps less common than their separation.

Conflict and cooperation

Many of these differences of viewpoint and approach can be – and generally are – accepted as aspects of healthy diversity, enriching the field as a whole. However there are some areas where divergence can lead to conflict. This is not necessarily negative: as has already been suggested, conflict and competition are part of all functioning ecosystems. It may well be that current conflicts within the field are a natural stage in the development of a wider synthesis. Perhaps the biggest conflict is between those who place humans at the centre of the picture – continuing, critics argue, the old Judaeo-Christian notion of humanity as stewards of the earth; and those who see humans as one, highly disruptive, element in a rich and complex planetary ecosystem – downplaying, critics argue, the unique nature of human consciousness, and/or the need to raise human living standards globally. Political radicals and political conservatives can be found on both sides of this argument.

It is striking, though, that ecopsychology has not (so far) really split into separate factions each with their own organisations and events. Perhaps people who are drawn to this field are sufficiently aware of the complexity of life not to be drawn to either/or simplicities. Ecopsychology events often demonstrate difficulties of understanding and tolerance between those with different backgrounds, styles of interaction, and theoretical positions. But no one wants to fence up the forest, or dam the river delta; so ecopsychologists persist in keeping lines of communication open, in the hope that a new synthesis will emerge, and in the clear knowledge that diversity is central to life.

References

Abram, D. (1997). The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. New York: Vintage.

Abram, D. (2010). Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. New York: Pantheon.

Annerstedt, M. & Währborg, P. (2011). Nature-assisted therapy: systematic review of controlled and observational studies. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 39(4): 371-88.

Bateson, G. (1980) Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. London: Fontana/Collins.

Berry, W. (1991). Standing on Earth: Selected Essays. Ipswich: Golgonooza Press.

Bookchin, M. (2005). The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy. Oakland, CA: AK Press.

Case, C. (2005). Imagining Animals: Art, Psychotherapy, and Primitive States of Mind. London: Routledge.

Chalquist, C. (2009). A look at the ecotherapy research evidence. Ecopsychology, 1(2), 64-74.

Chaplin, J. (2008). Deep Equality: Living in the Flow of Natural Rhythms. Ropley, Hants: O Books.

Chatalos, P. (2006). Gaia living with AIDS: towards reconnecting humanity with ecosystem autopoiesis using metaphors of the immune system. Psychotherapy and Politics International, 4, 3: 213-222.

Clayton, S. & Myers, G. (2015) Conservation Psychology: Understanding and Promoting Human Care for Nature. London: Wiley-Blackwell.

Eisenberg, E. (1998). The Ecology of Eden: Humans, Nature and Human Nature. New York: Knopf.

Fisher, A. (2013). Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life. 2nd edition. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Glendinning, C. (1995) Technology, trauma, and the wild. In T. Roszak, M.E. Gomes & A.D. Kanner (eds.) Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, pp. 41-54.

Hawthorne, S. (2002). Wild Politics. Melbourne: Spinifex Press.

Hogan, L., Metzger, D. & Peterson, B. (1998). Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals. New York: Fawcett Columbine.

Jordan, M. (2009) Nature and self: An ambivalent attachment? Ecopsychology, 1(1), 26-31.

Laing, O. (2011). To The River: A Journey Beneath the Surface. London: Canongate.

Linden, S. & Grut, J. (2002) Healing Fields: Working with Psychotherapy and Nature to Rebuild Shattered Lives. London: Frances Lincoln.

Louv, R. (2010) Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill NC: Algonquin Books.

Lovelock, J. (2000). Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine. Revised edn. Stroud: Gaia Books.

Macy, J. & Brown, M.Y. (2014). Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.

Maiteny, P. (2012). Longing to be human: Evolving ourselves in healing the earth. In M-J Rust & N. Totton (eds.), Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis. London: Karnac, pp. 47-60.

McGilchrist, I. (2012). The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. London: Yale University Press.

Mies, M. and Shiva, V. (1993). Ecofeminism. London: Zed Books.

Mind (2013) Feel Better Outside, Feel Better Inside: Ecotherapy for Mental Wellbeing, Resilience and Recovery. London: Mind.

Monbiot, G. (2014). Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life. London: Penguin.

Roszak, T. (1993). The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology. New York: Touchstone.

Roszak, T., Gomes, M.E. & Kanner, A.D. (eds,) (1995). Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.

Rust, M-J. (2008). Consuming the Earth: Unconscious processes in relation to our environmental crisis. Keynote Lecture for Climate of Change conference, Bristol. 2008. http://www.mjrust.net/downloads/Consuming%20the%20Earth.pdf (accessed April 28th 2017).

Seed, J,. Macy, J., Fleming, P, & Naess, A. (1988). Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.

Tacey, D. (2009). Edge of the Sacred: Jung, Psyche, Earth. Einsiedeln, Switzerland: Daimon Verlag.

Totton, N. (2011) Wild Therapy: Undomesticating Inner and Outer Worlds. Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books.

Totton, N. (2012). Overwhelm. In Not A Tame Lion: Writings on Therapy in Its Social and Political Context. Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books, pp. 150-1,

Wilber, K. (2001). A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality. Shambhala.

Winter, D. D. (1996), Ecological Psychology: Healing the Split Between Planet and Self. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.

The post Dilemmas, Controversies and Theory Diversity in the Field of Eco-Psychology appeared first on Confer.

By Emma Palmer and Mary-Jayne Rust

This study guide details authors, journals, and schools and longer training courses in both the UK and overseas. For full details of the author’s books, please see the accompanying Reading List.

Contemporary authors

David Abram
David Abram is an American cultural ecologist, geophilosopher, and performance artist. His work has been instrumental in catalyzing the emergence of several new disciplines, including ecopsychology. David is the author of ‘Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology’ (Pantheon, 2010), and ‘The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World’ (Vintage, 1997) and his essays on the cultural causes and consequences of environmental disarray are published widely.

Caroline Brazier
Caroline Brazier is a Buddhist and a practising psychotherapist writing about Buddhist therapeutic approaches and the psychology which underpins them. She is leader of the UK Tariki training programme in Buddhist psychotherapy and the Ten Directions training in Ecotherapy and originator of the ‘other-centred’ approach. Caroline has written seven books – her next one will be ‘Ecotherapy in Practice: A Buddhist Model’ (Routledge, 2018).

Linda Buzzell
Linda Buzzell has been a psychotherapist for more than 30 years, specializing in career and sustainable lifestyle issues. A graduate of the Permaculture Design Course, she is a Fellow at For the Future, founder of the International Association for Ecotherapy, the editor of Ecotherapy News and the co-editor with Craig Chalquist of ‘Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind’ (Sierra Club, 2009).

Craig Chalquist
Craig Chalquist is a depth psychologist, author, presenter, professor, entrepreneur. He teaches psychology and is a Professor of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of ‘Immanence: The Journal of Applied Mythology, Legend, and Folktale’ and the author of three books, including ‘Ecotherapy’ (Sierra Club, 2009) co-edited with Linda Buzzell.

Joseph Dodds
Joseph Dodds lectures on various psychology and psychoanalysis courses at the University of New York in Prague and Charles University’s CIFE Study Center. He is a member of the Czech Psychoanalytical Society (IPA) and works as a psychotherapist in private practice. He is author of ‘Psychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos’ (Routledge, 2011).

Andy Fisher
Andy Fisher is a healer, scholar, educator, guide, and circle facilitator, with all of his work being in service of life. For more than a decade he has been the leading voice for developing ecopsychology as a radical field. A second edition of his acclaimed book ‘Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life’ was released in 2013 (State University of New York Press).

Caroline Frizell
Caroline Frizell is Programme Convenor for the M.A. Dance Movement Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a licensed Dance Movement Psychotherapist. With a professional dance background, Caroline has been closely involved in the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy (ADMP UK) and edited the quarterly journal between 2006 and 2014. She has had a keen interest in working in community settings and in engaging with ecopsychology, with that field underpinning her current work.

Kelvin Hall
Kelvin Hall has long and extensive experience as a therapist as well as a substantial track-record in supervision, support and training. He has added equine-assisted therapy to the approaches he offers clients, reflecting his engagement with ecopsychology. He has published many articles on this theme, and contributed to the ‘Vital Signs’ anthology (Karnac, 2011).

Paul Hoggett
Paul Hoggett is Chair of the Climate Psychology Alliance and Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He is the author of several books, including ‘Politics, Identity, and Emotions’ (Paradigm, 2009) and ‘The Dilemmas of Development Work’ (Polity Press, 2001).

Chris Johnstone
Chris Johnstone has a background in medicine, psychology, groupwork and coaching, and is a specialist in the psychology of resilience, happiness and positive change. After working for many years as an addictions specialist in the NHS, he now focuses on coaching, writing and training, particularly through the new distance learning programme he has set up. His newest book, ‘Active Hope’, was co-authored with Joanna Macy (New World Library, 2012).

Emma Palmer
Kamalamani is a Body psychotherapist, ecopsychologist, and facilitator. She is fascinating by working at the interface between Buddhism, ecopsychology and ecodharma, in theory and practice and loves facilitating Wild therapy. She is the author of two books and many articles, including ‘Other than Mother: Choosing Childlessness with Life in Mind’ (Earth Books, 2016) nominated for the Population Institute’s Global Media Award in 2016.

Dave Key
Dave Key works where psyche and nature meet, having been providing ecopsychology consultancy, training and mentoring since the early 1990s. The ultimate purpose of his work is to support personal well-being, social justice and ecological sustainability. Dave was a co-initiator of the ‘Natural Change’ project, a seminal ecopsychology project which continues today, drawing participants from beyond the field of psychotherapy.

Renee Lertzman
Renee Lertzman, Ph.D. teaches Environmental Education and Communication at Royal Roads University, and is a fellow with the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and founding member of Climate Psychology Alliance. She has designed and taught courses for environmental educators and supervises graduate students. Renee’s first book, ‘Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Engagement’ was published by Routledge in 2015.

Joanna Macy
Joanna Rogers Macy, is an environmental activist, author, scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Internationally respected and renowned in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she is the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, a ground-breaking theoretical framework for personal and social change. She is the author of eight books, including, with Molly Brown ‘Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects’ (New Society Publishers, 2014).

Paul Maiteny
Paul Maiteny is a psychotherapist, ecologist and anthropologist. He is a steering committee member of the transpersonal faculty of the UKCP. With 30 years’ experience in ecological education and research, he has been publishing papers on what is now known as ecopsychology since the 1990s, focusing on its psychospiritual and cultural dimensions. He has held research and teaching posts at Oxford and Open Universities, and UCL.

Hayley Marshall
Hayley Marshall has worked as a psychotherapist for the past 20 years. She’s also a supervisor and trainer, collaborating on many ecotherapy training courses with the late Martin Jordan. Her outdoor client work connects psychotherapeutic ideas with those from environmental psychology, and ecopsychology, which focus on our interaction with our environment. She has written several journal articles exploring ecotherapy work.

Bill Plotkin
Bill Plotkin, PhD, is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute in 1981 He has guided thousands through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision quest. He is author of several books, the most recent being ‘Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche’ (New World Library, 2013).

Hilary Prentice
Psychotherapist Hilary Prentice was a founding member of an early ecopsychology group which emerged after the formation of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility (PCSR). She was a pioneer in the early UK ecopsychology movement and continues to give talks and works as an ecopsychologist. She was also a co-founder of the ‘Heart and Soul’ (now known as ‘Inner Transition’) aspect of the Transition movement in Devon and is author of many ecopsychology articles.

Rosemary Randall
Rosemary Randall is a psychoanalytically trained psychotherapist who has been involved in the environmental movement since her 20s. With Andy Brown she developed the award winning international Carbon Conversations project to help people reduce their carbon emissions. Her most recent book, co-authored with Andy Brown, is ‘In Time for Tomorrow?’ (Surefoot Effect, 2015) and she has papers published in other anthologies.

Chris Robertson
Chris Robertson has been a psychotherapist and trainer since 1978 and is co-founder of Re•Vision, an integrative and transpersonal psychotherapy training centre in London, which includes ecopsychology principles and practice. He contributed the chapter ‘Dangerous Margins’ to the Ecopsychology anthology ‘Vital Signs’ (Karnac, 2011) and is author of several articles.

Mary-Jayne Rust
Mary-Jayne Rust is an Arts therapist, Jungian analyst, and ecopsychologist based in London. For almost 30 years one of her main interests has been psychology in the service of the earth. As a result she has been a pioneer in the UK ecopsychology movement since the early 1990s, in her therapy practice, writing, facilitation, public talks and community-building. Mary-Jayne is co-editor with Nick Totton of ‘Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis’ (Karnac, 2011). 

John Seed
John Seedis an Australian environmentalist and founder of the Rainforest Information Centre which successfully campaigned to save the sub-tropical rainforests of New South Wales. He is an accomplished bard, songwriter. film-maker, and a prominent figure in the deep ecology movement. With Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming and Arne Naess, he wrote ‘Thinking like a Mountain – Towards a Council of All Beings’ (New Society Publishers, 2007) which has been translated into 12 languages.

Ian Siddons Heginworth
Ian Siddons Heginworth is a leading practitioner, innovator and teacher of environmental arts therapy. He is a drama therapist and is employed by Devon Partnership Trust running the Wild Things project. He is also employed as a lecturer and workshop leader on the Exeter based M.A. in Drama therapy. He is author of ‘Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life’ (Spirit’s Rest Books, 2011).

Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is a Pulitzer-prize winning poet and environmental activist. He is the author of 20 books of prose and poetry, including ‘The Practice of the Wild’ (Counterpoint Press, 1990). He has lived with his family in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California since the 1970s. His works reflects his immersion in Buddhism and his relationship with the wild.

Nick Totton
Nick Totton has been working as a therapist, supervisor, trainer and workshop leader since 1981, having trained originally as a Reichian bodywork therapist. He is the founder of, and training team member of the postgraduate training in Embodied-Relational Therapy, as well as having founded the Wild Therapy project. Nick is a poet and author of ‘Wild Therapy’ (PCSS Books, 2011) and co-editor of ‘Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis’ (Karnac, 2011) and has written 13 other books.

Sally Weintrobe
Sally Weintrobe is a psychoanalyst and a founding member of the Climate Psychology Alliance who writes and talks on how to understand what underlies our widespread disavowal of climate change, with her current work exploring the culture of uncare. She edited and contributed to Engaging with Climate Change: Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ (Routledge, 2012).

Also see UK ecopsychology practitioners listing and international ecopsychologists listed on the website of the International Community of Ecopsychology. The UK ecopsychology ning website, a network of UK and international trainees and therapists, lists practitioners, events, and discussions.

Journals and Magazines

The European Journal of Ecopsychology 
The European Journal of Ecopsychology (EJE) is a peer-reviewed journal that aims to explore the synthesis of psychological and ecological ideas from a variety of perspectives. It encompasses theoretical papers, empirical reports, accounts of therapeutic practice, and more personal reflections which offer the reader insights into new and original aspects of the interrelationship between humanity and the rest of the natural world. Issues are published at the end of each year. It is published by the volunteer-run, UK-based not for profit ‘WyrdWise’.

Ecopsychology
Ecopsychology seeks to reshape modern psychology by showing that it cannot stand apart from an intimate human connection with the natural environment. Human beings need that connection with nature to do well mentally and physically, let alone to flourish, as individuals and as a species. Against this backdrop, the Journal publishes original scientific research articles, as well as theoretical papers, case studies, nature writing, and reviews of important books and other media. Ecopsychology is written and produced in the US.

Gatherings
Gatherings is the Journal of the International Community for Ecopsychology. The object of the community’s website and blog is to provide a public forum for participant’s diverse experiences of the human-nature relationship. By slowing down together and sharing understandings through multiple ‘modes of knowing’, the hope of the community is to build bridges of harmony with the planet we all co-in habit. In particular, contributors of Gatherings are welcomed ‘around the fires of cyberspace’, to send in art, articles, and so on.

The Trumpeter
The Trumpeter is an environmental humanities journal dedicated to the development of an ecosophy, or wisdom, born of ecological understanding and insight. As such, it serves the deep ecology movement’s commitment to philosophically explore and analyze environmental concerns in light of ecological developments at every relevant level: metaphysics, science, history, politics. Gaining a deeper understanding involves a comprehensive set of criteria that includes analytical rigour, spiritual insight, ethical integrity, and aesthetic appreciation.

Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine
Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine offers positive perspectives on a range of engaging topics covering: ecology, social justice, philosophy, spirituality, sustainable development and the arts – an eclectic mix that cannot be found anywhere else. This magazine is published bi-monthly, each illustrated issue contains feature articles by respected writers, news from the frontline of the environmental movement, ideas on ethical living, book reviews, recipe columns, humour, poetry and arts profiles.

Unpsychology Magazine
Unpsychology magazineresponds to themes of psychology, soul-making, ecology and ‘wild mind’. It is edited by Wales-based therapist, teacher and therapist Steve Thorp.

Ecopsychology-themed editions in other Journals
Self & Society, the International Journal for Humanistic Psychology featured two ecopsychology themed editions, both edited by Nick Totton. The first, summer 2014 (Vol 41, Issue 4), featured articles from Caroline Brazier, Caroline Frizell, Kelvin Hall, Emma Palmer, Chris Robertson, Mary-Jayne Rust, Nick Totton. The second themed edition in 2015 (Vol 43, Issue 2), featured articles/interviews from Adrian Harris, David Key, Paul Maiteny, Allison Priestman, and Nick Totton.

Transformations, the in house journal of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility featured report and reflections from the first ‘Edge of the Wild’ UK ecopsychology event in its Autumn/Winter 2012 edition. Reports and reflections from the second ‘Edge of the Wild’ event were featured in the Winter 2013 edition.

Schools/Trainings in the UK and Overseas

UK

Diploma in Nature-based Psychotherapy is a year-long post graduate training delivered through experiential learning and taught seminars over 8 weekends. The course is fully immersive, taking place in woodland and nature reserves within London. The training acknowledges nature as a therapeutic container, co-counsellor and primary source of attachment. Our relationship with nature is central to nature-based psychotherapy and the course focuses on supporting your connection to nature through embodied and sensory experiencing. The training incorporates anthropological perspectives, traditional ecological knowledge and attachment theory. Facilitated by Beth Collier.

Environmental Arts Therapy offers a post graduate training consisting of 12 weekends spread over one year. This course is suitable for final year and qualified arts therapists who wish to enhance and extend their practice with working with nature. Facilitated by Devon-based Ian Siddons Heginworth.

Natural Academy: Holistic Eco-Psychology and Outdoor Helping Skills based near Bristol offer a Foundation year run by Rhonda Brandrick and Michéal Connors. The aim of the foundation is to teach and support therapists and wellbeing practitioners to work with people in natural environments, learning the outdoor helping skills needed to facilitate connection to nature for health, wellbeing, personal development and deeper purpose.

Natural Change Facilitator Training: A two-year course to train facilitators to lead programmes that use the Natural Change approach. The course is based around four wilderness residentials with mentoring, seminars, self-guided reading and the development of personal and professional practice in-between times. Dave Key, co-founder of this training, continues as an active trainer. More information.

Ten Directions: Now in its seventh year, this ecotherapy programme appeals to counsellors/ psychotherapists wanting to take their work out of doors, as well as to people engaged in outdoor fields who want to include therapeutically-orientated work with individuals or groups. The programme, which is grounded in a synthesis of Buddhist and Western approaches, is held in Narborough, Leicestershire. These 5 units are followed by a 5 day intensive in Wales. There is an option to carry on for a 2nd year of mentored practice. More information. Course Facilitators: Caroline Brazier, Debbie Swain and Elise Tate.

Wild Therapy: Running since 2012, this one year training brings therapy into the wild, and wildness into therapy. Wild therapy is an exploration and celebration of therapy’s wildness, its capacity to transcend the limitations we place on our own creativity and connectedness. Central to the year is encountering the other-than-human and more-than-human, and exploring their role in the therapeutic process. From this we can learn to transform fear-based defensive practice into contact-based adventurous practice. The sequence of three residentials and a non-residential weekend takes participants into increasingly wild environments, and finally into the city to explore how the journey has changed relationship with familiar domestication, and how Wild Therapy can be integrated into participant’s work. More information. Wild therapy was founded by Nick Tottonand is now primarily taught by Jayne Johnson, Kamalamani, Allison Priestman, and Stephen Tame.

Europe

Spain

Ecodharma Centre, Catalunya, Spain. Courses, retreats, study seminars, vision quests and wild camps which take place in a context of sustainable low-impact living, closely woven within the web of elemental nature.

International
Animas Valley Institute — founded by Bill Plotkin in 1980 — offers multi-day immersions into the wilds of nature and psyche for the purpose of retrieving the unique, mysterious identity hidden in the soul-waters of each life. Animas originated and continues to evolve a contemporary Western, nature-based approach to the journey of soul initiation — to our knowledge, the first of its kind. USA

National
School of Lost Borders, founded in the early 1970s, the School offers vision fasts and rites of passage training which cultivate self-trust, responsibility, and understanding about ones’ unique place within society and the natural world in different locations in the USA.

California
California Institute for Integral Studies, San Francisco: offers an MA in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness as well as doctoral programmes in East-West Psychology, Transformative Studies

Holos Institute, San Francisco: offer holistic counselling and unique nature-based workshops and retreats to the public and continuing education programs grounded in the principles of ecopsychology.

Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara: MA/PhD programme in Depth psychology with emphasis in community psychology, liberation psychology and ecopsychology. The faculty includes Mary Watkins. Other courses run by Linda Buzzell and eco-criticism by Susan Rowland .

Sofia University in Palo Alto offer a Certificate in Transpersonal Ecopsychology

Viridis Graduate Institute in Ojai offer an Ecopsychology and Environmental Humanities Program.

Wilderness Reflections, Marin County, offer a Professional Ecotherapy Certification Program.

Colorado
Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado: offers an MA in ecopsychology, including the Psychology of Wilderness Experience, and more.

Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Centre offers retreats and workshops which bring Buddhism and Dharma back into the natural world and fostering the clarity and compassion needed to better address the ecological crisis and its related social justice issues.

Connecticut
The Graduate Institute, Bethany: Certificate in Ecotherapy and Cultural Sustainability

New Mexico
Southwestern College and New Earth Institute in Santa Fe offer a Transformational Eco-PsychologyCertificate.

Oregon
Lewis and Clark Graduate School, Portland, Oregon: Counseling Psychology Ecopsychology Certificate

Washington
Friday Harbor: Educating, Counselling and Healing with Nature at Project NatureConnect with Michael Cohen. Cohen is also programme director of Applied Ecopsychology at Akamai University in Hawaii.

Wisconsin
University of Wisonsin Superior: Susan Loonsk and others offers an expressive ecopsychology module within visual arts: http://www.uwsuper.edu/acaddept/art/studio/ecopsy.cfm

Australia
The Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU, Canberra

La Trobe University, Melbourne David Tacey has maintained a commitment to public intellectual activity in the areas of religious education, indigenous health, men’s issues and environmental issues; and Freya Mathews teaches on animal ethics, deep ecology, ecofeminism, environmental ethics, religion and nature. She has published numerous books and papers – see her Website.

University of Western Sydney offers a Masters of Education Programme in Social Ecology taught by Stuart Hill.

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By Tania Dolley, Emma Palmer, Hilary Prentice and Mary-Jayne Rust

Ecopsychology explores the relationship between human and other-than and more-than-human life, synthesising and re-uniting ecology and psychology. This brief introduction provides an overview of the many and varied roots of ecopsychology through to its establishment in the UK. Ecopsychological approaches are cross-disciplinary; from systems thinking and transpersonal psychology to environmental philosophy and ethics, amongst others, with much early thinking emerging from the deep ecologymovement.

The work of the ecologist, environmentalist, and forester Aldo Leopold reflects the beginnings of ecopsychological thought and practice, for example, in A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There, (Leopold, 1949). Leopold describes the land around his Wisconsin home, advocating a ‘land ethic’; a responsible relationship between humans and the land they inhabit. Not only was this book a landmark in the USconservation movement, it is also a fine example of nature writing, and in emphasising the importance of people’s relationship with place and nature, Leopold highlights themes which remain central to ecopsychology.

Conservationist Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring (Carson, 1962) alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. This catalysed changes in the laws affecting air, land, and water, resulting in the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency. 1960s environmentalism grew as a popular grassroots movement, energised by Carson’s book. Conservationists and preservationists were joined by others, increasingly concerned about the detrimental environmental effects of modern industrial technology, for example: John Muir, and Henry David Thoreau. In 1973 Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer, introduced the term deep ecology(Naess, 2016).

The various approaches which have emerged under the umbrella term of ‘ecopsychology’ – one of the terms most commonly in use – have been primarily a phenomenon of industrial, and now late-stage capitalist societies. In different schools of Western psychology and psychological healing there has been an increasingly urgent awareness and a desire to respond to our deepening interrelated crises and the unsustainable and earth-consuming economic, social, and political systems of these industrial growth societies.

American scholar Theodore Roszakis credited with using the term ‘ecopsychology’ in his 1992 bookThe Voice of the earth. In 1963 Robert Greenway coined the term ‘psychoecology’ (Greenway, 1999), beginning to teach courses in it as well as transpersonal ecology at Sonoma State University. Years later Elan Shapiro, one of Greenway’s students, formed a psychoecology discussion group. Early members of this group included Mary Gomes, Alan Kanner, Fran Segal, and others, with Greenway being invited to participate. The group eventually attracted the attention of Theodore Roszak in 1990 (Schroll, 2007: 29).

Roszak went on to edit the 1995 seminal anthology Ecopsychology: Restoring the earth, healing the mind(Roszak, 1995) bringing together not only voices from the psychoecology group, but many other perspectives in what was becoming a burgeoning area of interest. The following examples give a flavour of the approaches: indigenous American perspectives on dislocation, with the reminder from Jeanette Armstrong that we are ‘keepers of the earth because we are earth’; explorations of grief and despair work in response to wide scale environmental destruction and loss of species from Joanna Macy (this work evolved into Coming back to life: practices to reconnect our lives, our world (Macy, 1998); Stephen Aizentat’s writing about Jungian psychology and the collective unconscious; radical challenges to the rather white constituency of the related deep ecologymovement from Carl Antony (see also Antony and Soule, 1998); and the ecology of magic from David Abram (see Abram, 1997).

Whilst much ecopsychological thought and practise has arisen in North America, where the extremes of industrial growth have been most salient, practitioners can also be found in Australia, Europe, and South Africa, for example, John Seed, founder and director of theRainforest Information Centrein Australia. By the mid-1990s there was a growing body of practitioners wishing to redress the balance of the inclusion of human relationship to the so-called ‘natural’ world. It was also becoming increasingly clear that psychological and spiritual knowledge of how to live skilfully and harmoniously with the biosphere and her species is ancient, and distress about our shared predicament is widespread.Initiatives to respond to the situation are arising in every country and people of the world, from the many calls for change from indigenous and displaced native peoples (most visibly at Standing Rock at present), through to the occasional corporate think-tank.

Turning to the UK, the seeds of an ecopsychology movement and community began sprouting in the mid 1990s, with a number of individuals already involved with ecopsychology. What follows is a brief outline of the initiatives which have developed over the last couple of decades in the UK.

In 1995 a UK organisation calledPsychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility(PCSR)was founded by Professor Andrew Samuels and Judy Ryde. Many different working subgroups emerged from PCSR, one of them being the ecopsychology group, founded by psychotherapist Hilary Prentice and psychologist Tania Dolley. This became a very active group withtherapists meeting monthly in London. While diverse in their theoretical orientations, members of the group shared a commitment to weaving together psychology, ecology, politics, and spirituality. Having wrestled with the issues, reviewed the US literature, and looked at related-work going on in the UK, they began writing articles and papersfor publication, to run workshops and speak at conferences.

One of the group’s most significant contributions at that time was a keynote speech in the form of a performance at the PCSR AGM in 2000, ‘Therapists on the Titanic’. The group connected with the Institute of Deep Ecology (UK) which was inspired by the work ofJoanna MacyandJohn Seed.Chris Johnstone‘sGreat Turning Times websiteand, until recently, regular newsletter, were an invaluable point of coordination and sharing of information and events about deep ecology and ecopsychology in the UK (see also Macy and Johnstone, 2012).

Aware that exciting happenings in the ecopsychology world seemed to be largely US-based, the participating ecopsychologists became curious about who else in the UK might be interested in exploring this subject. They placed an advert inResurgence Magazine‘Calling all Ecopsychologists!’ eliciting enthusiastic responses.

The group recognised the need to make further connections in deepening their practice and continuing their education. Hilary Prentice and Tania Dolley founded and administered the UK Ecopsychology Network, which came into existence on the first networking dayin London in 1997. This began as apaper-based network list giving brief details of over 100 individuals throughout the UK (including some international members), ecopsychology resources, and, for a while, a newsletter.There were also several other local ecopsychology groups meeting in different regions of the UK, with a number of events and gatherings. This national network has now become web-based, known as the Ecopsychology UK ning website, which has almost 2000 members at the time of writing. In parallel, there have been many related initiatives and events developing around the country.

In 1999 Brendan Hill and theCentrefor Human Ecologyin Edinburgh joined with a group of organisers in hosting a major international interdisciplinary five-day conference ‘For the Love of Nature’ atFindhorninScotland. The conference explored the relationship between the personal and the planetary, attracting over 300 participants. Many of the speakers and facilitators were founding figures of the ecopsychology movement, including: Clare Cooper-Marcus, Sarah Conn, Jane Goodall, Warwick Fox,Robert Greenway, John Seed,Vandana Shiva and many others, embracing the academic and experiential contributions.

Joanna Macyand John Seed have made several visits to the UK, withJohn Seed offering deep ecology workshops andJoanna Macy offering her intensives inThe Work that Reconnects(TWTR),including facilitator training, mostly organised by Alex Wildwood andChris Johnstone.These experiences have been invaluable for the community’s process and the development in thinking about ecopsychology, with many people now facilitating events across the UK as a result. A national ecopsychology gathering took place in 2004 at Laurieston Hall in Scotland, organised by Helene Fletcher, Hilary Prentice, Mary-Jayne Rust and Nick Totton. Ambra Burlsof Anglia Ruskin University has organised conferences within academic and practical contexts in the South East.

In the past few years there has been increasing public awareness ofenvironmental issues and other crises e.g. climate, ecological, and the 6th extinction crisis. This has led to a growing popular realisation that our Western consumerist mindset may be a significant factor influencing our attitudes and behaviour towards the biosphere. People in interrelated fields are becoming interested in the psychological dimensions of environmental problems with interesting conferences enabling transdisciplinary conversations between therapists, counsellors, journalists, landscape architects, NGOs and the green movement.

The past decade or so has witnessed the emergence of significant movements in ecopsychological thinking. In 2005 Rosemary Randall and Andy Brown launchedCambridge Carbon Footprint (see Randall and Brown, 2015). The impetus came from Randall’s paper ‘A New Climate for Psychotherapy’ exploring the psychological dimensions of public attitudes to climate change.

In 2006 an ecopsychological contribution to the flourishingTransition Townsmovement in Totnes in Devon, arose in response to the reality of peak oil and climate change. At first these were known as ‘heart and soul’ groups started by Hilary Prentice and Sophy Banks. Now called ‘inner transition’, the explore the consciousness and process aspects of transition to a sustainable and non oil-dependent culture. The ecopsychological aspects of Transition have been successfully incorporated into theTransition training programme, devised by Sophy Banks and Naresh Giangrande.

In 2004Dave Key, an experienced outdoor educator, started workingwith Mary-Jayne Rust, arts therapist and Jungian analyst, exploring the meeting between outdoor experiences and psychotherapeutic processes in nature and offering courses in Scotland and atSchumacher College. This fruitful collaboration and exchange has led to many new initiatives, including the green NGO WWF’sNatural Change Projectdeveloped by Dave Key, Margaret Kerr and Jules Weston.

The late Martin Jordan initiated a movement which he named ‘Taking Psychotherapy Outdoors’; running many ecotherapy teaching groups in Sussex, often co-facilitating with Hayley Marshall. His book Nature and therapy (Jordan, 2015) provides a solid guide to ecotherapy theory and practice. Last year Martin and Joe Hinds published Ecotherapy: theory, research, and practice (Jordan & Hinds, 2016).

In the past decade the Climate Psychology Alliance was formed (2009) and Caroline Brazier of the Tariki Trust started the Ten Directions ecotherapy training programme. A number of projects have come to fruition, including: the ecopsychology UK website, a web-basedUK Ecopsychology network, aEuropean Journal of Ecopsychology, an ecopsychology anthology of mostly UK authors Vital signs: psycholgological responses to ecological crisis, edited by Mary-Jayne Rust and Nick Totton. In 2011 Nick Totton’s Wild Therapy: undomesticating inner and outer worlds (Totton, 2011) was published, usefully exploring wildness and tameness and the process of domestication which has spanned centuries and added to discussions about wildness and re-wilding. He also initiated a ‘Wild therapy’ training as an optional third year of the Embodied-Relational therapy course he originated.

Since 2012 an annual ecopsychology gathering has taken place at theGreen and Awaytented conference centre in Worcestershire which was initiated and sponsored by Judith Anderson, Kamalamani, Mary-Jayne Rust and Nick Totton, and supported in its early years byPCSR(Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility) and UK ecopsychologists.

Speaking about ecopsychology in the US (2007: 34), Schroll points out how the movement has yet to come together as an established discipline or as a national or international organization. In the past few years this has started to happen in the UK, as the home-grown ecopsychology and ecotherapy movement (the names still vary…) has taken root, in conjunction with the sharing of training, practises, learning and ideas from further afield.

References

Abram, D. (1997) The spell of the sensuous: perception and language in a more-than-human world. Vintage Books.

Antony, C. and Soule, R. (1998) ‘A multicultural approach to ecopsychology’ in The Humanist Psychologist, Vol 26, Issues 1-3, pp155-161.

Carson, R. (1962) Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin, USA.

Greenway, R. (1994) ‘Ecopsychology: A personal history’. Gatherings 1, Winter edition.

Jordan, M. (2015) Nature and Therapy. Routledge.

Jordan, M. & Hinds, J. (2016) Ecotherapy: theory, research, and practice. Palgrave.

Leopold, A. (1949) A sand county almanac and sketches here and there. Oxford University Press, UK.

Macy, J. & Young Brown, M. (1998) Coming back to life: practices to reconnect our Lives, our World. New Society Publishers.

Macy, J. & Johnstone, C. (2012) Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy. New World Library.

Naess, A. (2016) Ecology of wisdom. Penguin Classics.

Randall, R. & Brown, A. (2015) In time for tomorrow? The carbon conversations handbook. The Surefoot Effect CIC, UK.

Roszak, T. (1992) The voice of the earth: an exploration of ecopsychology. Phanes Press, US.

Roszak, T. (1995) Ecopsychology: restoring the earth/healing the mind. Sierra Club Books, California, US.

Schroll, M. (2007) ‘Wrestling with Arne Naess: A chronicle of ecopsychology’s origins’. The Trumpeter, Vol 23, No. 1, pp 28-57.

Totton, N. & Rust, M.J. (2012) Vital signs: psychological responses to ecological crisis. Karnac Books, UK.

Totton, N. (2011) Wild therapy: undomesticating inner and outer worlds. PCCS Books, UK.

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