SS 7 - Who's Interested in Ecopsychology and Ecotherapy?

Session Description: Ecopsychology together with its applied counterpart ecotherapy focuses on the synthesis of ecology and psychology. A basic assumption of these fields is that humans are deeply stressed, and our disconnect with nature has been a major contributor to epidemics of our time such as obesity, suicide, and even loneliness. A further assumption is that each of us has a readily available potential for healing. We access it simply by going outside and engaging with nature, or better yet via reciprocity – healing self while healing Earth. The health and psychological effects of reciprocity are so dramatic that important inroads could be made in ecological and environmental education by reframing conventional approaches. Instead of mostly a value-free, emotion-free, objective, and nature-as-a-machine approach to ecological teaching, or worse, an attempt to guilt students into environmental action, a more inviting approach may incorporate reciprocity. Studies show that many people regard climate change and other environmental problems to be too large and depressing to even think about. Thus, ecological information and how it is received by the general public at all levels may receive a dramatically warmer welcome if placed within a healing context. This session will begin with a case study that tested just this kind of reframing in an undergraduate ecology course. It will then provide a discussion session for those interested in ecopsychology and ecotherapy to share ideas, meet one another, and possibly plan for cross collaboration.

The underlying context of all of this is that academic research in ecopsychology has experienced a steep increase in publications since covid when many more people than usual engaged in the the health benefits of outdoor activities. It has spurned a revolution in mental health counseling, now throwing open its doors (literally) to outdoor counseling sessions of several types. Thus, certification programs in ecotherapy and ecopsychology are now experiencing hundreds of counselors per year taking their courses. The missing component in these trainings is ecological content. The programs are heavy on psychology, but light in ecology simply because so few ecologists are aware of the need. The ESA could make a major contribution to this movement if they joined with publishers of the journal Ecopyschology and others. The first step is to start the conversation among interested ecologists within a special session.