What is Ecotherapy?

​​Ecotherapy is an "umbrella term for nature-based methods of physical and psychological healing ...acknowledges the vital role of nature and addresses the human-nature relationship." 

 

"Ecotherapy refers to healing and growth nurtured by healthy interaction with the earth." 

 

Ecotherapy identifies "health (as) a systems concept that cannot be split off from the whole", where healing our bodies also includes taking care of the environment around us.

 

In therapeutic practice, the natural world, or the more-than-human-world, becomes a co-therapist, a third entity in the client-therapist relationship, where as inviting nature in to the mix offers increased opportunity to reconnect our bodies to a bigger system and increase our awareness using our senses and curiosity. 

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What are some ecotherapy practices?

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Ecotherapy practices encompass a wide range of work-in-nature: nature-reconnection practices, EcoSomatic practices, animal-assisted psychotherapy, horticultural therapy, sensory foraging, nature based art, wilderness work and retreat, environmental activism, nature or forest bathing, voluntary simplicity, nature based meditation groups, walking therapy, and more. 

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What is EcoSomatic therapy?

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EcoSomatic practice weaves together breath, sensory, body, soul and our ancestral awareness with the interdependency and reciprocity with the more-than-human-world/natural world, while de-centering humans in our shared ecosystem. EcoSomatic therapy's roots are in indigenous culture where the more-then-human-world are relatives, kin and scared, and there is no separation between nature and human.​

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Quotes and definitions: Ecotherapy: Healing With Nature In Mind, edited by: Linda Buzzell and Criag Chalquist

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