ECO-THERAPY

PRESENTED BY: SUMERA MUMTAZAYESHA MEHBOOB

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PART A

PRESENTED BY SUMERA HISTORY

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What does eco means?

A History of Eco psychology:

Social historian Theodore Roszak gave the first public definition of the field of eco psychology in his book Voice of the Earth (Roszak, 1992).

Many of the central ideas of eco psychology can also be found in his earlier work (Roszak, 1979).

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Further elaboration of the field took place with the publication in 1995 of Eco psychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind.

 This impressive collection of papers edited by Roszak, Mary Gomes, and Allen Kanner is highly recommended to anyone looking for an introductory overview of the field of eco psychology.

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Eco psychology has many roots: Buddhist philosophy, various mystical traditions within most religions, the romantic movement in Europe, and the transcendentalist movement in the United States (Reser, 1995).

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“Ecotherapy” was coined by pastoral counselor and Civil Rights activist Howard Clinebell in 1996 to describe healing through conscious reconnection with the natural world.

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Since then, ecotherapy has come to include interactions with animals, gardening therapy, recreational therapy, wilderness excursion work, various forms of “green” exercise, and a number of other “healing as though the Earth mattered” practices.

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"Your children are not your children.They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.They come through you but not from you,And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.Your may give them your love but not your thoughts."

~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, 1923

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What would happen if we moved the therapist’s office outside?

Ecotherapy / Nature Therapy

 Eco therapy, also known as nature therapy, is the applied practice of the emergent field of eco psychology.

An eco therapist understands that people are part of the web of life, and approaches clients from the perspective that our psyches are not isolated or separate from our environment.

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Even better, what would happen if we invited Earth to be our therapist?

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Some may even consider the natural world to have its own psyche, and as such, we raise a relationship of mutuality with the earth.

Ecopsychology and Ecotherapy

Ecotherapy is the practice of eco psychology.

Eco psychology is a term of Roszak's to describe the integration of ecology and psychology.

It has also been called green psychology by Ralph Metzner.

Ecopsychology and Ecotherapy

Ecotherapy, then, is the practice of facilitating awareness of these destructive beliefs and behaviors and engaging in a healing practice of reconciliation.

It is different from other therapies in that sessions may be held in natural environments and mindfulness practices (like meditation) are often used

Transformation, Not Just Entertainment

  Ecotherapy seeks a deeper transformation, changing spectators and exploiters of nature into its friends and advocates.

For the ecotherapy practitioner, plants, animals, rivers, and landscapes are never mere tools or backdrops: they are active, creative partners who should benefit from what they give us.

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Ecotherapy is not psychotherapy, neither does it replace psychiatry, but it challenges both modalities to reconceptualize their view of human nature.

We cannot expect to feel really well while living in ailing cities or toxic lands.

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For us to be sane and whole, our healing process must support the healing of the planet, and vice versa.

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PART B

PRESENTED BY :

AYESHA MEHBOOB How Does It Work?

Earth-Centered Therapy

Eight principles offered in eco therapy

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How Does It Work?

It is geared toward helping people learn to cope by forging a connection with nature. 

Specifically, eco-therapy addresses clients' anxieties and fears about the environment (eco-anxiety).

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People who practice eco-therapy are called eco-therapists, although some conventional therapists integrate eco-therapy into their practices.

Eco-anxiety is a relatively new psychological problem

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Eco-therapy helps these people let go of the anxiety and appreciate nature once again.

Eco-therapists teach their clients that everyone is a part of the natural world, and they should embrace this interconnectedness

Eco-therapists' clients learn to achieve balance in their everyday lives, such alternating between buying organic and non-organic food.

Eco-anxious clients learn the facts about the environment - eco-therapists know that truth is a wonderful remedy for anxiety.

Earth-Centered Therapy

Eco therapy also called earth centered therapy.

Earth-centered therapy is about healing and deepening the relationship between humans and the rest of Earth’s life.

At this time most of us humans are living like renegade cells within the body of our mother Earth – consuming her voraciously while failing to support, or be truly supported by, the living system of which we are part.

Earth-centered therapy can bring up painful feelings such as loss, grief, guilt and anger, as we contemplate the damage done to our world and the loss of so many beings who once shared it with us.

Connection with Earth: Core of Eco therapy

Connection with earth and its systems are at the core of ecotherapy.

Ecotherapists believe that the earth has a self-righting capacity through complex systems of integrated balance, and that if we can harmonize with those systems, we will experience mental health.

Eight principles offered in eco therapy:

Psychotherapy is best played by ear.

It is after all a matter of listening to the whole person, all that is submerged, unborn, in hiding: the infant, the shadow, the savage, the outcast.

The list of principles we offer here is merely a guide, suggesting how deep that listening must go to hear the Self that speaks through the self.

8 PRINCIPLES

1. The core of the mind is the ecological unconscious. For ecopsychology, repression of the ecological unconscious is the deepest root of collusive madness in industrial society. Open access to the ecological unconscious is the path to sanity.

2. The contents of the ecological unconscious represent, in some degree, at some level of mentality, the living record of cosmic evolution, tracing back to distant initial conditions in the history of time

3. Just as it has been the goal of previous therapies to recover the repressed contents of the unconscious, so the goal of ecopsychology is to awaken the inherent sense of environmental reciprocity that lies within the ecological unconscious.

4. For eco psychology as for other therapies, the crucial stage of development is the life of the child.

5. The ecological ego matures toward a sense of ethical responsibility to the planet that is as vividly experienced as our ethical responsibility to other people.

6. Among the therapeutic projects most important to eco psychology is the re-evaluation of certain compulsively "masculine" character traits that permeate our structures of political power and which drive us to dominate nature as if it were an alien and right less realm.

 7. Whatever contributes to small scale social forms and personal empowerment nourishes the ecological ego.

 8. Eco psychology holds that there is a synergistic interplay between planetary and personal well-being.

What are the benefits of eco

therapy on mental health?

What are the benefits of ecotherapy on mental health?

Ecotherapy often has the benefit of easing anxiety and depression

Ecotherapy then slows the pace at which we experience our time in nature, encourages sitting quietly and attending to one's experience of the natural world.

Can a Stroll in the Park Replace the

Psychiatrist’s Couch?

Can a Stroll in the Park Replace the Psychiatrist’s Couch?

A new generation of psychologists and therapists focus on the relationship between nature and mental health.

To help confront a marriage in crisis, Adams (a pseudonym) sought counseling. But the 34-year-old lawyer from Syracuse, New York, didn’t opt for the psychiatrist’s couch. Instead, he chose the mountain.

Adams turned to an emerging practice called ecotherapy, which applies the principles of ecopsychology — the study of how the natural world influences mental health.

Science and Skepticism

In the past few years, some ecopsychologists have made significant strides in adding scientific rigor to their field.

What their research suggests so far is that even subtle interactions with nature provide a range of cognitive benefits, including elevated mood, enhanced memory, and decreased stress

Staring out a window at pretty scenery can significantly lower one’s heart rate, for example, and some studies even indicate that hospital windows with views of nature can facilitate healing.

What’s more, nature provides measurably greater benefits than both manmade environments and simulations of nature.

Research demonstrates that walking through the city can tax our attention, whereas a park restores our concentration and can even improve our performance on tests of memory.

Parks and Relaxation

According to Thomas Doherty, a clinical psychologist in Portland, Oregon and the editor ofEcopsychology, research by these second generation ecopsychologists evidences the measurable benefits of nature for both body and mind.

In green spaces, for example, people’s heart rates decrease, their muscles relax, and they become calmer.

It’s the difference you feel when you leave behind a busy city street for a peaceful park.

Ecotherapy Influences

Among others, ecotherapy applies practices such as Joanna Macy's despair to empowerment work, Molly Young Brown's great turning, and most recently re-emplacement, terratherapy, and homecoming practices emerging from terrapsychology

Ecotherapy Activities

Ecotherapy is based on the theory that nature heals.

Patients recovering from surgery heal faster when they have a window with a view of a tree or garden.

Sad seniors brighten instantly when a baby or puppy comes to visit.

Even violent offenders have been shown to behave less aggressively when they are given a window with a view of the great outdoors.

Ecotherapy activities are intimately tied to nature and the world in its organic state

 Ecotherapy Jobs

Ecotherapists are trained in the specific techniques of ecotherapy and facilitate sessions to help clients improve their psychological well-being.

The role of ecotherapist is that of care coordinator, acting as a liaison with other medical professionals, to develop a treatment plan that will ensure all mental, physical and spiritual needs are being met.

Ecotherapists usually plan outdoor activities in a structured manner and often act as recreational therapists in some settings, such as nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and youth treatment centers

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