Ecopsychology: Reconnecting with Nature II
Read Ecopsychology: Reconnecting with Nature I
By Tatiana Casey
According to Cohen, ecotherapy only works, “depending on the nature of the process involved and how hurt or deadened an individual’s 53 natural attraction senses are and how many, or how strongly, they can be revived” (Cohen, 2005, p.1). Cohen describes theses 53 senses through his courses in Natural Attraction Ecology. There is no guaranteed success through any one ecotherapy because, “sometimes we are blind to what is good for us” (Davis, 2009), or “one has to find what they are looking for through trial and error” (Cohen, 2009). However, ecotherapy offers different “nature-informed” approaches that can allow for human communities and the natural world to reconnect – for the benefit of the physical planet as well as for the well-being and happiness of the people within it (Berger & McLeod, 2006, p. 81).
From personal experience, I know that being in nature can feel healing, even empowering. To Davis, one way to incorporate nature into our lives is to “recognize that you are nature – human nature – and take joy and comfort in the deep connections with what you are. At the same time, welcome the chance to be the world caring for itself through you,” (Davis, 2009).Cohen, on the other hand, says that most of us have experienced “ecopsychology in action” whenever we have had a renewing experience in a natural area but that most of our senses have “deadened” as a result of the socialization and prejudice against nature that we have learned since birth (Cohen, 2009). Cohen also deems that “since nature is self-correcting, when we are in contact with a natural setting, we connect the nature of our psyche to nature’s healing ways and strengthen both in the process” (Cohen, 2009). The goal is to get past our avoidance of nature, whether through venturing into nature on our own or experiencing ecotherapy in one form or another, so that we can begin to understand and heal both the Earth and ourselves, as a whole.
Ecotherapies: Healing through Nature”Experiencing the healing energies of nature more often and in greater depth is an essential objective of the ecotherapeutic process,” Howard Clinebell, PH.D. explains in his book, Ecotherapy: healing ourselves, healing the earth (Clinebell, 1996, p.194). However, it is not always easy to get “back to nature.” Over the past few years, my connection with nature has also changed. Despite my studies in ecopsychology, the obligations I have acquired as a full-time student and mother have shifted my priorities from outdoor adventures to domestic duties and deadlines. Regrettably, my relationship with nature has come to exist, primarily, within the context of philosophical and environmental discussion. As a result of this separation and subsequent “gained knowledge” of environmental issues, I often succumb to feelings of guilt and anxiety. Eco-therapists refer to this type of anxiety as “eco-anxiety” and claim that, “getting back [to nature] doesn’t have to be difficult” (Walsh, 2009). Joanna Macy, ecotherapist and eco-philosopher, prescribes three things to help relieve this anxiety and grief: take some action, however small, to defend our natural environment and animal/plant siblings; begin to build a better, more sustainable society, starting at home; and be open to shifting consciousness by discovering new ways to see things cognitively (Buzzell & Chalquist, 2009, p. 53).
