Ecotherapy and Children: A Natural Connection

Your Name, MA – Montclair State University

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.“ — John Muir

Key Concepts

Research Findings

Collaboration and Future Research

Critical Readings

Implications for CounselorsThe model of ecotherapy-ecoeducation presented by Howard Clinebell (1996) includes the following objectives:

1.Facilitate the healing of alienation from the earth and enhance openness to being nurtured by nature more intentionally and often, in loving, respectful interaction with the natural world;

2.Enable people to become more aware of the self-transcending or spiritual dimensions in their experiences with nature; and

3.Motivate people to learn how to adopt more earth-caring lifestyles and behaviors that will help save the biosphere (p.62).

Ecotherapy defined:

An interdisciplinary approach of counseling that acknowledges the vital role of the environment in our well-being and addresses the human-nature relationship.

Concepts include:

•The western world including counseling and psychology has mostly overlooked our intrinsic relationship with the natural world.

•The theory of ecopsychology and practice of ecotherapy reconnects the human-environment relationship including its impact on our development and mental health.

•Furthermore, our isolation from the natural world perpetuates our carelessness and destruction of the environment.

•Ecotherapy empowers us to heal through nature and also heal nature through social action.

There are positive effects of spending even a little time in nature including improvement in attention, overall wellbeing and happiness. Furthermore, hands-on contact with nature increases self-esteem and empowerment.

Adventure/wilderness therapy provides positive results for participants including improved self-concept, locus of control and leadership skills. There is also evidence that this change persists over time.

Adventure therapy is also effective in decreasing recidivism rates for juvenile offenders.

Exposure to the natural world has beneficial effects with children including cognitive improvements and creativity.

Moreover, a lack of exposure to the natural world can result in a higher rate of depression and attention disorders.

Therapeutic modalities include:

Bodywork Stress-reduction

Empowerment techniques Mindfulness practice

Wilderness therapy Horticultural therapy

Animal/pet therapy Spiritual development

Yoga Social Activism

Collaboration

• Connecting practicing counselors who infuse the environment in their work with children with ecotherapy and ecofeminism

• Collaborating with administrators, teachers, school counselors as well as science and environmental educators to integrate concepts of ecotherapy into schools

• Training and collaborating with community agencies and non-profit organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, etc.

Future Research

• Further research that explicitly studies the use of ecotherapy approach with children including qualitative work on the practice and approaches of ecotherapy specifically with children

• Research that studies the connection and integration with other counseling theories.

Ecotherapy. (2009) Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist. (Eds.)

Last Child in the Woods. Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. (2008) Richard Louv

Ecotherapy: Healing ourselves, healing the earth. (1996) Howard Clinebell.

Ecopsychology: Restoring the earth, healing the mind. (1995) Theodore Roszak, Mary Gomes, and Allen Kanner (Eds.)

Your Name Montclair State University