Towards an Ecopsychotherapy

Rust
Confer Books
160 pages
ISBN-13 : 9781913494124
July 2020

“If psychotherapy is to remain relevant, it must change and recognize that we exist as part of, not apart from, Nature. I trust Mary-Jayne Rust more than anyone else to guide us there.”
Jerome Bernstein, Jungian Analyst, author of Living in the Borderland

Psychotherapy invites us to tell the story of our human relationships; ecopsychotherapy expands this to include our earth story, the context or continuum in which our human relationships sit. Ecopsychotherapy is not simply a technique to be applied in therapy: it involves a change in perspective. While practising therapy outdoors is a radical shift that can support and facilitate the healing process, it also acknowledges that our relationship with the earth is both inside and outside ourselves. As climate chaos quickens and increasing numbers of people are waking up to the seriousness of our environmental crisis, we are becoming more aware of our dysfunctional relationship with the earth – the body on whom we depend for everything. Ecopsychotherapy can help to support our reconnection with nature and to discover hope in turbulent times.