What is Ecopsychology?
Ecopsychology is an interdisciplinary field that examines the reciprocal relationship between human psychological well-being and the natural environment. The field illustrates the connection between ecological health and mental health, operating on the premise that modern society’s disconnection from nature contributes to psychological distress and that restoring this relationship is essential for both individual healing and planetary sustainability. Unlike traditional psychology, which typically focuses on intrapsychic or interpersonal dynamics, ecopsychology extends the therapeutic frame to include the human-nature relationship as central to mental health.
Origins & Lineage
Theodore Roszak is credited with coining the term “ecopsychology” in his 1992 book The Voice of the Earth, though a group of psychologists and environmentalists, including Mary Gomes and Allen Kanner, were independently using the term at the same time. The field’s intellectual roots trace to earlier work: Robert Greenway was teaching “psychoecology” in the early 1960s, exploring the wilderness experience and how ‘mind’ and ‘nature’ interact. At a conference at Esalen in San Francisco in the early 1990s a dialogue began between environmentalists and psychologists—particularly therapists, creating fertile ground for the field’s emergence.
Two other books were especially formative: Paul Shepard’s 1982 volume, Nature and Madness, which explored the effect that our diminishing engagement with nature had upon psychological development, and David Abram’s 1996 The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. Roszak, Gomes and Kanner later expanded the idea in the 1995 anthology Ecopsychology, which became a seminal text for the movement.
In The Voice of the Earth, Roszak proposed that the core of the mind is the ecological unconscious, and that repression of the ecological unconscious is the deepest root of collusive madness in industrial society. This concept drew from depth psychology while reframing the unconscious to include humanity’s evolutionary relationship with the natural world.
How It’s Practiced
Ecopsychology manifests both as a theoretical framework and as applied therapeutic practice, often called ecotherapy or nature therapy. Nature-based methods of physical and psychological healing include horticultural therapy, forest therapy, animal-assisted therapy, wilderness therapy, eco-dreamwork, and others. Practitioners may conduct therapy sessions outdoors, use natural metaphors in treatment, or prescribe specific nature activities as part of healing processes.
An example is the “Shinrin Yoku” or forest bathing practice in Japan, which involves mindful immersion in a forest environment and can lower cortisol levels and improve overall mental health. Other modalities include gardening programs for therapeutic purposes, wilderness immersion experiences that combine traditional therapy with outdoor activities, and animal-assisted interventions that foster trust and relational capacity.
Ecopsychology is informed by systems theory and provides individuals with an opportunity to explore their relationship with nature—an area that may be overlooked in many other types of psychotherapy. Sessions might involve sitting meditation in natural settings, reflective nature walks, conservation activities as group therapy, or even tending to indoor plants as a daily practice.
Ecopsychology Today
Contemporary seekers encounter ecopsychology through diverse channels. Naropa University and Antioch University both offer ecopsychology courses as part of their curriculum, and JFK University in San Francisco offers a one-year ecotherapy certificate program, which provides training in a wide range of ecotherapy techniques. The International Ecopsychology Society supports practitioners and researchers worldwide.
While some professionals teach and practice ecopsychology exclusively, other mental health practitioners incorporate aspects of ecotherapy into their existing practices. This integrative approach has expanded the field’s reach beyond dedicated wilderness therapy programs to include urban nature-based interventions, community gardening initiatives, and nature-integrated counseling in conventional therapeutic settings.
The field continues to evolve through ongoing research in environmental psychology, neuroscience studies on nature exposure and brain function, and dialogue with indigenous knowledge systems that have long recognized the interdependence of human and ecological health. Ecopsychology also intersects with climate psychology, addressing eco-anxiety and environmental grief as legitimate psychological responses to ecological crisis.
Common Misconceptions
Ecopsychology is not simply “outdoor therapy” or recreational hiking with therapeutic benefits, though these may be components. It represents a more fundamental reframing of psychological theory to include ecological consciousness as essential to mental health, not merely supplementary.
The field is not exclusively about environmental activism, though it often has environmental implications. Just as other therapies seek to heal the alienation between person and person, person and family, person and society, ecopsychology seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the person and the natural environment. Personal healing and ecological awareness develop in tandem, not as separate agendas.
Ecopsychology is not a rejection of clinical psychology or evidence-based practice. Rather, it expands the scope of psychological inquiry to include environmental factors often absent from conventional approaches. Critics have noted that the field must continue developing empirical research alongside its theoretical foundations, and practitioners emphasize the importance of clinical training in addition to nature-based skills.
Finally, ecopsychology does not romanticize nature or advocate for abandoning urban life. It acknowledges that even urban dwellers can cultivate ecological consciousness through accessible green spaces, attention to seasonal cycles, and recognition of their embeddedness in living systems.
How to Begin
Those new to ecopsychology might start with Theodore Roszak’s The Voice of the Earth (1992) or the anthology Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind (1995) edited by Roszak, Gomes, and Kanner. David Abram’s The Spell of the Sensuous offers a phenomenological approach accessible to general readers.
For experiential entry, seek out forest bathing groups, community gardening programs, or therapists who integrate nature-based approaches. Simple practices include establishing a regular “sit spot” in a natural area for observation and reflection, keeping a nature journal to document seasonal changes and emotional responses, or joining local conservation efforts that combine ecological work with group reflection.
Formal training programs exist for mental health professionals seeking to integrate ecopsychology into their practice, while interested laypeople can explore workshops, retreats, and online courses offered through ecopsychology institutes and environmental education centers. The practice begins wherever one is willing to pay attention to the reciprocal relationship between inner psychological life and the more-than-human world.