Eco-practice
Eco awareness and ecotherapy principles and approaches inform all of my practice: Supervision, Art Psychotherapy, Counselling/Psychotherapy and Training. This is founded in the need to promote a more reciprocal caring relationship with and for the rest of nature. We are inter-dependent.
Evidence for Nature and Wellbeing
There is growing body of evidence of the value and effectiveness of nature-based approaches for health, well-being and mental health for example:
- What makes nature-based interventions for mental health successful? (Bloomfield, 2017) British Journal of Psychiatry International, which summarises that: "Broadly, the evidence for a link between mental health and engagement with, access to and interventions within nature is substantial."
Other resources include: A review of nature-based interventions for mental health care (Natural England, 2016) - a recent report on research by the University of Essex and Mind (a leading UK mental health charity).
See also e.g. The mental health benefits of nature exposure (2015); Connecting with nature offers a new approach to mental health care (2016) and the Children and Nature Network.
Ecotherapy is a nature-based therapeutic approach that is informed by ecopsychology. It can support wellbeing and help create better relationships with nature, ourselves and each other. For more details, see MIND's summary: What is Ecotherapy?; and also see our Resources page for other sources of information.
In a 2016 Report on A review of nature-based interventions for mental health care, Bragg and Atkins (2016, p.12) summarise that "nature-based interventions have been termed ‘green care’ (Pretty, 2006; Hine et al., 2008a,c; Sempik et al., 2010; Sempik and Bragg, 2013), ‘ecotherapy’ (Mind 2007, 2013; Bragg et al, 2013) or simply ‘nature-based interventions’." They propose that "the term ‘Green Care’ should be used to describe the range of activities that fall within the scope of nature-based interventions for individuals with a defined or diagnosed need." (Bragg & Atkins, 2016, p.viii).