Exciting new research is revealing that various nature reconnection practices are powerful medicine for improved mental and physical health—in fact, many now qualify as “evidence-based medicine.” Yet little training has been available for those wanting to include the various ecotherapies in their professional healing practices or personal lives.
On the beautiful Ladera campus of Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, nestled between the mountains and the ocean, our intensive weekend will cover the many different applied ecopsychology methods now being practiced in consulting rooms and outdoor spaces around the world.
We will explore many modalities, including “wild nature within” practices like eco-dreamwork and guided visualization; garden and farm therapies; animal-facilitated therapies; wilderness experiences; environmental justice practices; reconnecting with place and ancestors; ecospirituality, and more.
These and other ecotherapy healing methods are now being used in many settings, including schools, nursing homes, therapy offices, prisons, rehabilitation programs, healing practices and hospitals to treat a wide variety of presenting problems including anxiety, depression, addictions, trauma and eco-anxiety. Ecotherapy is definitely not a “one size fits all” modality, so we will learn how to choose the appropriate ecotherapy for each client.
We will also explore cultural ecotherapies designed to help our clients and communities deal with increasingly challenging environmental and economic conditions through interior and group processing, community building and fostering ecoresilience for transition towards true sustainability.
Taking an inclusive, whole-systems view, we will not only understand ecotherapy as a way to merely “use” nature for human benefit but also as an opportunity to practice the ethical imperatives that lead us towards a true circle of reciprocal healing, where we use our unique healing gifts to reciprocate the care that an imperiled Nature so generously shares with us.
GENERAL INFORMATION
REGISTRATION
Space is Limited! Register Early! To register, submit the form on the webpage, or print and mail it to the Public Programs Department, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 249 Lambert Road, Carpinteria, CA 93013 or call the Public Programs Department at 805.969.3626, ext. 103. An email confirmation letter will be sent within 5 days of receiving your registration.
ABOUT LINDA
Linda Buzzell, MA, LMFT, PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate), has been a psychotherapist for more than 30 years and has specialized in ecopsychology and ecotherapy since 2000. She and Craig Chalquist edited the Sierra Club Books anthology Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind, a core text in clinical ecopsychology. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Ecopsychology, the peer reviewed journal of the field, and was a keynote speaker at the 2014 Ecotherapy Symposium at the University of Brighton in the UK. She is Adjunct Faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute. In 2002 she founded the International Association for Ecotherapy and is co-founder of the Ecopsychology Network of Southern California. She blogs on ecopsychology and ecotherapy at The Huffington Post.
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