Effectiveness of Ecotherapy (03-24-10)

Ecotherapy is a form of clinical psychology that focuses on “circles of mutual healing between the human mind and the natural world from which it evolved.  It includes horticultural therapy, wilderness excursion work, time stress management and certain kinds of animal-assisted therapy.”  As might be expected from the work of the Kaplans relating attention restoration to exposure to nature environments and Uhlrich’s work on stress reduction through nature exposure, ecotherapy seems to produce positive psychological responses:  “Disconnection from the natural world in which we evolved produces a variety of psychological symptoms that include anxiety, frustration, and depression.  These symptoms cannot be attributed solely to intrapsychic or intrafamilial dynamics.  Reconnection to the natural world – whether through gardens, animals, nature walks outside, or nature brought indoors – not only alleviates these symptoms, but also brings a larger capacity for health, self-esteem, self-relatedness, social connection, and joy.”

Craig Chalquist.  2009.  “A Look at the Ecotherapy Research Evidence.”  Ecopsychology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 64-74.