Ecopsychology addresses how the health of the planet is connected to the health of the human psyche and holds that both can be healed simultaneously through life-enhancing practices. These practices help people to reconnect to repressed feelings, their connection to the rest of life, and the other beings that make up the non-human world. In forming this reconnection, people then desire to act on behalf of the earth, and the health of the earth is benefited as well.

Humans are seen in ecopsychology as being a part of the greater earth community, interconnected with the trees, rocks, birds, animals, and other beings. Many mystics, indigenous world-views, and modern forms of science have realized that there are actually no definite points where one being ends and another begins, but instead there is a flow of life between all beings. Joanna Macy (1990) states, “…as open, self-organizing systems, our very breathing, acting and thinking arise in interaction with our shared world through the currents of matter, energy, and information that move through us and sustain us. In the web of relationships that sustain these activities there is no clear line demarcating a separate, continuous self” (58).

During a time when many people in industrial societies are not in conscious relationship with the natural world, ecopsychology strives to help people to feel this connection with the rest of life. There are practices within ecopsychology that are successfully helping people to reconnect psychologically to the earth, and many of these practices are drawing wisdom from indigenous ways of life.

One approach to forming this reconnection, called “despair and empowerment work”, involves allowing our repressed feelings to emerge because they are coming from not only our individual psyche, but from the suffering of many forms of life (Macy 1990, 5). Joanna Macy (1990) explains, “We are capable of suffering with our world, and that is the true meaning of compassion. It enables us to recognize that our profound interconnectedness with all beings” (57).

People receive information about the destruction that is taking place on the earth, not just through the news, but also through feelings of pain, sadness, anger, isolation, and fear. These emotions are part of the human connection to other beings and Gaia, and through allowing the information that is coming to us from other beings to be felt, we connect to the larger self and are energized to act on its behalf. As Joanna Macy (1990) describes, “There is the sense of being acted through and sustained by those very beings on whose behalf one acts” (63). Compassion can take the place of shame or fear as the motivational force to get people to take part in the movement to restore the health of the earth.

Others practices that can help people to consciously reconnect with the earth are being in nature, vision questing, and participating in ritual. There are numerous ways that people in cities can even develop a bond with their natural surroundings, such as going for walks in parks, watching the sunset, or helping to create a community garden. For others, who are able to go deeper into the wilderness, outer nature has the ability to stimulate the emergence of the inner wildness. Vision questing in particular can allow individuals to explore the depths of their inner worlds while forming an intimate relationship with their natural surroundings. All of these practices hold nature as being the teacher. In the words of Laura Sewall (1995), “If we are receptive to the ways in which the landscape speaks to us, or the ways in which perception serves as a channel for communion, we may reawaken and preserve a sense of human integrity within the family of all relations” (215).

By providing these types of practices, ecopsychology takes an important part in the healing of the individual psyche and the earth together. People can come into connection with their emotions that tie them to the rest of the world. They can also deepen their awareness of their relationships with nature through practices such as gardening and vision questing. The path of healing the individual psyche and the earth is one that offers great hope for the entire planet. For human beings, this path of healing is one of that can bring a great sense of purpose, place, and vitality into modern-day lives. For the many other non-human beings, ecopsychology offers a way for their importance and right to life to be remembered and honored. When people feel compassion and closeness to other forms of life, it is natural to want to save them from harm and to live in mutually life-sustaining ways. Ecopsychology calls on humans to come together with the rest of life and move towards planetary health as a community, bonded by the support of the being that is called Gaia.

References:
Conn, S. (1998). Living in the Earth: Ecopsychology, Health and Psychotherapy. The Humanistic Psychology, 26, 179-197.
Macy, J. The Greening of the Self. In A. Hunt Badiner (Ed.), Dharma Gaia (pp. 53-63). Berkely: Prallax Press.
Sewall, L. (1995). The Skill of Ecological Perception. In T. Roszak, M.
Gomes, A. Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring The Earth Healing The Mind (pp. xiii-xvi). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.