Ecotherapy Practice: Perceived Obstacles and Solutions

Abstract

This article discusses ecotherapy practice using literature, practice, and activity outside as well as inside transactional analysis (TA). Drawing on a survey of mental health professionals regarding their use of nature in therapy sessions, and the first author’s own interpretive review of the literature, the article discusses five identified obstacles to ecotherapy and offers some solutions to those. The authors contextualize their position and experiences (as an ecotherapist and activist and as an activist scholar, respectively) and in relation to indigenous traditions and struggles in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The article aims to encourage and support transactional analysts to integrate the environment and nature into their practice and, more fundamentally, to understand their practice in the context of the environment.

Keywords:

• Natural environments
• ecotherapy
• ecopsychology
• positionality
• obstacles
• solutions
• environmental activism

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Selina Clare

Selina Clare, Registered Psychotherapist (PBANZ), Grad Dip Psychotherapy Studies, Master of Psychotherapy (1st Class Hons), ISTDP Core Training (2017-2020), ISTDP Advanced Training (2021-current), supervision and training in dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP focused), has a private practice in Otautahi, Aotearoa (Christchurch, New Zealand) and is an activist in her free time. Selina can be reached at 88b Edgeware Road, St. Albans, Christchurch, 8014 Aoteaora New Zealand; email: [email protected].

Keith Tudor

Keith Tudor, PhD, CQSW, Dip. Psychotherapy, Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy), is professor of psychotherapy at Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa New Zealand. He also has a small private practice in West Auckland as a health care provider and transactional analyst. Keith can be reached at Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, Aotearoa New Zealand; email: [email protected].