Art Therapy Approaches: What Regenerative Practices Can Teach Us About Our Self and Environmental Systems

Abstract

Contemporary US and European approaches to ecosystems and mental health have left many feeling disempowered in the face of the climate crisis. This article advocates for holistic approaches to supporting natural complex systems with contemplation and care. It explores how environmental metaphors and nature-based art therapy can foster human-nature connections, call for deep listening, reshape practitioner perceptions, and enhance understandings of internal and external worlds. Further, how existing frameworks such as the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), can highlight the therapeutic qualities of nature-based art therapy and the potential for adaptation through the expressed paradigm shift. This article proposes that responsive mental health care can be adapted to better address the necessary changes required to support the global community and environment as we listen and adapt to climate change.

Keywords:

• Nature-based art therapy
• regenerative agriculture
• systems thinking
• the ETC

Acknowledgment

I would like to acknowledge the Gunaikurnai people and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians of the lands that I have written this article on. I would like to pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. It is with my respect that I acknowledge the First Nations connection to the land and the knowledge systems that exist and continue to evolve. First Peoples understandings significantly pre-date the concepts discussed in this article, particularly in relation to caring for land and role of the metaphoric expression and arts in storytelling and wellbeing practices.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emma Cornwall

Emma Cornwall, AThR, is Master of Art Therapy, Art Therapist, in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.