Are you an Earth-lover?
Do you come alive when watching the sunset, walking on moist earth or touching soft rose petals?
You know how these help you recharge, relax and expand your perspective of life. Whether you’re taking a walk, gardening, or simply sitting in a beautiful place, you’ve felt the magic of nature awakening your senses and giving you a feeling of peace. With Ecotherapy, we include and invite these connections with nature as part of your healing journey.
What is Ecotherapy?
Ecotherapy invites a relationship with nature to offer wisdom, solace, a place to grieve, a place to dream… It reminds us that we are intimately connected with all of life: waters, lands, air and all creatures. We ARE nature. Ecotherapy has ancient roots in indigenous practices of healing with and honoring the Earth. It is also a 30-year-old, evidence-based field of psychology that has been flourishing in the last 10 years.
Like many of us, you may be deeply concerned about our climate crisis, the state of the environment and socio-political injustice. These concerns and the strong feelings they elicit are welcomed and invited into Ecotherapy work. It is healthy and essential to speak and be witnessed in our authentic experience of these painful areas.
As a “climate-aware therapist”, I incorporate Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects as part of our work together. I would be honored to hear and help hold your pain on this journey.
It is a joy and a gift to offer Ecotherapy.
I offer great gratitude to the land that I practice with, the unceded Lisjan territory of the Ohlone peoples. I honor and support the ancestors and present Lisjan people and encourage you to learn more and make a donation to support the return of their land and culture here. If you are not in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can find out more about the native peoples of your land here.
With nature as my co-therapist, I can guide you to explore any of your life challenges and hopes. We usually meet in the beautiful redwood forests of the Oakland Hills. If you are not in my area, I’ve developed a powerful method of telehealth Ecotherapy, where you can be in a park, your backyard or immersed in your imagination.
You can read and learn more about this work at The Earthbody Institute, which I founded 10 years ago and am the director.
I would love to walk with you on this path of inviting the natural world into your life and healing journey.
What does an outdoor Ecotherapy session look like?
Beginning:
Imagine we’re walking together into a redwood forest: smelling crisp, moist air; seeing shades of beautiful greens; hearing birdsong and squirrels. You feel the slower pace and calm in your body and your breathing deepens. You become aware of how your feet meet the soft ground, and notice the scents of bay trees and spring flowers. Your stress begins to melt away, and you feel present and grounded.
Middle:
We’ll spend a few minutes talking about your hopes for our session, and walk toward a place you feel drawn to in the forest. I’ll respectfully guide you to connect your inner process with the resources that are available in the natural world. I may invite you to find an aspect of nature that mirrors your challenge and explore what this offers. As you engage with your internal experiences and the natural world, new insights begin to unfold. You will feel a shift towards fresh ways to see your original issue, and feel more clarity for your next steps.
Closing:
We’ll discuss how you can continue deepening this awareness in your daily life. You’ll leave with specific ideas for practicing what you learned, such as a new meditative nature practice. We will close our session by offering gratitude for what the land has given us, and walk back to where we entered the park.
Ecotherapy is a great fit if you:
– Enjoy clearing your mind and finding solutions to your problems outdoors
– Feel a sacredness with the natural world
– Want to honor a rite of passage (marriage, birth, retirement or relationship ending)
– Want to heal from a traumatic outdoor experience
– Know that being in nature is healing and want more of it
– Would like to spend more time outside, but don’t quite know how to do that
– Feel uncomfortable about going outside alone, and would like this to change
Ariana Candell 