Towards an Ecopsychotherapy

Towards an Ecopsychotherapy offers diverse stories, from the therapy room to therapy in the forest, about the healing process of reconnection with the more-than-human world as well as with our wild animal selves. It provides an insight into ecopsychotherapy in practice and outlines its history, key themes, ideas, and controversies. This book is for anyone in the caring professions who seeks to practice therapy with the earth in mind, and for those struggling with eco-anxiety or eco-grief who wish to deepen their relationship with the earth and find hope in turbulent times.

Mary-Jayne Rust is an art therapist and Jungian analyst. Alongside her private practice she writes, lectures and facilitates workshops in the field of ecopsychology. In the 1980s she worked at the Women's Therapy Centre with women with eating problems; this led to a wider interest in the roots of consumerism, the connections between body and psyche, land, and soul. Two journeys to Ladakh in the early 1990s alerted her to the seriousness of the environmental crisis, and gave her a brief glimpse of an almost intact traditional culture. On return she joined the PCSR ecopsychology group. This group of ten therapists met monthly for five years, discussing theory and exploring the practice of ecopsychology. She grew up beside the sea and is wild about swimming. Now she lives and works beside ancient woodland in North London.