Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind
Psychotherapist Buzzell and psychology professor Chalquist (Terrapsychologist) gather 29 contributors to explore traditional psychotherapy at the intersection of the human and the environment. This next-generation update of the Sierra Club's 1995 Ecopsychology finds one of the editors of that volume, Theodore Rosak, comparing society's "relentless pursuit of money" with Aztec "blood sacrifice," and urging all psychologists to challenge the prevailing ethos. Mary E. Gomes, another editor of Ecopsychology, considers an extention of the community circle to "all that lives and all that has left this world," treating lost species "as we would a friend, a family member, a beloved." Buzzell explores the precepts of ecotherapy (probing "human-nature" as well as "human-human" relationships) and its questions ("Are there animals in your life? Special environments where your heart opens and life feels right?"). Chalquist provides an overview of ecotherapy research while exploring the idea that a missing "psychology of homecoming" is the result of an artificial divide between "scientific knowledge" and "indigenous wisdom." Other sections explore ecotherapy in practice, helping couples bond to nature, treating animal trauma, and the healing methods of wilderness therapy.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.