I went down a rabbit hole recently on this topic, and actually looked into getting an ecopsychology certificate from a graduate institution. In case you happen to be interested, here are a few resources I jotted down from the course content! The three teachers are Andy Fisher, Jeanine Canty and Mary-Jayne Rust, the authors of the first three books:
- Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life — Andy Fisher
- Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet — Jeanine M. Canty
- Towards an Ecopsychotherapy — Mary-Jayne Rust
- Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind — Gomes, & A.D. Kanner
- Keepers of the Earth in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind — Armstrong, J.
- Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind — Linda Buzzell & Craig Chalquist
Came here to say this! There is so much more. Ecopsychology has now extended to ecopsychoanalysis—Ecopsychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos by Joseph Dodds which also delves in non-linearity and complexity studies; David Abram, who also wrote featured in Fisher’s book, and his work (especially, Spell of the Sensuous); Terrapsychology; The Voice of the Earth by Theodre Roszak; Nature and Madness by Paul Shephard; and many more.
Thank you for this!! I went into the same rabbit hole but trying to find something local, so this is helpful anyway to keep an open mind. Thank you again and have a good day 🙏🏻
This resonated strongly, particularly the discussion of thresholds, hidden rivers, and the movement beyond psychogeography's focus on human experience alone.
One thing I've found through practice is that the most interesting shift happens when places stop feeling like settings and start feeling like participants. Not necessarily because we've proved anything about them, but because sustained attention changes the quality of the relationship. In fact, I don't think we need to prove anything about them - places and elements within place have their own agenda regardless of what we believe.
The idea of psychoecology feels useful to me for exactly that reason. It asks what becomes visible when we stop treating mind and place as separate things.
I love this. And I particularly love how you didn't use the word 'liminal' once, and somehow avoided making grand statements about interconnection etc in a theoretical or abstract or new-agey way. Answering your call to think differently about all this (ex-dynamic systems researcher/artist).
I really appreciate this as I’m really trying to see how through writing I might create bridges that feel open and inviting to people and to do that as honestly as possible from my own experiences and learning.
Very interesting, it also resonates quite a bit with some thoughts and feelings I have had for some years. Today I posted (my first post ever) about how landscape and the weather shape us. So this was a particularly timely read!
I am curious as to the nomenclature of your work. Would you mind discussing the differences—as they are true for you—between psychoecology (your term) vs Ecopsychology (the established field)?
Thank you for your question and for opening this up. This has been mentioned previously (although I notice the original question has been deleted for some reason).
I guess I wasn't trying to propose psycho-ecology as field of study but more of a way of sharing my experience of exploring the world, what that does to me when that attention expands beyond the human-made environment to the more-than-human. Starting with my sensory exprience of the world. It made sense to me to do that in contrast to the idea of psychogeography with which I am very familiar.
My intention wasn't to present a theory, I was offering a personal reflection and an invitation: a way of thinking about how our inner lives might be entangled with rivers, forests, animals, ecosystems and the stories we tell about them. Less a defined field of study and more about the experience of relationship with the living world.
Perhaps it is not much different to deep ecology and Ecopsychology. I actually was trying to intentionally not do too much research for this piece of writing, my comfortable place would be to delve deep into things and then eventually decide that everything has already been said and then so say nothing at all.
Ahh. This is beautiful. Thank you for reflecting and for sharing. As someone who started my career in urbanism but who accidentally keeps refusing to stick to any discipline, the shift outwards to the natural environment seems natural, especially once we start cultivating real attention. The challenge with the city is that so much of it is "dead", at least in its built form and materiality. That makes us feel like we're actors on a stage. In reality we're all in the dance together and the closer we get to our natural environment the more we realise this is the case, and actually our environment is talking back. There are lots of threads in here, looking forward to more on it.
The video of John Moriarty, Ireland's greatest philosopher is going around Instagram at the moment. We need the wilderness within and the wilderness out there.
Growing my understanding of Ecology has been a key to radically shifting my professional and my personal practices. I’m all in on Psychoecology. It is science based and spirit giving both. Thanks for the term!
To me it’s always about developing relationship which of course is psychological. I hadn’t heard of the situationists, walking around an urban landscape.
Years ago a friend lent me the book ‘Connecting With Nature, by John Stowe published by Findhorn community about communing with nature. Instead of returning it, it became lost in a move. In setting out to find it again, I rediscovered a natural spirit connection that yearned to be more present with the natural world around me.
I write about how routine visits to a nearby lake resulted in Swan friendships blossoming in my substack.
"we live in a time of unprecedented dis-connection, when the mainstream of society seems to have forgotten that we depend on the integrity of the living systems around us for our own existence. …We still have so much to learn from indigenous cultures who have a communal relationship with trees, streams, animals and sacred places.”
“I found this deeply resonant. The move from psychogeography to psychoecology feels important: not just walking through place as a reading of memory, but entering relation with place as participant. The buried Fleet passage seems central. The river is no longer just a mnemonic underlay beneath the city. It becomes a living question.
I also appreciated the ‘psyche as ecosystem’ frame, especially the shifted baseline of inner depletion. I’d love to see it developed further as methodology: what distinguishes psychoecology as a practice ? What are its disciplines of attention, its ethical safeguards, its tests of whether listening actually changes behaviour?
I’m interested in how psychoecology moves toward repeatable practice, shared ritual, and mutual respect and care.
We love this. This is the lunarpunk movement. The relational recognition of the living world and systems all around us. The relationships with non-human beings. The unseen world that never left us.
Thank you for this wonderful article and thought offering. I did not know about psychogeography. I love this term comes from Paris if not because living here and instinctually doing dérives is a pivotal part of my self rewilding and inner ecosystem explorations.
I have also been reflecting a lot about the psychogeography of our living spaces/homes and the reinforcing power of adapting them. But what makes us ready to or stop us? I am about to do a big declutter but I am realizing this is now only possible due to having decluttered a lot of my mind and body (trauma) as I rewild.
I think before Western science and its classifications and terminologies jumped in, these observations were embodied within very old religious/philosophical and cultural traditions - for example from East Asia, in Taoism and Shintoism.
Let's remember that wilderness ecotherapist Robert Greenway coined the term psychoecology in 1963 and was one of the pioneers of ecopsychology and ecotherapy. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and owe them the decent appreciation they deserve.
Thank you for this Linda. I appreciate you taking the time to bring this in. It's the kind of attention that makes writing in the open worthwhile. I hadn't come across Greenway teaching psychoecology in the 60s. That's a real lineage, and it's humbling to learn that the words that found me were already found long before I got there. As is clear from other comments too, I've got some reading to do around ecopsychology. Greenway's now on that list. I'm not trying to coin or define anything here so I hope it doesn’t come across that way. I’m exploring writing as a way of searching, of working out how to record and share what I experience. A study of my own attention and experience, more artistic than academic.
As Jungians and depth psychologists like to say, it's probably a lovely synchronicity. They seem to pop up in our consciousness from time to time, alerting us to things that may help us. Wishing you all the best with your important work.
I went down a rabbit hole recently on this topic, and actually looked into getting an ecopsychology certificate from a graduate institution. In case you happen to be interested, here are a few resources I jotted down from the course content! The three teachers are Andy Fisher, Jeanine Canty and Mary-Jayne Rust, the authors of the first three books:
- Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life — Andy Fisher
- Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet — Jeanine M. Canty
- Towards an Ecopsychotherapy — Mary-Jayne Rust
- Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind — Gomes, & A.D. Kanner
- Keepers of the Earth in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind — Armstrong, J.
- Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind — Linda Buzzell & Craig Chalquist
Came here to say this! There is so much more. Ecopsychology has now extended to ecopsychoanalysis—Ecopsychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos by Joseph Dodds which also delves in non-linearity and complexity studies; David Abram, who also wrote featured in Fisher’s book, and his work (especially, Spell of the Sensuous); Terrapsychology; The Voice of the Earth by Theodre Roszak; Nature and Madness by Paul Shephard; and many more.
Thank you for this!! I went into the same rabbit hole but trying to find something local, so this is helpful anyway to keep an open mind. Thank you again and have a good day 🙏🏻
This resonated strongly, particularly the discussion of thresholds, hidden rivers, and the movement beyond psychogeography's focus on human experience alone.
One thing I've found through practice is that the most interesting shift happens when places stop feeling like settings and start feeling like participants. Not necessarily because we've proved anything about them, but because sustained attention changes the quality of the relationship. In fact, I don't think we need to prove anything about them - places and elements within place have their own agenda regardless of what we believe.
The idea of psychoecology feels useful to me for exactly that reason. It asks what becomes visible when we stop treating mind and place as separate things.
I love this. And I particularly love how you didn't use the word 'liminal' once, and somehow avoided making grand statements about interconnection etc in a theoretical or abstract or new-agey way. Answering your call to think differently about all this (ex-dynamic systems researcher/artist).
Thank you Tamsin.
I really appreciate this as I’m really trying to see how through writing I might create bridges that feel open and inviting to people and to do that as honestly as possible from my own experiences and learning.
Very interesting, it also resonates quite a bit with some thoughts and feelings I have had for some years. Today I posted (my first post ever) about how landscape and the weather shape us. So this was a particularly timely read!
Here’s my post in case there’s interest
https://karlamedrano.substack.com/p/the-bluest-sea?r=22igco&utm_medium=ios
Greetings!
I am curious as to the nomenclature of your work. Would you mind discussing the differences—as they are true for you—between psychoecology (your term) vs Ecopsychology (the established field)?
Thank you! :)
Thank you for your question and for opening this up. This has been mentioned previously (although I notice the original question has been deleted for some reason).
I guess I wasn't trying to propose psycho-ecology as field of study but more of a way of sharing my experience of exploring the world, what that does to me when that attention expands beyond the human-made environment to the more-than-human. Starting with my sensory exprience of the world. It made sense to me to do that in contrast to the idea of psychogeography with which I am very familiar.
My intention wasn't to present a theory, I was offering a personal reflection and an invitation: a way of thinking about how our inner lives might be entangled with rivers, forests, animals, ecosystems and the stories we tell about them. Less a defined field of study and more about the experience of relationship with the living world.
Perhaps it is not much different to deep ecology and Ecopsychology. I actually was trying to intentionally not do too much research for this piece of writing, my comfortable place would be to delve deep into things and then eventually decide that everything has already been said and then so say nothing at all.
Interested to hear your reflections.
One of the best reads I’ve had in the past few weeks—truly one to return to again and again.
Ahh. This is beautiful. Thank you for reflecting and for sharing. As someone who started my career in urbanism but who accidentally keeps refusing to stick to any discipline, the shift outwards to the natural environment seems natural, especially once we start cultivating real attention. The challenge with the city is that so much of it is "dead", at least in its built form and materiality. That makes us feel like we're actors on a stage. In reality we're all in the dance together and the closer we get to our natural environment the more we realise this is the case, and actually our environment is talking back. There are lots of threads in here, looking forward to more on it.
The video of John Moriarty, Ireland's greatest philosopher is going around Instagram at the moment. We need the wilderness within and the wilderness out there.
Growing my understanding of Ecology has been a key to radically shifting my professional and my personal practices. I’m all in on Psychoecology. It is science based and spirit giving both. Thanks for the term!
To me it’s always about developing relationship which of course is psychological. I hadn’t heard of the situationists, walking around an urban landscape.
Years ago a friend lent me the book ‘Connecting With Nature, by John Stowe published by Findhorn community about communing with nature. Instead of returning it, it became lost in a move. In setting out to find it again, I rediscovered a natural spirit connection that yearned to be more present with the natural world around me.
I write about how routine visits to a nearby lake resulted in Swan friendships blossoming in my substack.
"we live in a time of unprecedented dis-connection, when the mainstream of society seems to have forgotten that we depend on the integrity of the living systems around us for our own existence. …We still have so much to learn from indigenous cultures who have a communal relationship with trees, streams, animals and sacred places.”
Winged Messengers: Swan Wisdom as Medicine
https://cosmictransformer.substack.com/p/wing-music-the-sound-of-trumpeter?r=z8gn&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=post-publish
“I found this deeply resonant. The move from psychogeography to psychoecology feels important: not just walking through place as a reading of memory, but entering relation with place as participant. The buried Fleet passage seems central. The river is no longer just a mnemonic underlay beneath the city. It becomes a living question.
I also appreciated the ‘psyche as ecosystem’ frame, especially the shifted baseline of inner depletion. I’d love to see it developed further as methodology: what distinguishes psychoecology as a practice ? What are its disciplines of attention, its ethical safeguards, its tests of whether listening actually changes behaviour?
I’m interested in how psychoecology moves toward repeatable practice, shared ritual, and mutual respect and care.
We love this. This is the lunarpunk movement. The relational recognition of the living world and systems all around us. The relationships with non-human beings. The unseen world that never left us.
Thank you for this wonderful article and thought offering. I did not know about psychogeography. I love this term comes from Paris if not because living here and instinctually doing dérives is a pivotal part of my self rewilding and inner ecosystem explorations.
I have also been reflecting a lot about the psychogeography of our living spaces/homes and the reinforcing power of adapting them. But what makes us ready to or stop us? I am about to do a big declutter but I am realizing this is now only possible due to having decluttered a lot of my mind and body (trauma) as I rewild.
I think before Western science and its classifications and terminologies jumped in, these observations were embodied within very old religious/philosophical and cultural traditions - for example from East Asia, in Taoism and Shintoism.
Let's remember that wilderness ecotherapist Robert Greenway coined the term psychoecology in 1963 and was one of the pioneers of ecopsychology and ecotherapy. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and owe them the decent appreciation they deserve.
Thank you for this Linda. I appreciate you taking the time to bring this in. It's the kind of attention that makes writing in the open worthwhile. I hadn't come across Greenway teaching psychoecology in the 60s. That's a real lineage, and it's humbling to learn that the words that found me were already found long before I got there. As is clear from other comments too, I've got some reading to do around ecopsychology. Greenway's now on that list. I'm not trying to coin or define anything here so I hope it doesn’t come across that way. I’m exploring writing as a way of searching, of working out how to record and share what I experience. A study of my own attention and experience, more artistic than academic.
As Jungians and depth psychologists like to say, it's probably a lovely synchronicity. They seem to pop up in our consciousness from time to time, alerting us to things that may help us. Wishing you all the best with your important work.