It took me over ten years to stop feeling apologetic for the intimate connection I felt with the natural world.  Since then I have actively developed and nurtured it. In this vein I spent three years completing a Research Masters - exploring and articulating the experience of being alone with nature. Trusting more deeply in that experience that in philosophy or science. I now confidently recognize that it is not me, but the culture, that is confused. 

When two people form a couple, they also unwittingly form a kind of unintentional community of these intra-psychic street kids. And, once the honeymoon is over, all of these parts make themselves felt. Sometimes they hook into each other unhelpfully. Perhaps one of your parts withdraws from contact for fear of hurt, and this activates the part of me that is terrified of abandonment. Before long we find ourselves in difficult interactions - activated, angry, scared, defensive, or resentful. We are often stunned and confused by our own feelings or the words of our partners.

It is at the intersection of the therapeutic relationship and the human-nature relationship that all sorts of interesting and profound things start to happen. This is the terrain of eco-psychotherapy.

I now identify working with men as a key focus of my psychotherapeutic practice. If you are a man who is contemplating counselling, and you would like to learn more, I'd be glad to hear from you.

In one way, eco-psychology is the result of psychology trying to grapple with this “belated concern for the fate of the planet”.  As we shall see, until recently, Western psychology has been strangely silent about the natural world that gave rise to it.

So what is eco-psychology?  We might say that it is an ecologically informed psychology. As a field, it asks the question, “What would psychology look like if it were grounded in an ecological perspective?”

I’m convinced that through our lack of courage we are undermining our children.  In 21st century Australia, “safety is everything”.  No running, no touching, no climbing.  There it is, we’re all safe, but are we slowly dying on the inside? Is the absolute emphasis on safety actually keeping us safe from harm? I doubt it.

In my work with people around trauma I encourage a three part approach, incorporating: The Body,  Relational Therapy, and Creativity

The question at the heart of this inquiry is: What happens when a person spends time alone with nature? The inquiry was born out of a longstanding personal interest in the experience of being alone with nature, and a sense that a deeper experiential understanding of the human-nature connection might contribute to a healthier relationship between humanity and its home planet. The inquiry was conducted over three years between 2014 and 2017.

I suspect we all carry the intuitive knowledge that nature can soothe us, tend to our wounds, inspire us, and guide us back to our truest selves.  But despite knowing this, we don’t seek nature out anywhere nearly as often as we might.  Why is that?

In July 2017, after a year of living in the Wild Dog Valley, I will be starting a new psychotherapy practice in Melbourne.  I thought I'd take the opportunity to reflect on how I work and why...