The course can be attended on two different levels:

1. The Certificate qualification will include:
   • Three weekends of guest lectures and group learning (48 hours)
   • A five-day residential (40 hours)
   • A four-day camping retreat (60 hours)
   • Seven on-line webinars with international guest lecturers (10 hours)
   • Three group tutorials (4.5 hours)
   • A reflective diary showing evidence of learning (10 hours)

2. The Diploma qualification will include:
   • Three one to one tutorials
   • A dissertation of 5000 words (40 hours)

Course values

The core value of this course is an inclusive and open-minded exploration of the relationship between the humans and the rest of the natural world in service to future generations

The course is based on three principle values:

• Inclusivity of all participants voices, cultures and ideas
• Experiential learning and enquiry
• Self-reflexivity and reflective learning

We intend that by the end of this course, participants will have acquired:

1. A deep understanding of the current practice, research, opportunities and challenges within Eco psychotherapy.
2. An understanding of the therapeutic context of a range of eco-psychological interventions within the UK and wider world and how these might be used to support mental health and well-being.
3. A first-hand personal experience of a broad range of different therapeutic nature-based practices and models of human development to gain insight as to how these might be applied in a wide range of contexts.
4. The ability to articulate a constructive rationale for decolonizing Western epistemologies of nature and mental health and the implications of this for the practice of psychotherapy.
5. A relationship with the landscape and language of the other than human world through working with the imaginal and different ways to explore our experience of the relationship with ourselves and the natural world.

Module One – Weekend Retreat

Re-storying the Western Narrative; Finding a New Sense of Belonging in a Post Mechanistic World View
Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th February 2023

Venue: Great Oak Hall, Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire – lunch is included in the course fees, but accommodation is not

Topics covered

• Facing the challenge of our time: deteriorating mental health, social division and exclusion and ecological collapse
• Loss of nature connection as a mental health issue
• Eco-psychology ideas, philosophy and practice
• Decolonising the epistemology of nature and mental health
• Eco psychotherapy and social inclusion
• Climate change, environmental destruction and despair
• Western narrative collapse
• Psychotherapy in a times of cultural threshold

Introduction to the course with Roger Duncan, Course Director and Dr. Catriona Mellor, Course Assistant

Mary-Jayne Rust – PRESENTING VIRTUALLY
Towards an Eco-Psychotherapy
As we witness the increasing of ecological crises this can trigger strong feelings such as overwhelm, guilt, rage, grief, impotence and fear which clients may bring to sessions in a variety of ways. At the root of this crisis is a Western worldview where we humans see ourselves as separate from, and superior to, the more-than-human world. Psychotherapy has grown out of this worldview as an urban profession we see our suffering and healing only in the context of human relationships. Yet, if we listen, we will hear stories of love and loss in our relationships with the land, animals, plants and more. In this talk I will give an overview of some of the themes within ecopsychotherapy including some examples from therapy.

Karen Carberry
Decolonizing Mental Health – Foragers of the Epistemology Pathway
Struck by a new reality, people around the world took to the streets, parks, and green spaces to stand with black people, and people of colour following the public murder of George Floyd. This teaching will explore how we can use a renewed vision of every-day knowledge, both in our minds and our senses, in order to dismantle former beliefs, which hinder the expression of truth in our models of practice.

Chris Robertson
Psychotherapy at the Threshold: On Staying with the Scary Trouble of a Cultural Crisis
We live in troubling times. There are urgent calls for solutions. The task explored in this workshop is to stay with what troubles us as an antidote to our escapist cultural patterns. We will focus on transition points where the unbearable feelings of loss, overwhelm and anxiety constellate along with portals to unknown potentials. These thresholds touch the tendrils of radical uncertainty. How to manage the rupture to our known reality, relinquish colonial privileges, excavate ourselves from cultural taboos and allow a process of falling out of skin into soul? A daunting challenge only possible with humility.

Module Two – Weekend Retreat

Working with the Imaginal; Attending to what is Emerging from the Edge of the Unknown
Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th April 2023

Venue: Great Oak Hall, Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire – Lunch is included in the course fees, but accommodation is not

Topics covered

• Reimagining nature and mind through Systemic thinking
• Modernist and indigenous epistemologies
• The difference between knowledge and heart knowing or Gnosis
• Transformative encounter with the imaginal
• The position of Indigenous and western nature-based rites of passage in Psychotherapy
• Working with indigenous nature based developmental models
• Therapeutic use of storytelling
• Grief, denial and the reality of the climate emergency
• The emergence of psychedelic psychotherapy
• The synthesis of eco-psychotherapy and psychedelics

Annie Spencer
Learning from Traditional Earth Based Spiritual Traditions
Cultures that have lived in harmony with the natural world for thousands of years are rich in teachings and insights for this time when so much change is needed. Their world view and practices, including rites of passage for the young are rich sources of learning. Annie will share teachings and help us explore a more imaginal and bodily way of understanding life and our place in it. Annie tells traditional stories as part of her teaching mode and will introduce us to basic ceremonial practices that focus on the principles of generosity and gratitude, harmony and balance.

Roger Duncan
The EcoSystemic Return
We are currently awakening to the full systemic impact of the emerging global ecological crisis. We are facing not only an ecological break down, but also a narrative collapse as the modernist mechanistic western epistemology is no longer an adequate tool to make sense of the complexity of what we are currently facing. This workshop will explore how systemic thinking and a move from knowledge to Gnosis might support a Decolonial Turn and an EcoSystemic Return within both therapy and culture and is an invitation to explore epistemologies of our relationship with the ecosystems of the earth that align with indigenous world views.

Caroline Hickman
Abstract TBC

Dr. Adrian Harris
Eco-Psychotherapy and Psychedelics
Despite talk of a psychedelic renaissance, these extraordinary experiences could easily become assimilated by existing power structures. However, holding psychedelic experiences within an eco-psychotherapeutic frame can maximise the transformational potential of these medicines. Dr Harris will contextualise psychedelics, highlighting the key research and legal situation. Adrian will also explore the role of eco-psychotherapy in preparing for and integrating psychedelic experiences. While the Global North tends to overemphasise the psychoactive substance, indigenous psychedelic healing is seamlessly integrated with the more-than-human world. Indigenous traditions hold generations of wisdom, but rather than attempting to appropriate them, we need to develop a synthesis of eco-psychotherapy and psychedelics.

Module Three: 5-Day Residential

Reconnecting with Nature as the Mothership; Re-Membering Lost Fragments of a European Indigenous Relationship with the Earth
Saturday 15th to Wednesday 19th July 2023

Venue: Emerson College, East Sussex – Accommodation of either single beds or camping as well as meals are included in the course fees

Topics covered

• Earth based traditions of these islands with their 4 countries Wales-Ireland-Scotland-England
• Exploring the collective and inter-generational psychic landscapes and reimagining and reenergising these ancient ways of thinking and practices in preparation for the challenging times ahead
• Ecotherapy and social inclusion within urban settings
• Ways of belonging and not belonging in nature
• An introduction to the practice of wilderness therapy
• Tools, best practice and ethics for therapeutic nature engagement
• An introduction to Archaeotherapy and Animism, reconnecting with the soul of European indigeneity.
• An introduction to the complex, challenging and healing teachings of Nature and Ancestors
• Reconnecting to intimacy with the Earth as an approach to dealing with the planetary and personal traumas
• How past indigenous practices can guide us as we travel to a very uncertain future
• Working with Ceremony in nature
• Contemporary nature-based Practices that open access the spirit world
• Alchemy as a framework for eco psychotherapeutic transformation
• The mastery and mystery of first fire
• Craft work and basket weaving as embodied eco psychotherapeutic practice
• The art and facilitation of creating and support systemic, embodied change in service of life on earth
• An Introduction to working in reflective council

Robbie Breadon
Coming Home to be Nourished by the Psychic Landscape of the WISE Islands
In this workshop we will dig into the shared traditions of 4 countries Wales-Ireland-Scotland-England, hence WISE. We will consider how the collective and inter-generational psychic landscapes might inform and emerge within our work with clients. There are many ways in which our ancestors connected to the other than human and the greater than human, which have been lost and yet not forgotten. We will explore how reimagining and reenergising European indigenous traditions of thinking and practices can help ourselves and the people in communities where we work to become more at home in the land and more resilient in preparation for the challenging times ahead.

Jo Roberts
Inside-out and Outside-in Experiential Learning Explorations and Practice – Developing Meaningful Connections Between and Within Ourselves and Nature
This module will describe the work of the Wilderness foundation in the UK and south Africa. We will seek to explore our systemic connections through a range of experiences, storytelling and imaginings taking place during wilderness experience. Through deeply understanding the integral systems of life that we are part of we can explore how we can exist and live both ethically and practically with making as little disturbance to the natural world around us. This experience opens therapeutic pathways to support our wellbeing based on compassion and respect. This module will provide tools and best practice for connection, ethics for nature engagement, and opportunities to explore relationships to ourselves, each other and the earth.

Harriet Sams
Reconnecting with the Mothership: Re-Entwining with European Indigeneity
Archaeotherapist, animist guide and ecotherapist, Harriet Sams runs a morning workshop that invites us to adventure to the edge of connection to a soul of European indigeneity. We will be guided to listen with senses that have evolved out of our bones and our guts; the senses that have lain quietly, awaiting to be reinvigorated, as they show us, guide us, nudge us, to experience the Other. As we awaken theses senses, we find that the edge of connection to the Mothership is closer than we think, as we take heed of the complex, challenging and healing teachings of Nature/Ancestor.

Marie-Helene Dalila Boyle
Back to the Future Through the European Indigenous Cultures
The ecological crisis and the breakdown of the old narrative about the white supremacy highlights our disconnection from ourselves and the loss of intimacy with the land. We will explore in the module how people of this land connected to the Earth. Despite their differences, they all had strong nature connections and common perspectives through the elements, the rhythms of the day, seasons, rituals and peak point celebrations. A visit to this past can guide us to reconnect to Mother Earth as we travel to a very uncertain future.

Lucy Voelcker
Nature and Spirit
Our accumulative polluting of the planet is mirrored in the rubbish we dump on ourselves. I am struck by how people recycle old stories about themselves even while they are reaching new places of understanding, thus feeding their old limitations. While we can do lots of therapeutic work, overcoming old patterns, simple Ceremony is effective as a creative and personal way to release the old, and call in the new, while at the same time making space for the unknown. Lucy’s offering here is to prepare and guide the participants in going out on the Land with Intention and creating a simple Ceremony for themselves.

Jonathan M. Code
The Mastery and Mystery of Alchemical Transformation
This is an experiential workshop that strives to re-kindle our understanding and appreciation of Fire in culture, consciousness, and processes of transformation both ‘inner’ and ‘outer’. Drawing on the Western Alchemical world view and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, the workshop explores often neglected aspects of what it means to be and become human in the deepest sense at a time when dominant paradigms and ‘stories that we live by’ continue to reduce our humanness to matter and mechanism.

Fern Smith
Emergence: A change which results in properties that were not seen before, which are qualitatively different and change the state space
Fern is an artist whose practice is ‘the art of living within the ecological limits of a finite planet’ whose guiding principle and practice is Emergence. Fern will endeavour to interrogate this principle ‘in the field’ through three distinct but inter-connected strands of work: ‘Space for Connection’, ‘Time for Change’ and ‘The Re-enchantment Project’. Fern will work with individuals and groups wishing to undergo, create and support systemic, embodied change in service of life on earth.

Amy Cox & Elizabeth Crawford
Weaving the River – A Taste of Rush Basketry
Basket making is an ancient practice deeply linked with the heritage of this land and how we have used our hands creatively over time. In pre-industrial traditions, the style and material of baskets are completely rooted in place, the patterns and rhythms of weaving and knowledge of the plants a precious inheritance from the ancestors. Working with local plant materials like this is a way to embed ourselves in the ecosystem in a relational way – our body becomes an engaged participant in nature’s web. The making process may inspire a flow state as you find the rhythm of the craft and connect with the material you are working with. In this workshop, we are inviting you to experience a little of this therapeutic potential of craft. Through creating a small rush basket, we will witness the emergence of a functional object through the work of our hands.

Module Four: 4-Day Camping Retreat

Soul and Nature; Encountering Nature and Psyche Beyond the Borders of Language
Friday 25th to Monday 28th August 2023

Venue: Ruskin Mill College, Gloucestershire – Meals are included in the course fees and camping accommodation on site is available, but this is not included in the course fees

Topics covered

• Experiential and deep immersion in nature
• Models of ancient and contemporary wilderness rites of passage
• Nature-based developmental maps
• An introduction to working with the imaginal in nature and psychotherapy
• Use of ritual and story
• Deep reflective practice and communication with the “other-than-human” world
• Speaking in reflective council
• Use of reflective mirroring
• Solo time in nature

Soul and Nature is a four-day soulcentric / ecocentric retreat as an experiential introduction to the practice of Vision Fast as Soul encounter. Different forms of nature-based initiation have long been understood by indigenous and preindustrial cultures throughout the world to be essential for the ecological integration of healthy human development. This module culminates in a solo overnight fast in nature.

Max Girardeau & Katie Rowan

Roger Duncan & Fern Smith

Rebecca Card & Lucy Voelcker

Natalie Vickers & Jenny Archard

Module Five – Weekend Retreat

Incorporation of Eco-psychotherapy into Practice
Saturday 30th September and Sunday 1st October 2023

Venue: Great Oak Hall, Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire –lunch is included in the course fees, but accommodation is not

Topics covered

• Review and critical evaluation of eco-psychotherapy practice
• Integration of learning into current psychotherapy and ecopsychotherapy practice
• Implications for the epistemology of our relationship with nature and self
• Possible models of multi-agency incorporation of eco-psychology practice
• Review of learning and personal journey and sharing of case study and changes in practice
• Implications for future work
• Reflective review of the experience of the course

Marina Robb
Nature-Based Practice
Nature connection is a powerful therapeutic tool for supporting people living with a wide range of mental and physical health conditions. Through a combination of experiential learning and presentations, Marina will offer her 20 years’ experience of working in partnership with the Health Services. We will consider the similarities and differences between terms: nature-based intervention, green care/green intervention, social prescription and Forest School. The case studies will draw on working across the stages of life, alongside CAMHS, and the Adult Mental Health Services and highlight different roles and responsibilities for risk management and liability.

Dr. Ching Li
Incorporating Ecotherapy within Contemporary Healthcare Systems
This workshop will explore the imperatives and barriers to building a more sustainable and ecologically orientated healthcare system in the UK. Reflecting from the position of working within the NHS the workshop will highlight organisational defences that are inherent in our existing healthcare systems that prevent us from working more sustainably. We will explain why it is essential for healthcare professionals to be able to voice their concerns about the climate and ecological crisis and the barrier to this happing and give examples of best practice and possible ways forward.

Online Contributors

Andy Fisher

Date: Monday 20th February 2023 – Time: 19.00pm to 20.30pm GMT

Ecopsychology and the Social-Historical Moment
As a field, ecopsychology has been slow to recognize its own radical implications and to give these political expression. In this webinar, we will use the idea of the “social-historical moment” as a route into exploring this claim. While ecopsychology has done much to integrate mind and nature, it has done little to recognize the social and historical dimensions of the human-nature relationship. This has greatly limited its relevance for the politically demanding work called for at this catastrophic moment in world history. Aiming at a more adequate ecopsychology, we will review the evolution of the field through its first two generations and reflect on its enduring promise as a radical project for socio-ecological transformation.

Corrina Gould

Date: Monday 3rd April 2023 – Time: 19.00pm to 20.30pm BST

Title: Coming soon

Abstract: Coming soon

Nora Bateson

Date: Monday 17 April 2023 – Time: 19.00pm to 20.30pm BST

Title: Coming soon

Abstract: Coming soon

Phoenix Smith

Date: Monday 24 April 2023 – Time: 19.00pm to 20.30pm BST

Liberation Ecotherapy™ A Healing Justice Framework
We are living in times of ongoing traumas from ecological and social collapse that require radically new ways of being in relationship with ourselves, each other and the natural world. In this workshop, participants will get an overview of Liberation Ecotherapy™ as a Healing Framework that offers a way to weave the intersections of nature and mental health, healing, equity, and justice.

Dr Michael Yellow Bird

Date: Monday 26 June 2023 – Time: 19.00pm to 20.30pm BST

Mindful Decolonization and Neurodecolonization
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples have a long and important history of engaging in contemplative and mindfulness practices in daily and ceremonial life. Contemplative practices enabled one to develop a deep sense of awareness, responsibility, equanimity, strength and resilience, and compassion for, and a connection to, all forms of life. During colonization, many of the contemplative practices were destroyed, leaving many communities without the approaches they had used to heal and restore well-being. The consequences of the disruptions resulted in serious health disparities including suicide, posttraumatic stress, and depression. In this webinar, Professor Yellow Bird will discuss his work in mindful decolonization and neurodecolonization with Indigenous communities and the processes for decolonizing the mind from the effects and traumas of colonization, and its relevance for all peoples.

Nick Tree

Date: Monday 14 August 2023 – Time: 19.00pm to 20.30pm BST

Self and Knowledge: Australian Ancient Tradition
Nick Tree will discuss notions of self-identity, consensus reality, and approaches to psychology, in Australian indigenous culture – the oldest unbroken tradition in the world. We can find resonances with other world ancient cultures, which can help inform our interpretation of them, and philosophies which, drawing on thousands of years of observation, can inform modern approaches to problems such as mind, the environment, and systems thinking. Nick will discuss the scientific vs spiritual dichotomy, and also the views of experienced traditional healers and elders on treating modern psychological problems, and the tools which can be applied in treatment.

David Key

Title: Coming soon

Abstract: Coming soon

Date: Monday 11^th September – Time: 19.00pm to 20.30pm BST

Certificate level

Minimum of 80 per cent attendance of taught and experiential days

Attendance of at least two of the three online group tutorials

Completion of a reflective diary (minimum 3000 words) showing evidence of learning from the course and relevant reading

AWARD: Certificate in Eco-psychotherapy

Diploma level

Minimum of 80 per cent attendance of taught and experiential days

Attendance of at least two of the three online group tutorials and three one to one tutorials

Completion of a reflective diary (minimum 3000 words) showing evidence of learning from the course and relevant reading

Completion of a 5000-word dissertation to comprise two case studies offering reflections on your learning process. This will demonstrate knowledge of eco-psychotherapy methods and the integration of these into your therapeutic practice.

Dissertation submission deadline: 15 January 2024

AWARD: Diploma in Eco-psychotherapy

• Qualified as a counsellor, psychotherapist, psychologist or psychiatrist or work in another specific professional therapeutic modality
• Be registered by and practicing according to the professional requirements and code of conduct of their regulatory body (eg BACP, HCPC, UKCP, BCP or equivalent)
• Have professional indemnity insurance
• Have undertaken a substantial period of personal therapy or counselling

“This course has been truly transformational. The key really has been learning how to be in relationship with nature, and to be able to pass that.” – Child psychotherapist, and past course attendee.

“This course has shown me a way of reporting change and learning how to communicate with nature, and with the powerful relationship we can have with nature. Truly transformational.” — Integrative therapist, and past course attendee.

“I can’t recommend the course highly enough. It gives a really in-depth understanding from excellent speakers. The holding, the containment, has been exceptional. To describe it as a course doesn’t do it justice because it is an embodied experience.” — Integrative health and education therapist, and past course attendee.

“This course has been a profound experience; the connection with nature and learning about nature, and nature-based therapy and how that can help.  Finding green spaces, and working with green spaces, engaging myself with camping, being outdoors, it’s been very enriching course.” – Psychotherapist, and past course attendee.

“This course has been the world to me. It brought me back in touch with my love of nature, love of the planet, and inspired me to take that out to people I work with now.” – Child and adolescent psychotherapist, and past course attendee.