Ecotherapy Found To Decrease Depression
According to Mind, England and Wale’s leading mental health charity, ecotherapy is: “getting outdoors and getting active in a green environment as a way of boosting mental well-being”. Research conducted on the topic revealed that a huge 94% of participants said ‘green’ activities had benefited their mental health and lifted depression, and 90% said the combination of nature and exercise had the greatest effect.
This has led to calls for ecotherapy to become a recognised treatment for those suffering with mental health problems. With anti-depressant prescriptions reaching an all time high, ecotherapy could potentially help millions of people, at a far lower cost and with no side effects. The chief executive of Mind, Paul Farmers, highlighted the fact that ecotherapy could not replace drugs, but he said the debate needed to be broadened.
July 20th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Not a fan of this idea.
I’m sure that ecological awareness probably does have some benefit on mental health. But it just seems like an all too convenient excuse for righteous thinking and politicking, and as such is not objective enough to be taken seriously as a therapy.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I agree there may be issues with the association with ecotherapy and the traditional eco-movement, in as far as it sounding ‘hippy’ and somewhat new-age, perhaps even unscientific.
I think the possibility is it could kill two birds with one stone so to speak, helping to change the way we view or treat the world but also the way we sometimes view life or get disillusioned (or depressed).
The bigger problem I see is that people may become accustomed to hearing about environmental issues and become uninterested or annoyed – worse apathetic, perhaps due to a lack of wider change or progress in industry or government (despite all the noise). But in theory if that proves the case we should see a continued increase in mental health problems.. assuming you can trust the statistics when they come out – but that’s a consipracy theory for another time!
October 8th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Ecotherapy does not just refer to ecological issues. My understanding of ecotherapy is that it is a combination of counselling/psychotherapy and getting to grips with nature. By that I mean outdoor activities such as mountain climbing canoeing etc. Learning new skills, building confidence and pushing them to limits of physical capability. Ecotherapists are qualified to deliver psychotherapy alongside outdoor pursuits.
Ecotherapy recognises the affects of environmental factors on health such as poor housing, noise pollution and overcrowding.
I can totally appreciate how this may improve mental health.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 am
Ecotherapy is something that I have increasingly grown towards in my practice I work both face to face and creatively. Mind’s document would seem to over simplify what they originally termed ‘Green Therapy’ and comes over a bit like ‘A jolly good walk doing you good’.
There are deeper issues here about how we see and experience our relationship to and with nature and how we see ourselves as separate from or dominant towards nature. Over centuries we humans have conceptually deconstructed the world around us until socially and emotionally we have lost the connection that we once had with that part of ourselves that is natural or connected to nature, the Earth. I surmise that We do however have a residual deeper set or primal connection and it would seem that for most of us and society as a whole are in denial of this fundamental belonging need which in turn feeds our anxiety and impedes a sense of growth and fulfilment ‘self actualising’. Read Rozak T. 1995 ‘Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the mind’
Which prompts questions about the self as a dominant feature which is separated and disassociated from a nature as ‘animistic’ collective unconscious, among other things. Look deeper into ecotherapy as a potential for a new paradigm and not a superficial fad’ ism’ or emperors new clothes.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
There is an interesting article on ecotherapy in issue 153 Positive Health Online here is the url.
http://www.positivehealth.com/article-abstract.php?articleid=2513
Its called The Prescribed Walk in the Park
Another follow up article Part II is due to be published on the 20th of Feb 2009