Reflections on Ecotherapy and Vulnerability

Like many of us, over Easter I got away from Christchurch to take a break, and to get a bit of the nature cure. As it does for lots of us, it worked for me, but I also feel that I got some more insight into how we relate to our environment, particularly those of us who have more environmentalist tendencies. 

I was looking out over a lake at the view, and began to notice the wind pick up very quickly. This disturbed my reverie. I began to watch the people on the beach below me take cover. Boats out on the water adjusted their course. The trees began to sigh and whistle in the wind. It was then that I got it: rather than my normal environmental thinking that the earth is fragile, and that frankly there are more than enough of us humans to go around, I shifted my thinking. 

Maybe it was the vastness of the high country landscape, or the fierceness of the wind, or the human response to take cover. The earth and it's ecosystems are robust, and will survive (albeit changed) us humans, however much environmental havoc we may create. We humans are vulnerable, with precariously teetering economies, ultra specific needs for lifestyles and health, and a sense of cultural harmony and good will that is fragile at the best of times. 

Perhaps that is why psychotherapy and counselling are useful for addressing environmental issues - or at least another reason for it's value. Psychotherapy, the art and science of working with human vulnerability, is exquisitely attuned to working with the ways we deny or guard our vulnerabilities - and the consequences of this. 

So, if you find yourself as an environmentalist assuming your own robustness, and projecting your vulnerability onto the earth, then try turning it on it's head.  See if you feel more refreshed and human, and maybe even feel a bit warmer towards not only yourself, but the rest of the human race!