Tour Station 2 of 6

AN OVERVIEW ARTICLE

The following is updated from Psychology Today,
May-June 1994:


 

Applied Ecopsychology: Counseling and Educating With Nature

 

From the druids of the Celtic forests to the great tribes of American Indians, people have sought peace and wisdom by living according to the laws of Mother Nature.

Unfortunately, this century will be remembered for unprecedented exploitation of nature--and widespread psychological disturbance of individuals.

No coincidence to Michael J. Cohen, Ed.D., pioneer of what he calls integrated ecology or applied ecopsychology. A synthesis of ecology and psychology, integrated ecology proposes that both the destruction of the Earth's environment and people's isolation, stress and dysfunction stem from a fundamental separation and denial of our connection to nature. And by reconnecting with nature, no surprise, we reverse our disorders.

Western civilization emphasizes only the faculties of sight,reason, and language, forcing most of us to suppress our natural senses--all 53 of them, by Cohen's reckoning. Among them: hunger, thirst, compassion; color, sex, place; community, nurturing and peace. Spending over 95% of our lives cloistered and indoors leaves these natural sensory connections excessively wanting; human dysfunction and evils - cigarette smoking to greed to violence- naturally follow.

Cohen is not a lone hunter of the bond between man and nature. According to Pulitzer-Prize winning sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D., of Harvard, people have an inherent biological need to be in contact with the out-of-doors. He calls it "biophilia", and believes that nature may hold the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction. Our childhood love of animals and natural myths and fairy tales may be early evidence of our basic affinity for nature and its instructive and healing properties.

Counseling and building responsible relationships by reconnecting with nature? Cohen has devised therapeutic home study training manuals, workshops, on-site and e-mail/correspondence courses, discussion groups , newsletters and degree programs whose activities, in backyards or back country, re-create many beneficial relationships enjoyed by earlier hunting, gathering, and communal living. In the American Psychological Association Journal "The Humanistic Psychologist" (Vol. 21, No. 3) and other professional publications, he reports that while on these education programs community spirit and responsibility grows, participant's personality and eating disorders subside, learning and other cognitive abilities improve, and violence and prejudice dissolve. His participant's learn to do, own and teach unforgettable nature connecting activities that produce these results throughout their lives. Gradually, a deep environmental literacy evolves that rejuvenates their natural senses, balance and joy.

From his home base at the Insititute of Global Education, in association with the United Nations Office of Public Information, Cohen offers books, workshops, training programs and information about ecologically oriented education and therapeutic methods." He is the recipient of the Distinguished World Citizen Award whose outdoor education activity book Connecting With Nature contributed to Vice President Albert Gore's book Earth in Balance. Educators, counselors and non-professionals interested in the values of nature-connected learning, literacy, mental health and spirituality, have incorporated Dr. Cohen's activities in their work.

 

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PROGRAM LINKS


 

What you can do:

The Orientation Course, below, responds to 32 critical life relationship questions. They are answered by enabling you to enjoy and then share online ten authentic, sensory, Nature connected attraction experiences over a 12 day to 5-week period.

Sign the Earth Day Petition for Peace on Earth Through Peace With Earth and put to use the Earth Day Activity

 

THE BEST WAY TO ENJOY AND TEACH SELF-EVIDENT ATTRACTION EXPERIENCES IS THE NATURAL SYSTEMS THINKING PROCESS:

 

ORIENTATION COURSE: Psychological Elements of Global Citizenship
The Science of Connecting With the Web of Life
The Art of Thinking With Nature

An exciting, inexpensive ($35) blend of shared, online activity, information and training with credit optional. Learn by doing. Become a practitioner anywhere. This is a free course if it meets your needs, a transferable prerequisite for additional courses, degrees and participation. The course is our best, most complete and useful way to help nature restore the good nature of humanity in contemporary society. It opens new vistas in academics, counseling, careers, spirit and wellness, vistas that recycle and purify destructive thinking. Optional Credit $42.00

 

READ AND TEACH THIS ANTIDOTE FOR APATHY

Einstein's World: Natural Attractions, Intelligences and Sanity A non-fiction, metaphor, book and reading course. It helps you reverse nature disconnection disorders from your home. You can take it, teach it and be paid, too. Book $15.00, Course $20.00. Optional Credit $42.00

 

EXPLORE THE PROCESS

FREE: Our Exploratory Course online enables you to sample the Natural Systems Thinking Process to learn, first hand, its thrust and benefits.


INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL EDUCATION

Special NGO consultant United Nations Economic and Social Council

 

PROJECT NATURECONNECT

Readily available online tools for the health of person, planet and spirit

P.O. Box 1605 Friday Harbor, WA 98250 360-378-6313

www.ecopsych.com


APPLIED ECOPSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION

The Natural Systems Thinking Process



Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director

send email
nature@interisland.net

 

 

Nature Connected Education and Counseling Courses and Degrees Online

Too often we suffer and feel helpless because the deterioration of humanity and the environment hurts us and we are unaware of its cause.

Research demonstrates that the stress arising from our extreme sensory separation from our nurturing origins in Nature underlies most of our unsolvable personal, social, and global problems.

In a democracy, to reach our hopes and dreams the knowledge we discover must be accompanied by a readily available educational process that motivates and enables the public to apply the knowledge.

With respect to our destructive disconnection from nature, the web page links, below, empower you to use and teach an effective rehabilitating process that will help you improve most settings and relationships.
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Experience first hand the benefits of the process via our Orientation Course

 
RATIONALE  ORIENTATION DEGREES or
CERTIFICATION
COURSES
RESULTS  ACTIVITIES FAQ WORKSHOPS
ARTICLES  ECO-IQ TEST BOOKS INTERNSHIPS
JOB/CAREER  EARTH DAY PEACE PLAN FREE COURSE
WEBSITE HOME PAGE  VALIDATION NEWSLETTER
DISCUSSION

EARTH DAY PETITION
LINKS


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