Rising Rooted

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We all know, on some level, that nature is good for us.

There’s plenty of evidence to back it up—time outside can reduce stress, support the nervous system, improve mood, and even impact physical health.

And yet… it’s often the first thing to fall away.

When life gets busy, overwhelming, or heavy, stepping outside—let alone connecting with the natural world—can feel distant, unnecessary, or even inaccessible.

So the question becomes: If we know nature supports us… why is it so hard to stay in relationship with it?

Ecotherapy begins there.

What Ecotherapy Actually Is

Ecotherapy isn’t just “spending time outside.”

It’s a therapeutic approach that intentionally works with the relationship between humans and the natural world as part of the healing process.

That relationship isn’t symbolic. It’s real. Your body, your nervous system, your cycles of energy and rest—these are shaped by the same living systems that exist in forests, seasons, water, and soil.

Ecotherapy works by restoring that connection. Not just exposure—but relationship.

And while the core principles are simple, the therapeutic depth comes from how that relationship is guided, explored, and integrated over time.

What Was Disrupted (And Why It Matters)

What modern life disrupted wasn’t just our access to nature.

It disrupted our relationship with:

• land
• body
• rhythm
• community
• reciprocity

This rupture shows up everywhere: burnout, chronic stress, disconnection from meaning, identity confusion, the sense that something is wrong with you, rather than with the conditions you’re living inside.

From this perspective, the mental health crisis isn’t only psychological.

It’s relational.

And it’s ecological.

This Isn’t New

Before ecotherapy was named, studied, and integrated into Western psychology, Indigenous cultures across the world were already living in deep relationship with land.

Healing was not separate from the environment—it was embedded within it.

Colonization disrupted that relationship:

• through displacement from land
• genocide and suppression of cultural practices
• and the imposition of more extractive, individualistic worldviews

So when we talk about ecotherapy today, it’s important to name this clearly:

This is not a new invention.

It is, in many ways, a remembering—one that requires humility, responsibility, and an ongoing commitment to decolonizing how we understand healing.

Structured Ecotherapy (What It Looks Like in Practice)

Ecotherapy can be informal—but it is also a structured, intentional form of therapy.

Some approaches explicitly integrate the body, environment, and relational field:

• Hakomi Method – uses mindful awareness of present-moment experience (including environment) to access unconscious material
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy – works with body-based responses shaped by past experience, often integrating environment and orientation
• Somatic therapies more broadly – invite attention to sensation, movement, and regulation in relationship with surroundings
• Nature-based therapies like forest bathing (shinrin-yoku 森林浴), horticulture therapy, and wilderness therapy

These aren’t just about being in nature.

They are about working with what arises in relationship to it—physically, emotionally, and symbolically.

(Some may disagree with my broad classification here, but it makes sense to me).

Can You Do This On Your Own?

Yes—and also, not quite in the same way.

Ecotherapy, in its fullest sense, is guided by a therapist who helps:

• shape the inquiry
• pace the experience
• support integration

But the principles of ecotherapy are available to you.

One of the most important things I learned in my thesis work was this: For nature-based experiences to become therapeutic, they need a container.

A simple structure like this can shift everything:

1. Set an intention

What are you bringing with you? A question, a feeling, something you’re noticing in your life.

2. Enter into the experience

Go outside, or into whatever form of nature is accessible. Walk, sit, observe—without forcing anything.

3. Reflect and integrate

Journal. Speak it out loud. Bring it into therapy, or to a friend. Let meaning emerge.

Without that final step, it’s easy for the experience to pass through without landing. With it, something begins to take root.

A Somatic Pause

Take a moment here.

Notice your body.

Where do you feel supported? Where do you feel tension?

Now, widen your awareness. What’s around you?

Light. Air. Sound.

Let yourself register that you are not separate from your environment—you are within it.

Nothing to change.

Just noticing.

Why This Works (Even If It Sounds “Less Structured”)

Ecotherapy can sound less precise than approaches like CBT.

Less step-by-step. Less linear.

But what it engages is deeply structured in a different way:

• your nervous system
• your sensory awareness
• your relational capacity

It works with how humans actually evolved to regulate and make meaning—not just how we think.

And often, it leads to a quiet but profound shift:

Maybe I’m not broken. Maybe I’m responding to something that isn’t sustainable.

An Eco Ritual: Building Relationship

If you want to begin, try this:

Choose one place.

Not somewhere dramatic—just somewhere accessible.

Return to it regularly.

Each time:

• notice what’s changed
• notice what hasn’t
• notice what draws your attention

Bring a question with you if you have one.

Then, after you leave, write or speak about what you noticed.

Over time, this becomes a relationship—not just a place you visit.

Why This Matters Now

We are living in systems that prioritize speed, productivity, and disconnection.

And then we’re asked to regulate, cope, and heal within those same conditions.

Ecotherapy offers something different. Not an escape—but a reorientation. It reminds us that healing isn’t just something that happens inside the mind.

It happens in relationship: with the systems we are part of, with the body, with the land

Land, Lineage, and Responsibility

I practice on unceded Anishinaabe territory, and I orient my work with deep respect for the peoples who have been in relationship with this land long before me or my ancestors.

Ecotherapy is not new. Indigenous knowledge systems have always understood land as alive, relational, and reciprocal. We are called to take these teachings seriously—without appropriating them or outsourcing our own decolonizing work.

I encourage people to learn whose land they live on and what stewardship looks like there. A good place to start is Native Land Digital.

The Invitation

You don’t need to disappear into the wilderness to begin.

You don’t need the perfect practice, or the right mindset, or even a clear belief in any of this.

What matters is this: At some point, you pause long enough to notice that you are already in relationship with something living.

And from there— you decide whether you want to stay disconnected… or begin responding.

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If this spoke to something in you, there are a few paths you can follow from here:

Each door leads somewhere different. It is my hope that all of them lead back to you.

<3 Rachel