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Ecotherapy Concentration

The Ecotherapy concentration invites students into a reflective exploration of the healing reciprocity between humans and the natural world. This specialization examines the profound disconnection that modern culture has experienced from the Earth and considers how this separation contributes to psychological and collective trauma, impacting both our relationships with one another and with the planet itself.

Grounded in transpersonal and contemplative psychology, ecological principles, and social, ecological, and political engagement, this concentration cultivates an understanding of ecological interconnectedness and the ways environmental degradation mirrors psychological suffering. Students explore how nature-based practices can support resilience, restoration, and transformation across individual and collective dimensions of life.

Ecotherapy encourages students to approach the Earth not as something outside oneself, but as a remembering that we are the Earth. This orientation fosters an understanding of the self and the Earth as one. Through this awareness, the healing practices of ecotherapy become a reciprocal process—an act of participating in the healing of the self and the planet.

Through experiential learning, critical inquiry, and applied practice, the program emphasizes how re-weaving our interconnection with the living world nurtures mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Special attention is given to the collective dimensions of healing, highlighting how individual wellness is inseparable from community thriving and ecological balance, and how ecotherapy can serve as a pathway to repair and renewal across these interrelated spheres. Please note: TEC 500 is Zoom synchronous. TEC 600 is Zoom synchronous and has a weekend residency in Santa Fe, NM.

Students who complete this concentration will be prepared to integrate nature-based approaches into counseling, community, and clinical practice, bringing forward an orientation of reciprocity, stewardship, and collective healing that recognizes the health of the Earth and the health of people as one.

Required Courses

TEC 500 Restoring Roots of Wholeness: Ecotherapy and the Renewal of Psyche and Planet

3 units

This course reimagines psychopathology as more than an individual phenomenon, viewing it instead as a reflection of collective rupture and disconnection from the Earth, ancestral healing traditions, and the more-than-human world. It invites students to engage in a paradigm shift toward a regenerative, Earth-centered understanding of healing and human wholeness.

Drawing from ecotherapy, transpersonal psychology, terrapsychology, and contemplative and

Indigenous wisdom traditions, the course explores how ecological degradation mirrors psychological suffering and how the loss of relationship with nature contributes to both personal and cultural trauma. Students examine how restoring this relationship can nurture balance, resilience, and collective renewal.

Through experiential learning, reflection, and applied practice, students develop the capacity to integrate nature-based approaches into counseling, community, and clinical settings. Healing is approached as a reciprocal process, reweaving connection among self, community, and the living world. Ecotherapy is thus presented not as a technique, but as a transformative orientation recognizing that the health of people and the health of the planet are inseparable. This course is Zoom synchronous.

TEC 600 Rewilding the Psyche: Cultivating Reciprocity and Regeneration

3 units

This course explores regenerative ecopsychology—an emerging field that emphasizes healing through the active renewal of our relationship with the Earth. Rather than focusing solely on disconnection or harm, regenerative ecopsychology centers on restoration, resilience, and reciprocal thriving between humans and the natural world. It views psychological well-being as inseparable from ecological health and invites practices that cultivate both personal and planetary flourishing.

Students will examine how the loss of connection with nature, community, and ancestral wisdom contributes to psychological suffering, and how restoring this relationship fosters balance and renewal. Drawing from transpersonal psychology, terrapsychology, Indigenous wisdom, and ecological science, the course integrates theory with direct experience.

Through nature-based practices, such as contemplative time outdoors, forest immersion, horticultural and animal-assisted therapies, and ecological stewardship, students deepen embodied connection with the living world. Ethical considerations, including land acknowledgment and cultural respect, are woven throughout. This course supports students in developing a regenerative orientation to counseling, community work, and ecological healing that honors the mutual well-being of self and Earth. This is a Zoom synchronous course with the exception of a weekend residency in Santa Fe, NM