UK websites
The Green fuse
Set up by Adrian Harris, the green fuse aims to make environmental philosophy (deep ecology, social ecology, eco-feminism, earth-centered spirituality, ecopsychology) widely accessible with clear briefings on key topics, discussion forums, a glossary and a resource section. The green fuse also facilitates local discussion groups where people can share, learn and debate.
GreenSpirit
GreenSpirit describes itself as a movement that celebrates all life as deeply connected and sacred. Its vision brings together the rigour of science, the freedom of creativity, the passion of social action and the wisdom of spiritual traditions of all ages. GreenSpirit is a network of people who celebrate the human spirit in the context of our place in the natural world and Earth’s own evolutionary journey. The website also has a useful resources section with articles on a range of relevant topics, including Ecopsychology.
Transition Town Heart and Soul
The Transition Town movement works to transform communities away from oil dependency. It has formed Heart and Soul groups across the country, exploring ways to support and inspire the movement through this challenging and exciting transition. They work together on the basis that transforming our world will mean a deep change of heart and mind, as the transition to sustainability goes far beyond the immediate practical tasks.
Great Turning Times
This site includes, campaigns and back issues of the free email newsletter, the Great Turning Times, about finding our power to respond to global crisis. Bringing together ecology, psychology, spirituality and global issues, it lists events, news and resources to support the shift towards a life sustaining society.
Natural Change Project
Designed and run by an ecological psychologist, and supported by WWF, the Natural Change project explores how experiences of the natural world can inspire people to live more sustainably. It aims to transform participants in ways that will encourage them to live more sustainable lives and communicate about their experiences to wider audiences. A group of diverse individuals communicate their experiences of this work through their own blogs on this website.
Ecotherapy UK
This site is dedicated to developing ecotherapy, raising awareness and promoting its wider use. It lists news, events, and courses, and it has a discussion forum and a directory of ecotherapists in the UK.
Creeping Toad
Environmental Art and Celebration: Education, Training and Workshops, Derbyshire. Creeping Toad projects revolve around celebration and set out to help people discover their own ways of valuing the “specialness” of their homes, schools, neighbourhoods and the wildlife that surrounds us. Toadwork combines traditional field study and investigation with the inspiration of storytelling and the skills of making and performing. Creeping Toad projects create enthusiastic and supportive settings where people can set out on adventures that will explore both the world they live in and the strengths and unexpected skills within themselves.
Language and Ecology Research Forum
The Language and Ecology Research Forum is dedicated to research which analyzes language not only within a social context, but also within an ecological context. This is in recognition of the fact that societies are embedded within the natural ecosystems that sustain life. There is a journal within this link also.
Websites from around the world
The International Community for Ecopsychology (ICE)
An informal, international, interdisciplinary virtual community devoted to reflecting on the questions which arise from an ecopsychological viewpoint, proving a public forum for diverse experiences of the human-nature relationship. The site includes “Gatherings – Seeking Ecopsychology” an online quarterly e-journal and some excellent links.
The Bioneers
Bioneers is inspiring a shift to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. Bioneers has two keystone goals to help make this shift successfully.
- Connect people with solutions by popularizing breakthrough ideas and practices.
- Grow social capital by catalyzing, connecting and strengthening strategic networks, including bioregional and community-based alliances.
As Bioneers celebrates our 20th anniversary, our ability to act as a fertile source for the urgent transition to a restored world is converging with an unprecedented receptivity in the world for innovative ways of thinking and acting.
Work that Reconnects
Set up by Joanna Macy, who says: “This website opens doors to the new bodies of thought, time-tested spiritual practices, and pioneering group methods, that I find to be powerful inspirations to understanding and action. I share these resources in service to the revolution of our time: the Great Turning from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization.”
The School of Lost Borders
“Most peopole live within well defined borders. They will change these borders only if change is thrust upon them by fate. Do not attend the School of Lost Borders if you intend to remain the same person. You will come here to lose your borders, your boundaries, your limitations.” Meredith Little and Steven Foster co-founded Rites of Passage Inc. in 1976 and The School of Lost Borders in 1981 – pioneering the methods and dynamics of modern pan-cultural passage rites in the wilderness, and “field eco-therapy”. The essence of their work is captured in articles, chapters, an award-winning documentary film, and books that include: The Book of the Vision Quest, The Roaring of the Sacred River, The Four Shields: The Initiatory Seasons of Human Nature, and Lost Borders: Coming of Age in the Wilderness. Since Steven’s death in 2003, Meredith continues both nationally and internationally to guide and train others in this work, while also founding, with Dr. Scott Eberle, a new arm of Lost Borders entitled “The Practice of Living and Dying”. In this partnership she hopes to crack open the taboos surrounding death, and to help restore dying to its natural place in the cycles of living.
Ecotherapy Heals
The website of the recently published anthology Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind eds Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist Sierra Club Books May 2009, offers a range of articles and research, news and a blog.
Project Nature Connect
This is the work of Michael Cohen and includes a large website, online courses, information and perspectives on applied ecopsychology, educating and counselling with nature and more.
Ecology of Mind – Mind-ing Ecology
This page makes the bridging connections from Ecology [as having to do with nature, the environment etc.] to Psychology [as the attempts to understand our human experiencing ]. In particular it focuses on the many different but interweaving themes which unite the five writers: Gregory Bateson, Ernst von Glasersfeld, George Kelly, Ronnie Lain, Humberto Maturana. Between them they represent the multiple disciplines of Psychology, Psychotherapy, Philosophy, Psychiatry, Biology, Cybernetics, Anthropology, Mathematics, Social Sciences and more.
Rainforest Information Centre, Australia
The centre was co-founded by John Seed, and the website contains a wealth of information on its campaigns as well as deep ecology, and experiential practices, articles, events and films.
The Nature Therapy Centre, Israel
The Nature-Therapy Center, established by Ronen Berger, develops and promotes the knowledge and practice of Nature Therapy and related fields such as mind-body therapy and ecopsychology.
Antioch Ecopsychology Interest Group
A good selection of articles and links, bibliography and practices, and opportunity to sign up to an e-list.
Official Paul Shepard Website
Theodore Roszak called him “our premier environmental philosopher.” Kirkpatrick Sale said he was ”one of the few great ecological thinkers of our [20th] century, and may even belong in that special pantheon where such solons as Lewis Mumford, Rachel Carson, Fritz Schumacher and Jacques Ellul
reside.”
“Paul Shepard’s work represents one of the most important syntheses available today on the subject of the human condition,” said Morris Berman. “Paul Shepard is the most brilliant and provocative intellect of our time,” said Dave Foreman. Garrett Hardin described him as “Poetical as D.H. Lawrence, wide-ranging as Darwin, Paul Shepard illuminates the predicament of modern man.”
Ecopsychology Online archives
Has some interesting articles, info and resources from 1995 – 1998. This was produced by the Ecopsychology Institute which was established at California State University, Hayward in 1994 to “facilitate an international dialogue between two communities: environmental scientists/ activists on the one hand, and psychologists/psychotherapists on the other”. Now discontinued, but some interesting material there.
Teaching Psychology for Sustainability: A Manual of Resources
This has a raft of useful information for teaching purposes, with a whole section on Ecopsychology. The ‘multi-media resources are particularly good.
European Ecopsychology Society
Organises experiential conferences to deepen applications and developments of the ecopsychology of personal growth, environmental education, and systems thinking.
Danish Centre for Ecotherapy
A site dedicated to the theory and practice of nature-facilitated models of mental healthcare, including contempory ecotherapy, green exercise, green care, healing gardens, horticultural therapy, wilderness therapy, civic environmentalism and nature-facilitated, integrative practices within psychotherapy.
Related sites
PCSR – Pyschotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility
PCSR is an organisation of psychotherapists, counsellors and other professionals who locate psychotherapy and counselling in a social context. Its work includes challenging prejudice and discriminatory practice within the psychotherapy and counselling professions, and campaigning for statutory and low-cost services in all parts of the UK. PCSR recognises the impact of the political dimension on the relationship between practitioner and client and develops ideas about the ways in which social, political, environmental and cultural issues can be integrated into theory and practice. The organisation is particularly engaged in issues of Climate Change and the emotional and psychological dimensions to humankind’s struggle to engage seriously with the profound challenges it now faces.
Activist Trauma Support
The Activist Trauma support Network offers support, workshops and information to activists on prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress and burnout. The website has links to factsheets, workshops as well as a database of practitioners.
The Center for Ecoliteracy
The Center for Ecoliteracy is dedicated to education for sustainable living, supporting hands-on learning in the natural world and curricular innovation. It provides a theoretical framework as well as practical resources for the school community, including seminars, consulting, books, teaching guides, and other publications support a diverse range of approaches to schooling for sustainability.
The UK Earth Centre Network
The UK Earth Centre Network aims to support the development of all places across the UK where the principles and practice of sustainable living are being shared with people in the wider community. An interactive map enables you to locate more than Earth Centres across the UK.
Strategies for Change Project, WWF
WWF’s Strategies for Change Project contributes to the growing debate about how best to effect environmentally-friendly behavioural change. In particular, the project examines the importance of our collective social values in driving behavioural change, and the ways in which such values are shaped.
Deep ecologist and ecotheolgian, Thomas Berry
Essays, books and films by the late Thomas Berry, catholic priest, cultural historian and geologian, who offered that a deep understanding of the history and functioning of the evolving universe is a necessary inspiration and guide for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species.
The Way of Wyrd
Brian Bates is Professor of Psychology at the University of Brighton, Director of the Shaman Research Program at the University of Sussex, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. The site focuses on his work recovering the nature-based knowledge of ancient England, Anglo-Saxon spiritual teachings, that allow people of English heritage to connect with the wisdom traditions of their own indigenous roots.
Spiritual activism and human ecology – Alastair Macintosh
Alastair McIntosh is a writer, lecturer, social activist, broadcaster and campaigning academic, based in Scotland. This website contains many of his articles in the field of spiritual activism and human ecology – the study and participation in the relationships between the natural environment and the social environment.
If you have any further suggestions, please do email them to us.