During the pandemic, I got tired of sitting in front of the screen on video calls all day, and started taking the children and adults I work with into nature.

Nature became my co-therapist and the families my fellow travelers. Conversations flowed more easily and nature invited movement. I felt the need to delve deeper into what it is that makes nature so healing, and learned about ecopsychotherapy. Since there is not much written in Swedish, I wrote the book Ecopsychotherapy – psychotherapy in and with nature for adults and children. Now I offer all those who have the opportunity conversations in nature.

Ecopsychotherapy has grown out of ecotherapy, which grew out of ecopsychology. Ecopsychology wants to emphasize that in order to feel mentally well, people need to live in relation to nature. One of the causes of mental illness is that we have lost contact with nature. Ecotherapy is ecopsychology in practice – in nature we have the opportunity to recover. We can access our own sources of strength and nature helps us to be present in the moment. In ecopsychotherapy, we weave ecotherapy into the psychotherapeutic work. Psychotherapy takes place in nature and the relationship with nature is a theme in the psychotherapeutic work.

In ecopsychotherapy we explore our nature story. What role does nature play in my life? How has nature shaped me? What in my problems could be due to a broken relationship and too little time in nature? How could my relationship with nature be strengthened and how would that affect me? How can nature become part of my life and my everyday life? How can my nature story become richer?

In ecopsychotherapy we also explore and our ecological self, which is interconnected with all life. We practice natural vigilance – a way of being where we live with open minds in contact with nature. We develop our ecological literacy – knowledge about nature that leads to wonder. We discover how joy and energy, concentration and desire increase when we are in nature. We practice being in the present, and get a deeper contact with ourselves, and thus with each other.

We also explore how we can expand our identity from an ego-identity to an eco-identity, how we can reshape our climate anxiety and eco-worry into active collective action