Ecotherapy is an interplay of nature and psyche. It encourages a non-medical and non-drug-related approach to self-development and recovery, focusing on mindfulness, sensory awareness and connection to wild nature. Practices of nature-based counseling include but are not limited to, adventure therapy, horticulture, animal assisted therapy, ecotherapy, mindfulness, expressive arts, play, attachment, use of metaphor, and nature experience. Nature-based therapies can include nature metaphors, stabilization, analysis of nature interactions, build relationships, role play, modeling, and new narratives. Neither the cell nor the person can be fully characterized as a dynamic system without characterizing the larger systems of which it is a part. 

Nature based counseling houses many benefits from its facilitation in and with the natural world. Nature exposure is associated with lower stress, rapid healing, lower physical illness, enhance mood, decreased heart rate and blood pressure, positive effects on stress and concentration and self-esteem. Nature based counseling is enriched by combining mental processes with bodily interactions with nature, resulting in a powerful and holistic integration of mind, body, spirit, and place. The architecture of the brain changes with experience and exposure to stimuli in our environment, including relationships with others. In the same way that adverse experiences can inhibit neuronal growth and structures, positive connection can exert positive influences. We can look to the natural universe for this regenerating, pure, and nurturing connection. Relationships, experiences, and interaction with others and the world around us include bidirectional influences that contribute to the development of the nervous system.

We are a living organism that must integrate its differentiated parts into the whole of its interconnected natural universe. Happiness and well-being spin from feeling this interconnected whole. Energy and information consume all that is within and around us. Cultivating our capacity to sense energy and information flow helps us expand the “self” beyond the boundaries of our body and reveals the fundamental truth that we are indeed a part of an interconnected whole. Disconnection from the natural world in which humans evolved produces a variety of psychological symptoms but reconnection to the natural world—whether through gardens, animals, nature walks outside, or nature brought indoors—not only alleviates these symptoms, but also brings a larger capacity for health, self-esteem, self-relatedness, social connection, and joy. The human consciousness lives within nature. As humans we are only a small part of a much larger whole and we must be encouraged “to experience our connection to all parts of the bigger system.