Ecotherapy Practice: Perceived Obstacles and Solutions

Abstract

This article discusses ecotherapy practice using literature, practice, and activity outside as well as inside transactional analysis (TA). Drawing on a survey of mental health professionals regarding their use of nature in therapy sessions, and the first author’s own interpretive review of the literature, the article discusses five identified obstacles to ecotherapy and offers some solutions to those. The authors contextualize their position and experiences (as an ecotherapist and activist and as an activist scholar, respectively) and in relation to indigenous traditions and struggles in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The article aims to encourage and support transactional analysts to integrate the environment and nature into their practice and, more fundamentally, to understand their practice in the context of the environment.