Sustainability: ecopsychological insights and person-centered contributions

Abstract

This paper outlines key ecopsychological insights to argue that person-centered approaches have an important contribution to make in addressing sustainability. Ecopsychology challenges therapies to address the psychological roots of ecological crises, notably by facilitating people to realize their embeddedness within ecosystems. The person can be understood as embedded in systems of relation, with the actualizing tendency part of a broader formative tendency. It is argued that, in person-centered terms, ecopsychology is addressing sustainability by facilitating ecological congruence, the wider/deeper aspects of congruence. While ecopsychology practiced through ecotherapy typically focuses outside the therapy room, this paper focuses within the counselling dyad, and acknowledges the ecosystemic aspects of therapy. The six therapeutic conditions can accommodate the multiplicity and interconnectedness of the person with their ecological “fields.” In particular, practitioners can develop their own congruence with the wider web of relationship and extend their empathy and UPR, to develop their receptivity.