Meanings
- rareuncountableNature-centered psychotherapy: the use of nature to promote mental health.
While psychotherapy has traditionally looked within the individual for answers, ecopsychotherapy explores how the answers may be found in our relationship with the natural environment.
1998, George William Burns, Nature-Guided Therapy: Brief Integrative Strategies for Health and Well-being, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 762 more examples
In [Paul] Shepard’s and [Theodore] Roszak’s version, providing ecopsychotherapy and changing our child rearing practices will reunite us with nature and help us avert environmental catastrophe.
1998, Randall White, “Psychiatry and Ecopsychology”, chapter 13 of Ante Lundberg (editor), The Environment and Mental Health: A Guide for Clinicians, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, page 211Ecopsychotherapy was formulated by Burns (1998) […] In broad terms, ecopsychotherapy proposes that it is beneficial to shift attention away from internal personal problems toward sensory experiences that bring pleasure.
2004, Sebastiano Santostefano, Child Therapy in the Great Outdoors: A Relational View, Routledge, →ISBN, page 155
Origin
From eco- + psychotherapy; perhaps influenced by ecopsychology and ecopsychiatry.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
ecopsychotherapy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ecopsychotherapy
“ecopsychotherapy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ecopsychotherapy. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ecopsychotherapy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ecopsychotherapy.
Source: ecopsychotherapy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.