Starting in early 2019 we will be adding functionality to our online course modules. This new functionality will allow certificates of completion to be automatically generated when you complete a course. Certificates will be available from each course page as courses are completed.
The new courseware will offer a multitude of interactive formats, including video and audio presentations, interactive quizzes, images and automatic course completion and certificate generation.
Also, in partnership with the Fernview Center for Wellbeing in Anderson, South Carolina, I will be offering annual certification training in Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy. The first of these week-long intensives is being scheduled now. Look for an announcement about scheduling for these live seminars sometime in March of 2019.
With the increased functionality of the website and the enhanced, interactive features we will be offering for each course, we will unfortunately have to increase the costs on some courses. If you’ve been interested in any of our course offerings, now is the time to take advantage of our online offerings before the price increases in 2019!
For more information on any of our courses, complete the contact form below.
Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) is a 12-week nature-based program. Each session meets outdoors for about 90 minutes and is guided by a trained MBE facilitator. The Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Workbook was designed to accompany the 12-week program. A facilitator manual is also available for mental health professionals interested in training in the program.
For most of its existence homo sapiens has lived in harmony with nature as hunter/gatherers. Such a lifestyle requires a vast knowledge of the seasons, and of the patterns and habits of wildlife, and of plants and herbs and their healing powers. Industrialization and urbanization are fairly recent phenomena on an evolutionary scale. We still carry the genetic memory of our ancestors who lived in untamed nature. Our brains are wired for the outdoors and nature. A growing body of research demonstrates that not only do we feel better when we make time for nature, it is actually a requirement for good physical and mental health!
At its core, ecopsychology suggests that there is a synergistic relation between planetary and personal well-being; that the needs of the one are relevant to the needs of the other. In short, what we do to the environment, we do to ourselves. Ecotherapy is the practical application of this knowledge. In ecotherapy nature is the “therapist.” In practicing the techniques of ecotherapy, we allow the healing power of nature to work its magic on us. Hölzel et al (2011) demonstrated that meditative states of mindfulness stimulate neural growth in the cerebral cortex in the areas of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, good judgment, insight, and impulse control. Nature experiences have been demonstrated in several studies to produce meditative states (fascination, relaxation, and mindfulness).
An old Grandfather said to his grandson, who came to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice, “Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those who have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like drinking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings myself many times.” He continued, “It is as if there are two wolves inside me. One is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him, and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But the other wolf is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing.”