From TreeSouls@aol.com Fri May 27 22:18:26 1994
Date: Fri, 27 May 94 22:08:48 EDT
From: TreeSouls@aol.com
To: london@sunsite.unc.edu
Subject: Applied Ecopsychology Article

Hello,

Recently you downloaded an article "Beyond Meditation" by Dr. M.J. Cohen at
reconnecting-info@igc.apc.org.  I thought you might be interested in reading
a recent article from "Psychology Today" (May/June 1994 issue).  Exciting
things are happening!  The next free e-mail course will start June 21st and
another one is planned for September.  If you are interested in learning
more, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks for your interest and enjoy the article!

Sincerely,

Linda


Counseling With Nature:
The process of achieving personal and global integrity


>From the druids of the Celtic forests to the great tribes of American
Indians, people have sought peace and wisdom by living according to the laws
of Mother Nature.  Unfortunately, this century will be remembered for
unprecedented exploitation of nature--and widespread psychological
disturbance of individuals.

No coincidence to Michael J. Cohen, Ed.D., pioneer of what he calls
integrated ecology.  A synthesis of ecology and psychology, integrated
ecology proposes that both the destruction of the Earth's environment and
people's deep feelings of isolation and dysfunction stem from a fundamental
denial of our connection to nature.  And by going into the woods we can get
out of the woods.

Western civilization emphasizes only the faculties of sight, reason, and
language, forcing most of us to suppress our natural senses--all 53 of them,
by Cohen's reckoning.  Among them: hunger, thirst, compassion; color, sex,
place; community, nurturing and peace.  Spending over 95% of our lives
cloistered and indoors leaves these natural sensory connections wanting;
human evils--cigarette smoking to greed to violence --naturally follow. 

Cohen is not a lone hunter of the bond between man and nature.  According to
Pulitzer-Prize winning sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D., of Harvard,
people have an inherent biological need to be in contact with the
out-of-doors.  He calls it "biophilia", and believes that nature may hold the
key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual
satisfaction.  Our childhood love of animals and natural myths and fairy
tales may be early evidence of our basic affinity for nature and its
instructive and healing properties.

Counseling  by campfire?  Cohen has devised therapeutic home study training
manuals, workshops, courses and vacations whose activities, in backyards or
back country, re-create many conditions of earlier hunting, gathering, and
communal living.  In "The Humanistic Psychologist" (Vol. 21, No. 3), he
reports that while on these education programs, participant's personality and
eating disorders subside, learning and other cognitive abilities improve, and
violence and prejudice dissolve.  His participants learn to do
unforgettable nature connecting activities that catalyze these results
throughout their lives.  Gradually, a deep environmental literacy evolves
that rejuvenates their natural senses, balances and joy. 

>From his home base at the World Peace University in Roche Harbor, Washington
(206-378-6313), Cohen runs Project NatureConnect, which offers books,
workshops, training programs and information about ecologically oriented
therapeutic methods.
               *  *   *  
Adopted from the 5/5/94  Psychology Today article by Paul Glanzrock.