Ecopsychotherapy Features and Practice Dr Werner Sattmann-Frese

Summary of Features  Somatic awareness  Cultural awareness  Awareness of power relations  Awareness of clients’ ecological footprints  Awareness of past and present environmental influences  Awareness of the effects of lifestyle choices  Spiritual awareness  Understanding, reflection, and action

Somatic Awareness  EPT conceptualises and utilises an awareness of clients’ embodied (somatic) reality, of the somatic expression of trauma, but also of sensations associated with healing and change.

Somatic Awareness Practice  Work with body awareness  Mirror the client’s physical emotional expression  Encourage deep breathing  Use exercises to facilitate the experience of body-mind and person-planet unity

Cultural awareness  EPT promotes the awareness of cultural differences, their potential for conflict, but also for learning and change.

Cultural Awareness Practice  Facilitate the awareness of ‘cultural empathy’, the awareness that we cannot impose our values on people form other cultural backgrounds  Seek to learn from other people about what is important to them.  Do not idealise the features of other cultures - they all have their light and shadow sides.

Awareness of Power Relations  EPT promotes and utilises the awareness of power relations in counselling and psychotherapy.

Power Relations Practice  Be aware that your client needs you over time to embody many different roles. These include:  a role model to look up to  a container to hold his or her difficult feelings  a mirror  a person to cope with his or her anger and rage  a wise mentor and educator  a generous ‘friend’ ready to share power.

Environmental Awareness  EPT aims to facilitate healing and change with an awareness of the client’s ecological footprint. It asks deep questions when most other therapeutic approaches do not question the ecological consequences of therapy outcomes.  It may also encourage people living in a state of guilt to ‘take more from life and the world’.

Environmental Awareness Practice  Work from the assumption that what is good for the environment is also good for the client.  Assist the client to feel and understand the deep needs behind his or her unsustainable wants.  Assist the client in learning to satisfy these deep needs thereby making the wants redundant.  Keep asking deep questions to achieve all this.  Do not hijack the client’s process for the ‘greater good’ of the planet.  Remember that some clients may need to ‘take more from life’.

Awareness of Past Environmental Influences  EPT places value in inquiring about the clients’ early traumatising or self- supporting environmental living conditions.

Past Environmental Influences Practice  Inquire about environmental factors that influenced your family of origin including the effects of wars and ecological catastrophes.  Inquire about environmental features that may have compensated for empathic failures and attachment difficulties of primary caregivers such as access to nature and companion animals.

Awareness of Present Environmental Influences  EPT places value in inquiring about the influences of present urban, suburban, or rural environments on clients’ mental and physical health and wellbeing.

Present Environmental Influences Practice  Inquire about environmental health hazards the client may be subjected to.  Inquire about his or her lifestyle choices and diet.  Use the questionnaire as a guide.  Explore what may have influenced the client’s well-being on the way to your office (heavy traffic, smog, road rage, etc).

Awareness of the Effects of Lifestyle Choices  EPT facilitates the understanding of the effects of lifestyle choices, including diets and exercising, on clients’ mental and physical health and wellbeing.

Lifestyle Choices Practice  Inquire about the client’s lifestyle choices such as exercising and diet.  Explore the effects of possible addictions to drugs, nicotine, coffee,and prescription drugs.  Use the questionnaire as a guide.

Spiritual Awareness  EPT facilitates the exploration of spiritual needs and a felt sense of person-planet unity.

Spiritual Awareness Practice  Explore with the client his or her spiritual needs within the framework of his or her spiritual or religious orientation  Facilitate through mindfulness exercises the developing of a felt sense of person- planet unity.

Understanding, Reflection, and Action  EPT places value in deepening the understanding of the effects of political decisions and cultural practices on a client’s life.  EPT promotes political and social action designed to address the causes of unsustainable perceptions, behaviours, and practices.

Understanding, Reflection, and Action Practice  Facilitate the client in deepening his or her understanding of the effects of political decisions and cultural practices on his or her daily life.  Promote and encourage political and social action designed to address the causes of unsustainable perceptions, behaviours, and practices.  Promote collaboration and assist the client in identifying people and organisations to join.  Be proactive yourself to be able to function as a role model.