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Advanced Training Certificate: Ecopsychology

January 27, 2025 – May 2, 2025

Lifelong Learner Membership Rate: $876 | Offered Live via Zoom

Program Description

Advanced Training Certificate in Ecopsychology

This Advanced Training Certificate in Ecopsychology, offered online over 13 weeks, has the distinct advantage of combining four perspectives from four internationally renowned authors, educators, and transformational leaders in the fields of Ecopsychology and Ecotherapy. Ecopsychology brings ecology and psychology together to create novel and exciting approaches to the urgent needs of our time. Although its most visible face is the practice of Ecotherapy, which emphasizes the synergy between human well-being and the health of the planet, a number of other avenues have been developed, including those involving depth-psychological, multicultural, transpersonal, community, and liberatory engagement with earthly places, thereby cultivating personal and cultural transformation.In this program, we will also explore Ecopsychology considered as a socially and philosophically radical project that integrates psychology and ecology by questioning much of the conventional thought and practice currently found in these two arenas.

Because the practices and ideas of Ecopsychology are open to everyone, this Certificate neither requires nor confers a license or degree. It is designed as an overview offering a range of concepts, techniques, and strategies by surveying a number of key approaches to Ecopsychology. It will be of interest to everyone—clinicians, coaches, activists, and curious others—looking for a more holistic and engaged way forward. The Certificate offers a range of readings, lectures, weekly reflections, and live sessions, so participants will need to make sufficient space in their schedules to learn as much as they can over the 13 weeks.

Career Competencies

The Advanced Training Certificate in Ecopsychology offered by Pacifica Graduate Institute provides the following career competencies:

  1. Ecopsychological Knowledge: Understanding the psychological relationship between humans and the environment, including the theoretical frameworks and practical applications of ecopsychology.
  2. Therapeutic Skills: Developing skills to facilitate healing processes that connect individuals with nature, using ecotherapy practices and nature-based interventions.
  3. Interdisciplinary Perspective: Integrating knowledge from psychology, ecology, and social sciences to address complex environmental and psychological issues.
  4. Community Engagement: Skills in fostering community connections and facilitating discussions around ecological well-being and mental health, promoting sustainability and social justice within diverse groups.

Program Format

Each week you will learn from: an audio or video presentation by Andy, Jeanine, Linda, or Garret; a list of required or recommended Readings/Videos/Resources; online Discussion with the other participants and instructors, based on the responses you post each week to that week’s assignment; and a Live session with one of the instructors. Live sessions will be scheduled at varying times in order to maximize participation, and will be recorded for those who cannot attend a given week. Assignments include indoor and outdoor exercises designed to deepen learning and enrich nature connection.

Required texts for Andy’s part of the course:  Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life, 2nd ed. (SUNY Press, 2013).

Required texts for Jeanine’s part of the course: Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet (Shambhala Publications, 2022

Also recommended for this certificate: Jeanine M. Canty, ed., Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices (Routledge, 2017); Linda Buzzell & Craig Chalquist, eds., Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind (Sierra Club Books, 2009); and Craig Chalquist, Terrapsychological Inquiry: Restorying Our Relationship with Nature, Place, and Planet (Routledge, 2020); Mary Watkins, Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons (Yale, 2019).

The four instructors each cover a different perspective on ecopsychology, as described below.

Individual Session Descriptions

The Project of Ecopsychology: History of the Field, and Ecopsychology Viewed as a Radical Transformation of Psychology

Andy Fisher

Andy’s work in ecopsychology is about the project of ecopsychology as a whole, including how it has developed as a field over the last three decades. The sessions with Andy therefore provide a background history to ecopsychology (Week 1) and an introduction to Radical Ecopsychology, which is his term for the field of ecopsychology viewed as a radical project (weeks 2, 4, and 5). The emphasis here is on how a radical, coherent image of ecopsychology allows us to see deeply into the current historical moment and to discern the precise tasks and opportunities the field may best self-organize around. These sessions also stress how the numerous intersecting social issues of our times—the unfinished business of history—are unavoidably at the center of the ecopsychological project. A final goal is to help participants build a sense of confidence with the difficult conversations and unconventional methods necessary for transforming psychology into ecopsychology.

Conceptions and Practices of the Self in Ecopsychology: Ecological, Multicultural, Transformative

Jeanine M. Canty

Participants will work with Jeanine for three weeks, segmented throughout our time together, weaving together concepts and practices that expand our sense of self for the greater whole.  In week three, we will get a strong sense of moving beyond a limited sense of ego to one that is embedded within the ecological realm.  In week six, we will build on this work, diving into issues of social justice and how to engage multiple perspectives.  Finally, during week ten, we will pull this together with a more transpersonal sense of self.  Each of these weeks will require a willingness to work with difficult emotions, compassion, and mindful change.

Ecotherapy: Nature-based Healing Practices for Physical, Psychological, and Cultural Well-being

Linda Buzzell

This portion of the program (weeks 7, 8, and 9) provides an introduction to the growing field of ecotherapy (or as some call it, applied or clinical ecopsychology). We’ll explore the many different ways that a deep green perspective is transforming psychological, social, cultural, and medical healing practices to treat a wide variety of populations and conditions. Students will become aware of the research that supports this transformative evolution and learn about the many increasingly popular nature-based treatment modalities so they can choose those that feel most relevant to their personal or professional goals.

Earth Accompaniment: Integrating Liberatory and Community Practices

Garret Barnwell

In this part of the program (weeks 11, 12, and 13) we will learn several reflective and community-level practices and ideas for being in accompaniment with the Earth. We will first begin with Terrapsychology, exploring how, through folklore, dreams or local motifs, we are in continuous conversation with the world around. In response to some of this and new material (such as the climate and environmental justice struggles taking place around the world), we move deeper into the praxis and integration of Earth Accompaniment and Community Psychologies. Students will become aware of how people, often psychologists themselves and at times practicing from an ecopsychological position, are standing in solidarity with people, mountains, rivers, and trees, and our planet for the flourishing of all life.

Program Sessions

Introduction Panel with All Faculty:
This 2-hour orientation will welcome you to the course and offer an opportunity to connect with the faculty and other students in the program. Please plan on attending (or watching the recording) prior to the Week 1 live lecture.

Week 1. The History of Ecopsychology (and the Ecopsychology of History). This certificate program presents four different perspectives on ecopsychology. As a way to provide a common context for the program and to set the stage for thinking about ecopsychology, we begin by providing a brief history of the field. First named as such in the early 1990s, it has “first generation” and “second generation” camps, among others. This session also presents the idea that a third, more social justice-oriented generation of ecopsychology is on the rise. (Andy)

Week 2. Ecopsychology as a Radical Project. Radical ecopsychology views ecopsychology as a radical ecological transformation of psychology. This session, then, is about reconstructing psychology in light of an ecological view of reality. This makes ecopsychology something very different than psychology as we have come to know it. We will give careful attention to the meaning of the word radical (“going to the roots”) and to the challenges that a radical approach involves. (Andy)

Week 3. From Ego to Ecological Self. A key need is for individuals within our society to develop from the small ego to the ecological self.  Within this week, we will examine how western, globalized corporate culture has over-developed our individual egos, minimizing our ability to connect with nature including other humans.  A strong component of this work will be to develop our ecological self and establish a mindfulness practice. Key concepts: self, arrested development, narcissism, consumerism, ecological self, mindfulness. (Jeanine)

Week 4. Recollective Ecopsychology. Ecopsychology is about remembering the deep interconnection between psyche and nature. Radical ecopsychology frames this as the recollective dimension or side of ecopsychology. What difference does this make? (Andy)

Week 5. Critical Ecopsychology and Integrative Praxis. The other main side of Radical Ecopsychology is Critical Ecopsychology. It joins critical psychology and radical ecology in order to produce a unique and powerful critical perspective on our historical moment. Radical Ecopsychology as a whole then involves a praxis (theory and practice) for integrating the recollective and critical sides of the field into a specifically ecopsychological form of politics. We will focus on decolonization as a particular integrative term. (Andy)

Week 6. The Multicultural Self. Picking up on our work with developing our ecological selves (week 3), this week  work to identify and strengthen our multicultural self.  We will gain awareness of how the ecological crisis affects diverse positionalities, in particular communities of color, indigenous communities, and women. Then we will turn to work with our capacity to hold more than one perspective at once, our multicultural self.  Key concepts: environmental justice, indigenous issues, ecofeminism, white fragility, multicultural self. (Jeanine)

Week 7. Ecotherapy as Evidence-Based Healing Work. Overview of the research and an introduction to the many populations, settings, and conditions that ecotherapy can treat. (Linda)

Week 8. Tending the Inner and Outer Landscape. We’ll explore many modalities that are now emerging into mainstream healing and education, including “wild nature within” practices like nature meditation and guided visualization; garden and farm therapies; animal-facilitated therapies; wilderness and forest experiences; nature-based art and somatic therapies. (Linda)

Week 9. Praxis Issues. We will cover the following topics: exploring how to customize ecotherapy treatment to the specific situation, community and client(s); advancing from Level 1 to Level 2 ecotherapy practice; avoiding cultural appropriation; dealing with legal and ethical concerns; discovering practical ways we can bring our unique healing gifts and understandings of ecopsychology and ecotherapy into our professional careers. (Linda)

Week 10. The Transpersonal Self. Bringing together our work with developing both our ecological self and multicultural self, within this week, we will weave these identities together and dive into the transpersonal self and the role this might play in collective healing.  Understanding our relationship to these widening circles will be engaged through readings, lecture, reflection, and mindful practice. Key concepts:  transpersonal self, Self, transformative Self, spirituality. (Jeanine)

Week 11. Terrapsychology: Working with the Soul of Place. We will learn about the profound influences exerted on mind and body by the places where we live, influences mostly unconscious but accessible through work with dreams, local images and motifs. (Garret)

Week 12. Ecopsychology Accompaniment. We will learn about the praxis of liberatory psychologies, which emerged from struggles in Latin America and Africa. Ecopsychosocial accompaniment as a way of being with others, including the more-than-human world, will be outlined. Historical and present vignettes of Earth Accompaniment will be used to show how different peoples are standing in solidarities with other-than-human life. (Garret)

Week 13. Integrating Ecopsychology and Community Psychology. We will explore how ecopsychology and community psychologies are being used and at times integrated for the ends of climate justice. In doing so, we will learn and reflect on how bearing witness to the climate justice struggle may be an important part of our work as ecopsychologists. (Garret)

Final Panel with All Faculty:
This final session will wrap-up the course and provide an opportunity to meet again with all the faculty present, having now been through the thirteen weeks with them separately. Bring your final questions.

Learning Objectives for CEC Attendees (6 Hours):

  1. Identify at least three examples of empirical support for ecotherapy as an evidence-based practice
  2. Identify at least one example of a population, setting and condition appropriate to ecotherapy intervention
  3. Differentiate horticultural, animal-facilitated, wilderness therapies, forest therapy and art therapies as applied methods.
  4. Describe at least two topics which characterize current developments in community and cultural ecotherapies
  5. Formulate an effective intervention addressing  eco-anxiety, eco-grief and climate trauma in climate disaster situations.
  6. Describe three ethical issues related to ecotherapy treatments.
  7. Name one specific application of human embeddedness to therapy diagnostics.
  8. Critique the term “cultural appropriation” as it is currently understood and applied in ecotherapy practice.
  9. Apply criteria for Nature Deficit Disorder to at least two discrete treatment goals
  10. Describe three contra-indications for prescribing outdoor ecotherapy practice.
  11. Name one function that ecotherapists might serve as First Responders in treating climate emergency trauma.
  12. Identify two important aspects of ecoresilience.

Continuing Education Credits apply for Weeks 7-9 and 11 – 13 only

SCHEDULE FOR LIVE CALLS

Introduction Panel with All Faculty – Monday, January 27, 9 AM – 11 AM PT

Week 1: Zoom Session with Andy – Friday, January 31, 9 AM – 10 AM PT

Week 2: Zoom Session with Andy – Friday, February 7, 6 PM – 7 PM PT

Week 3: Zoom Session with Jeanine – Thursday, February 13, 10 AM – 11 AM PT

Week 4: Zoom Session with Andy – Friday, February 21, 9 AM – 10 AM PT

Week 5: Zoom Session with Andy – Friday, February 28, 6 PM – 7:00 PM PT

Week 6: Zoom Session with Jeanine – Friday, March 7, 10 AM – 11 AM PT

Week 7: Zoom Session with Linda – Saturday, March 15, 12 Noon – 1 PM PT

Week 8: Zoom Session with Linda – Saturday, March 22, 12 Noon – 1 PM PT

Week 9: Zoom Session with Linda – Saturday, March 29, 12 Noon – 1 PM PT

Week 10: Zoom Session with Jeanine – Friday, April 4, 10 AM – 11 AM PT

Week 11: Zoom Session with Garret – Saturday, April 12, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PT

Week 12: Zoom Session with Garret – Saturday, April 19, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PT

Week 13: Zoom Session with Garret – Saturday, April 26, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PT

Final Panel with all Faculty – Friday, May 2, 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM PT

Live Participation on Zoom is Required during Weeks 7-9 and 11 – 13 for Continuing Education Credits

 

 

Required Readings

Program Details

Dates

January 27, 2025 – May 2, 2025
Online 3-month course with Andy Fisher, Linda Buzzell, Jeanine Canty, and Garret Barnwell

International participation is encouraged and welcome

Registration Fees

$930.75 – Pacifica Alumni, & Senior Rate

$1095.00 – General Rate

$30 – Continuing Education Credits (6 CEC Hours)

Participants requesting Continuing Education Credits (CECs) must attend the live Zoom sessions during weeks 7-9 and 11-13 in order to receive CECs. Please make sure that your Zoom account name matches the name of the attendee requesting CECs as we will be verifying attendance.

You have the option of putting down a 50% deposit when registering for the program and paying the remaining balance in installments of your choice until March 14, 2025. You can select this on the registration form.

Limited scholarship and reduced tuition opportunities are available for this program. You can fill out a scholarship application form here. The deadline for scholarship applications is January 13, 2024.

All of the live Zoom sessions will be recorded and made available to everyone registered for the program. If you watch the recordings and keep up with the online discussion forum you will qualify for the certificate of completion. Live attendance to the Zoom sessions is not necessary unless you are looking to obtain Continuing Education Credits.

Membership Pricing

As a Member of our Pacifica Degree Student Membership program, you can receive 40% off of the General Rate for this program! To register and receive your special member-only, code please click here.

(Please note that the Pacifica Degree Student Membership program is only for current students at Pacifica Graduate Institute enrolled in a full-time degree program).

As a Member of Our Lifelong Learner Membership program, you can receive 20% off of the General Rate for this program! To register and receive your special member-only code, please click here.

Student Members and Lifelong Learner Members can input their member-only code in the DISCOUNT CODE box on the registration form to receive their membership pricing.

What people are saying about the program

Loved the instructors and breadth of curriculum. Also, the extensive resources were excellent.

Fantastic introduction to ecopsychology - tremendous amount of knowledge and information well presented. More than just an overview, however - structure, content and instructors' facilitation/presentation skills allowed me to go deeper than I expected, given the time frame. I loved that each instructor presented such a unique, yet connected, perspective / area of expertise.

Loved it from start to finish. You have offered the best individuals in this field for us to learn from.

The program was truly amazing and exceeded my expectations. I appreciated the depth and breadth of the material provided and the presenters knowledge and ability to facilitate discussion.

I absolutely LOVED everything about this program. The instructors in particular were wonderful examples of educators and human beings. the content was rigorous and generous but the requirements were not outrageous for people working two jobs.

It was fantastic. The community that was created was a pleasant surprise.

Thanks so much for offering this amazing program!

About the Teachers

Andy FisherAndy Fisher, Ph.D., is a major figure in ecopsychology, having tracked and reflected on the development of the field for the last three decades. Author of one of the field’s primary texts, Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life (2nd Ed.), he is best known for his critical scholarship and holistic vision of the ecopsychological project. Andy keeps up an active schedule of teaching and writing, while also practicing as a mentor, consultant, rite of passage guide, and dream-worker. He is currently writing a book entitled Ecopsychology as Politics: Nature, Psyche, and the Social-Historical Moment. www.andy-fisher.ca

Linda BuzzellLinda Buzzell, LMFT, has been a psychotherapist for more than 40 years and has specialized in ecopsychology and ecotherapy since 2000. She and Craig Chalquist edited the Sierra Club Books anthology Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind, a core text in clinical ecopsychology. She is a member of the editorial board of Ecopsychology, the peer-reviewed journal of the field. Linda is Adjunct Faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she taught Pacifica’s Ecotherapy Certificate program in 2015. She was a featured presenter with Joanna Macy at Holos Institute’s 2017 Ecopsychology Conference in Petaluma, CA and at the 2014 Ecotherapy Symposium at the University of Brighton in the UK. In 2002 she founded The International Association for Ecotherapy and edited its journal Ecotherapy News for many years. She blogged on ecopsychology and ecotherapy for 7 years at Huffington Post and is an Admin on the 7500+ Facebook group “Ecopsychology.” She is co-host with Carol Koziol of the Canadian Ecopsychology Network’s Vimeo interview series “Ecopsychology Voices,” featuring conversations with a variety of ecopsychology luminaries from many countries, including UK Jungian ecotherapist Mary-Jayne Rust, Canadian Andy Fisher, Norwegian Per Espen Stoknes plus Americans Craig Chalquist, Carolyn Finney, Lori Pye, Susan Griffin, Jerome Bernstein, Betsy Perluss and many others. In 2006 she received her Permaculture Design Certificate and with her husband Larry Saltzman has created a 1/3 acre backyard food forest around her home that serves as her ecotherapy office.

Jeanine NaropaJeanine M. Canty, PhD, is a professor within the Transformative Studies Doctoral program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, working from a distance via the foothills of Boulder, CO. Previously, she was a professor of Environmental Studies at Naropa University, a Buddhist inspired institution, started her teaching career as a core faculty at Prescott College, an experiential learning institution. She has a doctorate in Transformative Learning and Change from CIIS, an MA in Cultural Ecopsychology from Prescott College, and a BA from Colgate University in International Relations. A lover of nature, justice, and contemplative practice, her teaching intersects issues of social and ecological justice connected to the process of worldview expansion and positive change. She is both editor and a contributor to the book Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices as well as Globalism and Localization: Emergent Approaches to Ecological and Social Crises. Her most recent book is Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing the Planet (Shambhala Publications, 2022). Jeanine is also a certified meditation instructor as well as a Wilderness First Responder (WFR).

headshot-Dr Garret Barnwell-ecopsychologyGarret Barnwell, Ph.D.

Dr Garret Barnwell is a clinical psychologist working as a psychotherapist, community psychology practitioner and researcher. His community psychology practice and research focus on ecopsychosocial accompaniment, and how communities are resisting land, climate and environmental injustices for the flourishing of life. Barnwell was an expert on the landmark youth-led #cancelcoal case climate case launched against the South African government’s plans for new coal-fired power. Additionally, he is also currently working on a new case as an expert witness on the psychological impacts of coal mining in South Africa. More about his work here.

General Information

Location

Hosted Online

Cancellations

Cancellations 14 days or more prior to the program start date receive a 100% refund of program registrations. After 14 days, up to 7 days prior to the program start date, a 50% refund is available. For cancellations made less than 7 days of program start date, no refund is available.

For additional information, including travel, cancellation policy, and disability services please visit our general information section.

Continuing Education Credit

This program meets qualifications for 6 hours of continuing education credit for Psychologists through the California Psychological Association (PAC014) Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing education for psychologists.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.  Full attendance is required to receive a certificate.

This course meets the qualifications for 6 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.  Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (#60721) to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.  Full attendance is required to obtain a certificate.

For Registered Nurses through the California Board of Registered Nurses this conference meets qualifications of 6 hours of continuing education credit are available for RNs through the California Board of Registered Nurses (provider #CEP 7177).  Full attendance is required to obtain a certificate.

Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for each program and its content.  Full day attendance is required to receive a certificate.

Continuing Education Goal.  Pacifica Graduate Institute is committed to offering continuing education courses to train LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs to treat any client in an ethically and clinically sound manner based upon current accepted standards of practice.  Course completion certificates will be awarded at the conclusion of the training and upon participant’s submission of his or her completed evaluation.

CECs and Online Program Attendance: Participants requesting Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for Online programs must attend all live sessions (offered via Zoom) in order to receive CECs. Please make sure that your Zoom account name matches the name of the attendee requesting CECs.

Continuing Education Credits apply for Weeks 7-9 and 11-13 only

For additional information, including travel, cancellation policy, and disability services please visit our general information section.

Registration Details

January 27, 2025 – May 2, 2025

  • Number of Classes: 15 Classes
  • Class Length: 60 Minutes (except for opening and final panels)
  • Class Time: Various Times
  • CECs: 6

Participants requesting Continuing Education Credits (CECs) must attend the live Zoom sessions during weeks 7-9 and 11-13 in order to receive CECs. Please make sure that your Zoom account name matches the name of the attendee requesting CECs as we will be verifying attendance.

All of the live Zoom sessions will be recorded and made available to everyone registered for the program. If you watch the recordings and keep up with the online discussion forum you will qualify for the certificate of completion. Live attendance to the Zoom sessions is not necessary unless you are looking to obtain Continuing Education Credits.