Research
I engage in an ongoing inquiry into the human relationship to habitat that seeks more conscious, effective, and healthier ways of (re)becoming a member of the earth community. My research focuses on the ecological psyche and includes areas such as working with the ecological unconscious, regenerative agriculture, the challenges of “breaking the habits” formed through cultural conditioning of our modern, consumerist society, and spiritual ecology.
The primary way I provide access to my research is through my publications. Along with transforming my own way of being on the earth, the products of my research are in The Hilltending Notebooks and other writings and publications.
Publications
From Stories of Home to Stories of Homecoming: A Depth Psychological Inquiry Into Narratives of Relationship to Habitat
My doctoral research provides a deeper understanding of the collective ecological psyche by identifying and analyzing two approaches to ecopsychology – the terracentric and the geocosmological – and how that can contribute to more effective forms of ecotherapy. The dissertation resulting from this research is entitled From Stories of Home to Stories of Homecoming: A Depth Psychological Inquiry Into Narratives of Relationship to Habitat and is published at ProQuest. You can access it here.
Landscape and story: Ecopsychological reflections. Immanence Journal, 3(2), 44-56.
…Like dreams, econarratives often contain mythic motifs that can help uncover unconscious ecopsychological patterns and structures of one’s relationship to nature. Working symbolically with these motifs can help bring what might be called one’s personal eco-myth, or guiding story, into conscious awareness, more fully informing how one relates to the natural world and to the wider societal eco-myth.
DOWNLOAD BUTTON HERE
In These Hidden Places: An Ecology of Wild Beauty. Written River, a Journal of Eco-Poetics, 2014. 4(2), 38-42.
A phenomenological essay on the aesthetics of nature, exploring the effects of wild beauty on the human psyche, and how building an intentional awareness of these aesthetic experiences can nurture personal and collective development and restore a meaningful relationship to the human-nature reciprocity.
DOWNLOAD BUTTON HERE
A Language We Once Knew. Hiraeth Press. 2007
Provoked by countless natural, cultural, and spiritual motifs, the poems in this volume hope to inspire the rediscovery of the “language” that is a part of being fully human – a language we once knew. Our relationship with the soul and with nature is often lost in the rush of everyday life; sometimes so deeply that it seems we have completely forgotten what it means to be fully human. The sometimes surreal works in this volume take us to the edge of our selves; through storms that we fear will destroy us, but which ultimately lead us back home, changed and more fully alive.
Media
The Intentional Clinician Podacst, Episodes 76 and 79
I was a guest on two episodes of the Intentional Clinician Podcast with Paul Krauss.
About The Intentional Clinician Podcast: Entertaining and informative talks covering psychology and philosophy with a variety of guests! From modern empirically-validated counseling techniques to ancient wisdom practices, all corners are approached. Discussing both practical and eccentric approaches on living a full and vibrant life. Including, bold unedited discussions about the meaning of life, history, music, and culture. Paul Krauss MA LPC (your host), draws on his unique life experience of growing up in a small motel in the countryside, living in large cities, and working with and living among diverse cultural and socioeconomic groups–combining his trauma-informed science-based perspective with the contrasting desire to live like a mystic. Opposites unite on this podcast!
LISTEN TO THE EPISODES:
Episode 76: What is Ecoptherapy and Ecopsychology
Episode 79: Depth Work in Ecotherapy and Introducing “Hilltending”