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DENIS T. MARIER, B.SC., N.D.

"The idea that we live in something called 'the environment' is utterly preposterous. . . . The world that environs us, that is around us, is also within us. We are made of it; we eat, drink, and breathe it; it is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh." Wendell Berry

Ecopsychology

As naturopathic doctors, we seek to help the individual heal through addressing the root cause. As the concept of “eco-anxiety” (Galst 2006) begins to take root in modern consciousness through the Terminal Triangle of global warming, peak oil crisis, and economic collapse (Baker 2006), ecological and economic worry is increasingly becoming the root cause of many stress-related conditions seen by a typical naturopathic doctor. These include diagnoses of essential hypertension, generalized anxiety, fatigue, or insomnia among other vague or unspecific symptoms of dis-ease caused by a weakened or malfunctioning stress-response system and subsequently an overburdened nervous system.

The core practices of mind-body medicine seek to balance the stress-response system of the body and to increase the individual’s adaptability to stress. If the root cause of this unbalanced stress-response system is attributed to an individual’s lack of connection to themselves or their environment, or increasing anxiety about the climate-challenged world we live in, then ecopsychology provides the pathway for healing the mind-body through earth connection. Liz Galst observes, “If you care about people you don’t even know, you’re more likely to find environmental crises upsetting.” (Galst 2006)

“Ecopsychology can offer the modern environmental movement, which some writers have called the single most important political movement of the twentieth century, a positive and inspiring vision of how humans can live in harmony with nature.” (Swift 2006)

Earth As Sacred

Ecopsychology helps to reconnect people with the sacredness of their lives through connecting to the sacredness of the natural world. The more connection we have with our natural world, the deeper the sense we have of interconnectedness, or “interbeing” as Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist scholar and peace activist, describes it. (Hanh 1991). In terms of relational mutuality, Sarah Conn says, “It’s about waking up to the plain fact that our most private neurosis and angst is deeply interconnected with the larger processes happening on the planet.” (Conn 1998)

Soul, Spirit, and Vital Force

By soul I mean the vital, the mysterious, and wild core of our individual selves, an essence unique to each person, qualities found in layers of the self much deeper than our personalities. By spirit I mean the single, great, and eternal mystery that permeates and animates everything in the universe and yet transcends it all. Ultimately, each soul exists as an agent for spirit. (Plotkin 2003)

This definition immediately brings to mind the concept of “vital force” as applied to naturopathic medicine in one of its primary philosophies, “To co-operate with the healing power of nature or vis medicatrix naturae.” The founder of scientific naturopathy, Henry Lindlahr also attempted to define this healing vital force:

This [vital] force, which permeates, heats and animates the entire created universe, is the expression of the divine will, the “logos,” the “word” of the great creative intelligence…It is the supreme power and intelligence, acting in and through every atom, molecule, and cell in the human body, which the true healer, the “vis medicatrix naturae” which always endeavours to repair, heal, and to restore the perfect type. All that the physician can do is to remove obstructions and to establish normal conditions within and around the patient, so that the “healer within” can do his [sic] work to the best advantage. (Lindlahr 1913)

By integrating the two definitions, we can infer that the vital force or healer within is synonymous with soul. Therefore, healing practices that have the aim of impacting and healing through the vital force, can be considered soul-medicine. As naturopathic doctors, with our philosophy of stimulating the vital force so that the organism heals itself, and with the modalities available to us that directly influence this vital healing force, can we not consider ourselves as purveyors of medicine for the soul?

Soul shows us how we, as individuals, are different (in a community-affirming way) from everybody else. Spirit shows us how we are no different from anything else, how we are one with all that exists. (Plotkin 2003)

Healing Mind-body Through Earth Connection

The soul may be frightened away, lost, or stolen. Persons who have lost parts of their souls describe themselves as dissociated, and often have no memory of certain segments of their lives. Chronic depression, suicidal tendencies, and chronic illnesses are also symptoms of soul loss. It is emotionally painful to be fragmented, dissociated, and not feeling part of life.” (Ingerman 1991)

Ingerman (1991) also states “when a person complains to me that he or she has not “been myself” since a trauma, such as surgery, an accident, a divorce, or the death of someone close, I suspect soul loss.” As naturopathic doctors, we commonly refer to this phenomenon as “NWS: never well since…”

Practices for Re-integrating Wholeness

For those uninitiated into the more subtle points of earth-based healing practices, as naturopathic doctors we can still employ nature as a healing modality. A simple way to introduce this into your practice is to ask your patient to spend more time in nature, both observing and being observed by it. Plotkin suggests a “Contemplative Nature Walk,” in which the patient is encouraged to spend several hours, up to half a day, fasting and wandering in nature while focusing on a question such as, “What do I need to do to bring healing to this situation?” or other personal questions directly related to that person’s healing journey. A simple threshold is created at the beginning of the nature walk to mark the entry into non-ordinary reality. This threshold can be a stick to step over, a sprinkling of tobacco, a song, prayer, dance, or anything that brings the patient into a deeper understanding of the present moment, and will mark their transition into a sacred space. (Plotkin 2003). [NB: An outline of the “Contemplative Nature Walk” is posted on my website www.drdenismarier.com]. Patients most often return from this exercise with a greater sense of wholeness, more grounded, and with increased clarity around certain life situations that are impacting their present state of wellness.

Christopher Sowton, N.D. (www.dreamreading.ca) employs nature-based therapies in his homeopathic private practice, sending patients out into the world to find their own “ally remedy,” using their own intuitive process as the primary guiding principle. Often the needed substance will have already presented itself in a dream, vision, or synchronous event of some kind. Patients will return with a feather, flower, leaf or other “gift” they “stumbled across” in their wanderings. He will then take the time to assist the patient in preparing a homeopathic potency of that substance, using the traditional “potentization” process of trituration (grinding in milk sugar) and succussion (serial dilution in water or alcohol), to effectively create their own personal remedy from the natural substance or species that “called to them.” Christopher presented a workshop on this method of remedy preparation at a symposium hosted by Alize Timmerman in The Hague, Netherlands in June 2006.

Other practices for bringing the ecological into the naturopathic paradigm can be as simple as recommending a simple home garden, or even bringing the session outdoors into a natural setting, or a nearby park. Ira Orchin, Ph.D., authour of Taking therapy outdoors: How to use nature to get tough cases unstuck, states that “almost any client, except the most impaired, can benefit from a session outdoors; however, those who’ve spoken of an affinity for nature – or those who are timid of the outdoors – are particularly good candidates.” (Orchin 2004).

In the book The Soul Unearthed: Celebrating Wildness & Personal Renewal Through Nature (Cass Adams, ed. 1996), Jed Scott Swift, Ph.D. reveals the impact an extreme encounter with nature had on his natural world-view; “For me, it was a further wake-up call to both the awesome power and mystery of nature and the indomitable strength, beauty, and goodness of the human spirit. Nature has always been my greatest teacher and this lesson only served to deepen my understanding of how connected, mutually interdependent, and capable of service beyond the small self we truly are.” Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D., medical anthropologist and Zen Buddhist master says, “Often we must go outside society to confirm that we live inside the continuum of creation. One seeks solitude to know relatedness. There the unknown, the unarticulated, the unpredictable, the uncontrollable appear as protectors of truth, protectors of the present.” (Halifax 2003)

Wilderness Rites of Passage

A Walk on the Wild Side

By integrating the concepts of ecopsychology with those of mind-body medicine, a powerful (hybrid) vehicle for exploring ego-transcendence through earth-connection begins to unfold. This would be a valuable asset to anyone in the health science field who works with patients at a psychological level, including naturopathic doctors. The outcome of integrating these two disciplines would be increased awareness of the principles of ecopsychology among future healers and health policy makers.

Another outcome of cross-pollinating these two disciplines of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is to recognize what Hippocrates espoused at the dawn of modern medicine; that to truly bring about healing, one must consider their patient within their environment. By integrating earth-based practices into an already recognized CAM field, the medical model will finally be moving more towards its roots in the healing power of nature. Medicine and healing professions will finally be closer to recognizing that the human cannot be separated from the environment without devastating consequences. Health care professionals will finally have the tools and full scope of practice they need to fully engage with their patients, and participate in soul-renewing practices through encouraging inter-being with the natural world. The practice of soul medicine will be widely accepted. Whole-person healing and sustainable practices will then abound, and a sense of renewal and rejuvenation will pervade the subconscious of the human condition, replacing the current pervasive sense of doom and anxiety. Perhaps it is through the integration of ecopsychology and mind-body medicine that the true power of vis medicatrix naturae will be fully realized by the healing profession.

As doctors of naturopathic medicine continue to refine their art and practice upon the stage of federal and provincial health care policy and regulation debates, let us step up and assume the mantel of caregivers for the environment as well. Only through a healthy environment is it possible to integrate physiology, psychology, and ecology with sustainable practices for renewable health and wellness – of the individual, and of the planet.

“As an environmentalist, you already have the right view. What you need to do is to become confident and positive, and help other environmentalists to become confident and positive. The long term solutions we need for our global problems can only arise from the confident and positive. They can never arise from the mind of anger and despair.” H.H. The Dalai Lama

Authour’s Note: I would like to acknowledge all of the elders, leaders, peers and students of naturopathic medicine and ecopsychology who have greatly influenced and inspired me through a continued journey of authenticity, healing and discovery. You deeply motivate me to continue to incorporate nature into naturopathic medicine.

The future will be worked out in the tensions between those committed to the technozoic era and the ecozoic era. Thomas Berry

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