Ecopsychology

Mental health concerns have risen substantially over the last decade. Access to health-promoting environments, like parks, may significantly improve mental health issues such as depression and stress. Yet, despite limited access to traditional mental health services in many US communities, there remains limited research that jointly considers the role of nonclinical interventions such as park availability and neighborhood walkability. Walkability is a crucial determinant of access to green spaces and may shape how individuals benefit from park presence. This study examined the relationship between park availability and mental distress (i.e., stress, depression, and problems with emotions) and the potential moderating role of neighborhood walkability levels. For all census tracts in South Carolina (n = 1,089), the number of available parks was extracted from Google Maps utilizing the OutScraper Application Programming Interface and expressed per 10,000 residents. For each tract, we also obtained the National Walkability Index, mental distress rates from the CDC PLACES dataset, the CDC Social Vulnerability Index, population density, percentage of people living in the same house in the past year, and the population aged 18 years old or above. Using linear regression models, we analyzed the relationship between park availability and mental distress and tested the interaction between park availability and walkability. Greater park availability was associated with lower mental distress rates (b = −0.05, p < 0.05), adjusting for population density, residential stability, social vulnerability, and age. The association between park availability and mental distress significantly varied by walkability levels (b = 0.004, p < 0.05). In neighborhoods with low walkability, park availability was associated with lower mental distress rates, but this association was not significant for medium- and high-walkability neighborhoods. These findings highlight the important role of park access in mitigating mental distress, especially in neighborhoods with low and medium walkability.

How might we build community and connection as the wounded world grows warmer and more unlivable? How might we address climate distress in ways that honor right relationships between people, planet, place, and our more-than-human companions? We ask questions like these in this article and seek to answer them as we present a narrative case study of an Australian community of practice focused on climate distress. We draw from the transcripts of a series of audio-recorded dialogues between our members, all authors of this article. Combining exegesis and artful, poetic inquiry, we articulate the tumult of ourselves in a world of ecosystemic crisis. We wonder how to live in reciprocity and how to respectfully learn from Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. We consider the limits of language and the complicated solace of wild things. In the end, we suspect that all our words and truths jostle just enough to invite others to contemplate their own wild places.

In the context of global ecological crises, relational moral reasoning offers an important lens for understanding pathways toward a sustainable future. Historically, environmental moral psychology has relied on a binary distinction between anthropocentric (human-centered) and biocentric (nature-centered) reasoning. We propose a tripartite framework that centers relational moral concerns for reciprocity, harmony, kinship, and interdependence, advancing (1) relationships among people embedded in nature (living in), (2) relationships between people and the natural world (living with), and (3) relationships grounded in relational embeddedness (living as). Each orientation can be expressed through corporeal (physical, functional), metacorporeal (socio-emotional, cultural, spiritual), and ecorelational-justice (rights, fairness, responsibility) forms. Relational moral reasoning is a qualitatively distinct mode of moral concern. We position relationship-centered moral reasoning alongside the established framework, expanding the analytic and theoretical explanatory scope of environmental moral psychology. Drawing on over two decades of empirical research with children and adults across cultural contexts, we offer a proof-of-concept illustration of how relational concerns emerge in moral thought. Relational moral reasoning is developmentally present, psychologically rich, and culturally diverse, and it warrants explicit analytic attention. Centering relational moral concerns in psychological research contributes to the growing “relational turn” in sustainability and psychological sciences by clarifying how relationships themselves garner moral attention, with implications for research, education, policy, and practice. As a conceptual and generative contribution, this paper expands the tools available for studying environmental moral reasoning by making relational moral concerns more visible and empirically tractable.

Nature-based therapy (NBT) has been growing as a therapeutic option and has demonstrated effectiveness in addressing numerous mental health issues. However, many NBT study designs are limited in their external validity because the intervention is complicated and time intensive, appropriate comparison groups are not included, and the effect of nature cannot be isolated. Using Behavioral Activation with Mindfulness exercises, this study uses three treatment conditions (Outdoor, Indoor, Control) to isolate the effect of nature. While taking part in physical activity, participants in the active treatment conditions are taught four mindfulness exercises in either an outdoor or indoor setting. Using linear mixed models analyses, results indicate that the Outdoor condition may have more impact on improvement of depressive symptoms, connectedness to nature, and mindfulness than Indoor and Control. Implications for clinicians and future research directions are discussed.

In recent years, mindfulness-based interventions for the treatment of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) have yielded promising outcomes. Concurrently, growing evidence supports the mental health benefits of nature exposure, leading to increased interest in nature-based interventions. Nature connectedness—how strongly one feels connected to nature—is associated with improved well-being, particularly stress reduction. Research points toward a reciprocal relationship between mindfulness and nature connectedness, suggesting increased benefits of interventions combining them. Additionally, the neuropeptide oxytocin has gained attention for its potential in alleviating SSD symptomatology. This exploratory study examined the combined effects of mindfulness, nature, and oxytocin on SSD in the context of a mindfulness-based group therapy (MBGT) with a nature-focus. Forty-one (age range 24–64 years) participants with SSD were randomly allocated to two groups and received either intranasal oxytocin (24 I.U. Syntocinon®) or placebo 30 min before they underwent two 50-min MBGT sessions consisting of an introduction, mindfulness exercises, sharing and goal-setting. The Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS), the Inclusion of Nature in Self Scale (INS) and visual analogue scales for stress were administered before and after sessions. ANCOVA revealed no significant between-group differences; however, within-subject analyses revealed significant increases in nature connectedness and reductions in stress in both groups. Additionally, increases in nature connectedness were significantly associated with reduced stress. While no significant differences were found between the MBGT modules (breathing vs. senses in nature), within-group analyses revealed significant improvements of more outcome measures after the nature-focused session. These findings offer preliminary support for integrating mindfulness, nature, and oxytocin in SSD treatment. Future research with larger samples is needed to clarify their individual and combined effects.

A growing body of research demonstrates the benefits of nature. Several reviews have been published on the association between nature exposure and mental and physical health among adults and children. Less is known about the benefits of nature for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and their children. To address this gap, this scoping review applies Herman’s Trauma Theory to examine existing research on nature engagement and exposure among IPV survivors and their children. The research questions included (1) how do survivors and their children engage with nature in community and shelter settings, and (2) to what extent is nature beneficial for survivors and their children? Seven studies were included in the scoping review, describing (1) how outdoor environments are utilized at IPV shelters and (2) the benefits for survivors and children, including creating a space for play, enhancing therapy services, and facilitating social connectedness. Findings demonstrated that more studies focused on nature exposure compared with engagement, and all studies discussed the relationship between nature and strengthening social relationships. Findings from this scoping review show a burgeoning research base that highlights the importance of nature in the healing of IPV survivors and their children, particularly in terms of emotional well-being, social connection, and family bonding. This scoping review also reveals how nature can enhance therapeutic services by providing a space for the release of negative emotions and physical energy, as well as offering opportunities for mindfulness. More research is needed that incorporates principles of trauma theory. Additional research is also needed that centers on the voices of survivors and their children.

This study explores how individuals from ethnoracially marginalized backgrounds engage with psychedelic substances for psychological healing, cultural reconnection, and resistance to structural neglect in mainstream health care systems. Based on 23 in-depth interviews and participant-observation within a psychedelic preparation and integration training program, the research documents how participants turn to psychedelics—including psilocybin, cannabis, and ayahuasca—in response to trauma, systemic disconnection, and a lack of meaningful care. Most participants rejected the popular framing of a “Psychedelic Renaissance,” instead describing their experiences as acts of remembering, ancestral reconnection, and spiritual practice. Psychedelic use was often interpreted as a form of self-determined healing and ecological belonging, emerging in contrast to what participants characterized as alienating, commodified, or inadequate health care structures. Participants reported that plant medicines provided emotional insight, helped resolve intergenerational wounds, and fostered a deeper sense of connection to themselves and the living world. The study applies the framework of Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing), integrating Indigenous and Western epistemologies to interpret these experiences within broader ecopsychological and decolonial contexts. While critical of medical gatekeeping and the commercialization of sacred plants, participants expressed strong support for accessible and community-based psychedelic practices rooted in respect, reciprocity, and sovereignty. These findings suggest that psychedelic use, in both formal and informal settings, functions not only as a therapeutic tool but also as a response to systems of structural and symbolic violence. The research contributes to ecopsychology by illuminating how plant medicines can support holistic healing, cultural memory, and ecological awareness among communities often excluded from dominant paradigms of mental health.

Although spiritual experiences in ecotherapy are increasingly recognized for their therapeutic potential, little is understood about how participants experience spirituality in ecotherapy and how they describe the psychological significance of these experiences. This gap calls for a synthesis of qualitative findings to clarify the qualities and therapeutic effects of these experiences. This systematic review employed thematic synthesis to integrate findings from diverse qualitative and mixed-method studies into a unified dataset. The integrated data were then analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, through which key themes were identified. Three themes illuminate participants’ spiritual experiences: Witnessing Life Essence Through the Lens of Nature, Immersion in the Immediacy of Nature, and A Sense of Oneness With the Natural World. Additionally, three themes reflect participants’ understandings of the therapeutic effects of those experiences: Self-Acceptance Through Processing Remaining Pain, Liberation From the Constraints of the Past, and Reclaiming Hope Through a Renewed Sense of Life Purpose. Taken together, these findings suggest that spiritual experiences in ecotherapy appear to play a role in facilitating the therapeutic process. Such experiences may also promote participants’ pro-environmental attitudes and restore their sense of hope amid environmental crises.

Paradigm shifts are needed to get supports for earth steward development up to scale. Here, four paradigm shifts are featured, namely, a shift to a developmental systems way of defining and explaining earth steward development; a shift to a nature-as-solution way of addressing the climate crisis; a shift to a multiple media literacy paradigm that includes the arts in support of earth steward development; and a shift to a faith-tradition way of understanding religion’s potential for supporting earth steward development.

It has been understudied whether and how sociocultural contexts moderate the relationship between nature connectedness and adolescents’ subjective well-being. This study addresses the gap by examining the moderating role of household natural resource dependence (HNRD). We conducted a survey in Tibet, China (N = 8766) and found that the association between nature connectedness and subjective well-being was weaker among adolescents with high (than low) HNRD. Mediated moderation analyses showed that higher HNRD predicted stronger gratitude to nature, which, in turn, predicted a weaker association between nature connectedness and subjective well-being. The findings were consistent across both subjective and objective measures of HNRD and different indicators of subjective well-being (i.e., happiness, life satisfaction, and psychological richness). These findings shed light on the importance of investigating the role of sociocultural contexts in shaping the relationship between nature connectedness and subjective well-being among adolescents.