Nature Praxis: Understanding the Essentials of Ecotherapy

What if better mental and physical health could be found not in the next downloadable app, the next hack, or the next Instagram post, but in something very simple: going outside and remembering that you are part of the living world?

That's the introduction to ecotherapy. It's not a trend. It's not a luxury. And it's definitely not just for nature lovers or tree huggers. Ecotherapy is for anyone whose nervous system is exhausted, whose mind is noisy, whose body feels disconnected, whose life is too confined to screens, concrete walls, and appointments, or who constantly compares themselves to others or some role model.

What is ecotherapy?

Here's the classic truth about ecotherapy: there is no single definition. A common assumption is that ecotherapy is a type of therapeutic treatment that involves outdoor activities in nature—and it can promote mental and physical health. It is often described as a regular, structured activity, sometimes led by trained professionals, taking place in a natural environment, focusing on the activity itself and inviting connection – with nature and often with other people.

But who are these professionals? Are they classically trained psychologists and/or therapists who move their indoor sessions outdoors? Or is there more to it than that?

For me personally, ecotherapy is what happens when nature becomes part of the healing process. This can take many forms:

• A slow walk with guided attention (sensory grounding, mindful walking)

• Gardening, nature conservation work, or land stewardship

• Forest bathing

• Yoga or breathing exercises outdoors

• Mindfulness practices in the wilderness (seating areas, time alone, listening exercises)

• Group circles around the campfire, storytelling, rituals, or symbolic practices (sometimes including shamanic-inspired work)

• A 10-day structured trekking tour in the great outdoors 

  
  

Some ecotherapy is highly structured and professionally guided. Some are simple and personal: sitting under a tree after a hard day and feeling your chest relax again. The term is broad – because people are big, and nature is bigger.

Ecotherapy is not about remedying symptoms. It is not just about changing location—from indoors to outdoors—and continuing the classic therapy session there. It is about holism—about becoming whole again through relationships. As David Key puts it, "We heal by experiencing ourselves as part of nature's greater whole." This sentence sums up the core of the nature practice approach: healing is not just something we do in our heads. It is something we remember in our bodies – through direct contact with the living world.

Why is our relationship with nature so important to us?

In the course of civilization, humans have increasingly created systems that primarily regulate human coexistence: sedentariness, agriculture, property rights, states, political and economic orders, industrialization, and currently technology, including artificial intelligence. In the process, nature has been and continues to be increasingly lost sight of and treated as if it were an infinite resource rather than a living system with which we humans are connected and on which we depend. The consequences are now clear: climate crisis, species extinction, pandemics—almost as if the Earth were reacting to being overburdened. This indifference and disrespect, this lack of connection to Mother Earth, ultimately leads to many forms of destruction—both socio-political and individual-psychological.

What we often forget is that we humans are primates—biological beings with a nervous system that has been shaped over hundreds of thousands of years to live in manageable groups, adapt to natural rhythms, and respond to concrete, immediate challenges: weather, food, conflict, safety, belonging. We were not created to cope with such rapid development within a few generations as we have experienced over the past 2-3 generations – a development that simultaneously transforms our living spaces, fragments our attention, disconnects our bodies and puts our social systems under constant stress.

Our brains and bodies still carry the logic of the wilderness within them: we need movement, daylight, real breaks, touch, relationships, meaning, and a living environment that gives us feedback on where we stand.

Our brains and bodies still carry the logic of the wilderness within them: we need movement, daylight, real breaks, touch, relationships, meaning, and a living environment that gives us feedback on where we stand. But the modern world often demands the opposite of us: constant availability, information overload, artificial environments, competition, speed, and permanent adaptation. This creates an inner contradiction: technologically, we live in the 21st century, but our organism often feels as if it must survive in a state of constant alert.

This is precisely where alienation from nature becomes so explosive. When we lose contact with the earth, we lose part of our self-regulation and orientation. Nature is not just a backdrop—it is our original reference system with which we relate and which gives us regulation and orientation. It reminds us of moderation, boundaries, cycles, and connectedness. Without this connection, we try to repair the negative consequences of our man-made systems with even more artificial systems: more technology, more control, more optimization. But these crises—both socio-political and individual-psychological—cannot be solved by technological progress alone. They are fundamentally relationship problems: between humans and the Earth, between individuals and communities, between growth and boundaries.The diagnosis is simple: our evolution is slow; our civilization is fast.

Being outside in nature – the magical process

And this is exactly where ecotherapy comes in: being outside. Ecotherapy is not about the human therapist or facilitator – nature is the most important healer. Nature has a magical effect because it touches something in us that is older than words: belonging to Mother Earth. When we are outdoors, we don't have to function, shine, or constantly explain ourselves. A forest doesn't judge. A river doesn't argue. A mountain doesn't make comparisons. Nature gives us quiet, honest feedback: Be there – in the here and now. Breathe. Feel. Be attentive. Don't judge. Adapt.

Nature gives us quiet, honest feedback: Be there – in the here and now. Breathe. Feel. Be attentive. Don't judge. Adapt.

Mother Earth does not demand that we constantly perform, react, convince, or come across well. We are allowed to simply be there—unprotected, genuine, sometimes tired, sometimes quiet, sometimes full of questions. Nature does not ask about your resume, your position, your bank balance, or your role in any system. It is radically unimpressed by status and your material concerns—and that is precisely what makes it so healing. Because in a world where we are constantly measured, compared, and classified, it is a rare experience not to be judged. In nature, many of our masks automatically lose their meaning. And the human nervous system notices: here, I don't have to fight. Here, I can regulate myself. Here, I can be human again.

Nature gives us quiet, honest feedback—without morality, without drama, without psychological tricks: if you walk too fast, you will be out of breath. If you are not mindful, you will stumble. If you are too loud, the animals you want to see will retreat. And when you practice tolerance, something new opens up: sounds, details, rhythm, vastness. This feedback is not harsh, but clear. It is not a judgment, but an invitation to be present. And this presence is often the moment when we reconnect with our inner selves: thoughts become quieter, feelings become more understandable, and life becomes more immediate again – not as a problem that needs to be solved, but as an experience that can be felt.

So what does the ecotherapist do?

And that is also the most important (and most misunderstood) part of ecotherapy: healing does not come from the personality of the human therapist; nature heals.

This does not mean that ecotherapy does not need people and that facilitators are irrelevant. But it does mean that the role of an ecotherapist should be different from what is commonly assumed or described. In Nature Praxis, the facilitator is not the healer; they are merely a guardian or keeper of the framework conditions outdoors in nature, so that the healing process can take place for the client/participant.

The eco-therapist supports participants in reconnecting with their own bodies, nervous systems, feelings, and the bigger picture of life through experiences in nature. Important: Nature is the main healer. The facilitator's task is primarily to create a safe space, clear framework in which this effect can occur.

Ecotherapists do not lead with their ego, but with confidence, presence, and good, trustworthy process management – so that their participants can encounter nature and gain regulation, clarity, hope, and a new ability to act.

The art of the ecotherapist often lies in taking a back seat – without leaving the participants to their own devices or simply abandoning them outside, without becoming too vague or superficial and without losing responsibility.  Facilitation in ecotherapy is largely a matter of good, empathetic process management. The facilitator shapes the pace, safety, transitions, attention, reflection, and integration in such a way that nature can unfold its effects. Precisely because nature is the main healer, the quality of the framework becomes crucial. Ecotherapy is therefore one thing above all else: empathetic and safe process design – so that nature can work as a healer.

Ecotherapy is therefore one thing above all else: empathetic and safe process design – so that nature can work as a healer.

Conclusion

Ecotherapy is not a quick miracle cure, nor is it a substitute for professional psychological care for severe post-traumatic stress. But it is an effective, practical, humane, and above all a natural way of healing, based on thousands of years of experience: through movement, mindfulness, belonging, community, and the silent intelligence of the living world. It is the best and at the same time most radical healing that can be done in a stressed, distracted world: feel that you are part of nature – and live according to this truth.