Eco-art Therapy
Connecting with nature through eco and environmental art therapy
I believe that fostering a connection to nature is one of the most powerful tools we have for bettering our mental health. Eco or environmental art therapy involves using natural materials, locations, themes, and cycles as part of the therapeutic process. While the overall therapeutic goals remain consistent with other forms of art therapy, the context and references are rooted in the natural world.
Working with natural materials or drawing inspiration from the environment can gently deepen self-awareness, soothe the nervous system, and offer new ways to express emotions that are hard to put into words. A fallen leaf, a stone, or a piece of driftwood can hold meaning, memory, or metaphor.
Eco-Art Therapy isn’t about producing polished artwork. It’s about process and allowing the creative and natural worlds to meet in a space where healing, exploration, and reflection can unfold. In that space, we remember that we are not separate from nature - we are part of it.
There are some beautiful spaces in East Lothian which offer up wonderful opportunities to connect to nature in order to process some difficult feelings and forge a deeper understanding of ourselves at our connection to the world at large outside of the four walls of the therapy room.
Eco-Art Therapy invites us to slow down and reconnect—with nature, with creativity, and with ourselves.
At its heart, it’s about noticing. The practice of being present in nature - really seeing, sensing, and feeling - opens us to a different way of experiencing the world. Nature speaks in quiet details: a pattern in bark, the rhythm of waves, the shift of light through leaves. In Eco-Art Therapy, these natural elements become more than just observations - they become collaborators in the creative process.
"You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things."
- Mary Oliver