PUBLICATIONS

Ecopsychology Counseling and Consulting

Dr. Renée G. Soule

Cultivating conscious and generous reciprocity between human beings and wild nature.

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American Earth Anthology, editor Bill McKibben, Library of Congress Edition

A Multicultural Approach to Ecopsychology, co-author Carl Anthony

Psychology of Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life In a Materialistic Society

Chapter: Globalization, Corporate Culture, and Freedom, co-author Dr. Allen Kanner

Oxford Encyclopedia of Peace, Entry for Ecopsychology

Ann Liebert’s Ecopsychology Journal, The Imperative of Becoming Ecopsychology

Dissertation: Making of Ourselves a Light: Engaging Ecological Crises as an Initiation

Dissertation for Doctoral Degree in Psychology, Meridian University

To see current blog posts, go to Reflections

Foundational Problem (and Promise): Choice has entered Earth's biosphere.

Our inner life matters because our influence is vast. Whether a tree anywhere on earth is left standing to grow tall and strong rests upon human decisions.

Breathtaking and heartbreaking, evolution is shaped by our participation.

Over eons (and in this moment) life sculpts and tests an intelligence capable of choosing between what is wholesome or destructive.

How we participate is a daily choice. Our choosing creates paths of healing.

Accountability is empowering.

Conscientious participation is healing. Our willingness to "stand corrected" is crucial.

Foundational Practice: The initiatory development of the Ecological Self

Ecopsychology Counseling and Consulting reframes and engages environmental crises as an initiatory rite of passage for individuals and collectives. Initiation signifies a specific kind of transformation, where an old way of life dies to be reborn into something fresh, versatile, and aligned with current reality. In an initiatory framework, adversities are ripening forces for a more complex and inclusive identity that is emerging.

Crises don't happen TO us (as hapless victims),

but FOR us (as vital participants).

Whatever stands in the way of development and evolution–like shame, trauma, fear, habit, addiction–are relentless teachers. Difficulties are essential and necessary to initiations. Descending into the darker depths of human nature, much is revealed. Revealing unfetters. Unfettered, we shine.

Obstructions are the way, not in the way.

Reframing crises and trauma as an initiation transforms ruptures in life into invitations. Environmental loss and limits offer each of us an unprecedented opportunity to align with the intelligence, beauty, and integrity of nature.

What are these crises inviting us to become?

What or who are they inviting YOU to become?

I perceive five interweaving elements of this initiation:

Awakening and maturation ecological identity; the birth of the "ecological Self."
Accountability as an opportunity for creative action.
Honoring and tending collective trauma so individuals, communities and nations can open to a new fresh future.
Clarifying authentic purpose as individuals and collectives.
Listening to and heeding the intelligence of life and creation.

There is nothing you can see

that is not a flower.

There is nothing you can think

that is not part of the moon.

~ Basho

My Practice: ecologically oriented and soul-focused

I've been steeping questions about humanity and wild nature for 40 years and am humbled by their complexity.

There is no singular answer. However, of these I am confident: We belong. We are here forever.

Every perspective is vital. We learn from each other. Awe is crucial. Life needs us awake.

We are in this together and I mean all of us, including mollusks, mountains, moss.

Let's explore and hone a mature "ecological belonging" as a source of strength, inspiration, and creativity.

I work with individuals, small groups, and organizations.
To schedule a 20 minute consultation, CLICK HERE