Personal Environmentalism | Susan Bodnar PhD

Psychology and Trees: The Missing Role of Place

November 12, 2013 by Susan Bodnar

In California, a young tree looked on as a group of people engineered bark and wood into what would become the first boat. Four thousand years later the same tree, Methuselah, now overlooks a town that hosts a wild, wild west marathon. Trees have witnessed the worst of human nature – lynching, war, and treason […]

Filed Under: ecopsychcology, personal environmentalism, series convergence of psychological and environmental health Tagged With: mental health and the environment, mental health and trees, nature and mental health, nature and psychology, people and places, psychology and the environment, psychology of trees, role of the environment in psychology

Limits Sustain People and the Environment

July 15, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

Part Five of the series on convergence of environmental and mental health (see part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here and part 4 here ). image from www.20somethingfinance.com President Obama is correctly observing that budgetary health depends on incisive and strategic limit setting.The same is true for ecological and psychological health. Most people tend to over correct for problems assuming that […]

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The Arts, Sustainability and Mental Health

July 8, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

Part four of the series on convergence of environmental and mental health (see part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here ). When a person is troubled by symptoms and problems that cause pain to self and others psychotherapy is an invaluable curative process. Yet, the process of exploration should not be confined only to the therapist’s office. […]

Filed Under: ecopsychcology, personal environmentalism, series convergence of psychological and environmental health, Uncategorized Tagged With: arts and sustainability, ecological unconscious, human relationship to nature, psychology and the environment, sustainability

Going Outside as a Mental Health Strategy

June 27, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

Part three of the series on convergence of environmental and mental health (see part 1 here and part 2 here). Mental health experts (and parents) argue that people of all ages need to spend time outside. Richard Louv has gathered some of the latest research in his two books: Last Child in the Woods and The […]

Filed Under: ecopsychcology, personal environmentalism, series convergence of psychological and environmental health Tagged With: climate change, ecological unconscious, ecopsychology, ground up environmental change, human relationship to nature, mind nature relationship, personal environmentalism, psychoanalysis and the environment, psychology and the environment, sustainability

Eat Food, With Others

June 24, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

(The second in a series about the convergence of psychological and environmental health) One strategy that any person or family can adopt to promote psychological and environmental health is to pay a good deal of attention to what is happening at the kitchen table. Almost five years ago Michael Pollan advised “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” While […]

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What Are We Doing?

June 22, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

(The first in a series about the convergence of psychological and environmental health) News from the natural world continues to haunt and this report from ISPO (international program on the state of the ocean) warns of a mass extinction in our lifetime. And Al Gore is assailing the Obama administration for its failure to take […]

Filed Under: climate change, ecopsychcology, personal environmentalism, series convergence of psychological and environmental health Tagged With: convergence of psychological and environmental health, corporate sustainability, ecopsychology, educational sustainability, family sustainability, Glenn Albrecht, ocean extinction, personal environmentalism, pschological aspects of climate change, psychoanalysis and the environment, psychological sustainability, psychology and the environment, Renee Lertzman

A Response to Richard Louv

June 1, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

Richard Louv’s new book, “The Nature Principle’ has just been published. Following on “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder”, a book that links many childhood disorders to a disconnection to the natural environment, Louv’s latest book (see this article in Outside) calls for an increased connection to the natural world to compensate for our increasingly […]

Filed Under: books, ecopsychcology, personal environmentalism Tagged With: adults in relationship to nature, David Brooks Its not about you, ecopsychology, Ecopsychology UK, environmental therapy, human relationship to nature, Last Child in the Woods, living in nature, psychology and the environment, Response to Richard Louv, Richard Louv, Richard Louv new book, Richard Louv Outside magazine, the hybrid mind, The Nature Principle, walk therapy, walking therapy

The Changing Climate Changes Me

May 26, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

Do human beings continue to adapt to their environments? Are some of those changes psychological? Are humans experiencing subtle alterations in their emotional and cognitive organization in response to climate change? While we ponder these questions with regard to humans, we are noticing suh chnages in other mammals. Antarctic Penguins are being driven […]

Filed Under: climate change, ecopsychcology, personal environmentalism Tagged With: climate change, ecological unconscious, ecopsychology, human relationship to nature, Nick Totton, personal environmentalism, pschological aspects of climate change, psychoanalysis, psychoanalysis and climate change, psychoanalysis and the environment, psychology and climate change, psychology and the environment

Walk Therapy

May 13, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

Is sitting in a chair always the best way to work out problems? For some there is nothing more relaxing than taking a seat in the therapeutic chair and sharing. For others it can feel stifling and even hierarchical, almost an enactment of passivity or agency loss. Sitting in psychotherapy can almost embody the way […]

Filed Under: personal environmentalism Tagged With: Freud walking with patients, walk and talk psychotherapy, walk and talk therapy, walk and talk therapy NYC, walking psychotherapy, walking psychotherapy NYC, walking therapy

Stand There

March 17, 2011 by Susan Bodnar

Since Ordinary Earth is a blog about how sustainable living practices can support better mental and environmental health some people have asked me about Japan: what I think about nuclear power, the impact of environmental catastrophes on mental health, and the probable emergence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Japan. Yikes! Those are all the […]

Filed Under: environmental disaster, personal environmentalism Tagged With: crisis in Japan, emotional impact of earthquake, emotional impact of tsunami, environment and Japan crisis, human response to Japan devastation, Japan, Japan devastation, psychology and Japan crisis, reaction to Fukushima Daiichi, reaction to nuclear crisis