Making Nature Personal: Fostering Vulnerability, Compassion, and Personal Growth Through a Transpersonal Eco-Art Process

Abstract

As the Earth suffers from climate change, global warming, and its inhabitants’ irresponsibility, environmental activists suggest that Earth’s inhabitants must participate in social action to find greater consciousness and compassion for self and others in their relationships with the Earth. The authors engaged in five weekly sessions to use nature-assisted eco-art therapy to explore their individual processes. The themes that emerged included tension–control, submission–dominance, intimacy tolerance, compassion-observing emotions, and separation–retreat. These themes reflect what often develops in both the therapist–individual relationship and within the Earth’s inhabitants as self-regulating organisms.