CHE fellows Dave Key and Mary-Jayne Rust are offering a six day course exploring the emerging field of ecotherapy which will take place on the Knoydart peninsula in the West Highlands of Scotland later this year.

Ecotherapy takes ideas from the field of psychiatry and extends them to examine our relationship with the natural world. In modern psychiatric theory one of the symptoms of psychopathology is our inability to understand the impact our actions have on ourselves and others. Ecotherapy takes this symptom to a planetary level.

Dave and Mary-Jayne state: “The ecological systems on which we depend for life are being destroyed by our own behaviour because we have come to believe that we are separate from, and superior to, the natural world - we have unhitched our human social reality from the biological reality we inhabit. “Despite the fact that most people know this, we seem unable to respond in a meaningful way. Our relationship with the Earth, in industrial cultures, is pathological - it is diseased.”

The course takes place between 30th September and 6th October and the cost of between £650 and £950 includes accommodation, food, return private boat transfers, specialist equipment, public liability insurance and VAT. Bursaries are available.

Dave and Mary-Jayne say the course is for anyone working or hoping to work in the healing and therapy sector in a professional capacity, and who is interested in tapping into the healing power of outdoor spaces.

They say that in the past psychotherapists, art therapists, social workers, outdoor educators, teachers, occupational therapists and General Practitioners, amongst others, have attended.

For more details go to: http://www.footprintconsulting.org/courses/ecotherapy/doune.html