New research from the University of Rochester suggests that having a connection with nature makes us less selfish and helps us care more for each other.

Archetypal psychologist James Hillman is one of our culture’s – and our profession’s -- most astute observers and critics. Way back in 1995, in his preface to the book Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, Hillman put psychotherapy on the couch and confronted us with our profession’s narcissism and self-centered myopia.

A lot of people ask me what an ecotherapy session actually looks like in practice and how it might differ from a traditional therapy session. Like most therapists, ecotherapists deal with a wide variety of presenting problems and treatment methods, so perhaps there is no “typical” session, but I’ve put together a sample composite case history on one particular issue, based on a number of recent sessions with different clients. Please understand that the “client” in this portrait is a fictitious composite, and doesn’t represent any individual.

What does it mean for us as therapists and our clients to be living in a culture in deep debt? Our society and economy have been based on the concept of easy credit and spending money we haven’t yet earned. But the current fiscal crisis has forced us to realize that at some point the piper demands to be paid.

Our world is now changing in some shocking ways. History seems to do this to us on a regular basis: things can float along in a more or less steady state for decades and then whoosh! We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Instead of asking “What’s your favorite method of connecting with nature?” maybe I should ask “What’s your favorite way to connect with the rest of nature?” as, of course, we all are part of the great Whole. The illusion (or delusion) of separateness is what has caused so many of our current problems, at the individual, family, community and planetary levels.

Not so very long ago, humans, like the rest of the animals and plants on earth -- moved through our natural cycles at nature's pace. Time was marked by the passing of the seasons, the life cycles of human, animal and plant life, and the yet grander cycles of the moon and the other celestial bodies.

In Part 1 of this series, I explored the need that many individuals, couples and families are experiencing to cut spending and streamline their lifestyles. While there's no way to make this process completely painless, reframing the new financial facts as an opportunity to embark on the adventure of living in a simpler, more earth-friendly way can offer a hopeful and encouraging approach.

In times of economic crisis, financial issues can cause widespread psychological and family stress. The news is reporting that in extreme cases money losses are leading to suicides and even suicide-murders, and so far we don’t know the full extent of the depression, anxiety and domestic violence that will result from the current downtown.

If reality is experienced by the ecological Self, our behavior naturally and beautifully follows norms of strict environmental ethics. We certainly need to hear about our ethical shortcomings from time to time, but we change more easily through encouragement and a deepened perception of reality and our own self, that is, through a deepened realism.

The Transition Initiative, a new social-environmental movement founded by U.K. permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins, has been picking up steam at a remarkable pace. Hopkins’ new book, "The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience," is flying off the bookshelves. The movement’s website, www.transitiontowns.org , reports that 61 towns and localities in the U.K., plus 11 in Australia and New Zealand and 3 in the US are in the process of transitioning towards local sustainability and are actively “re-skilling” local people to prepare for a different economic, social and environmental future.

MFTs are relationship experts. Whether it’s your relationship with your deepest inner self, your family, your workplace or even your community – we MFTs are trained to expertly facilitate human-human relationships. But what if you could expand your scope of practice to include the human-nature relationship? Or even the human-animal relationship?

In our practices, we now diligently inquire about multi-generational family history, substance abuse, sexual practices, HIV status, physical health etc. but perhaps even the most radical of systems practitioners may tend to omit the ultimate context for our own and our clients' lives: the biosphere. What is our clients' relationship to Mother Earth and Father Sky? And what, if anything, does that have to do with their presenting problem?

The fairly new fields of ecopsychology and ecotherapy can help us to help ourselves and our clients out of the cycle of hidden depression, anxiety and shame that no amount of Prozac can erase. Those working in this area offer suggestions for meaningful ways of improving lives.