Deep-ecology practice (Naess)

1. Introduction

Version followed: Arne Naess's deep ecology as Alan Drengson presents it (Drengson 1995; Drengson 1999, revised from The Trumpeter 1997), including the eight-point platform of Naess and George Sessions (1984) and Naess's apron diagram; Naess's own late essays as summarised in a review of There is No Point of No Return (Penguin, 2021); and the experiential "deep ecology work" of John Seed and Joanna Macy, chiefly the Council of All Beings as the Work That Reconnects Network publishes it (adapted from Macy and Brown, Coming Back to Life, 2nd ed., 2014).

Deep ecology is a philosophy and a social movement, not a psychotherapy. Naess named the "deep ecology movement" in 1973, building on a 1972 talk; the "deep" refers to how far questioning goes: the shallow movement stops before ultimate values, the deep movement goes "down to fundamentals" and recognises the inherent value of all beings [source: Drengson 1995]. The movement is defined by shared platform principles, not by one philosophy; each supporter is encouraged to work out an "ecosophy", a personal, openly normative total view aiming at ecological wisdom [source: Drengson 1999]. Naess's own ecosophy, "Ecosophy T" (named after his mountain hut Tvergastein), rests on one norm, "Self-realization for all beings!", reached through widening identification from the narrow ego to a wider "ecological Self" [source: Drengson 1995; Drengson 1999]. Naess drew on Spinoza, Gandhi and Buddhism and on the Norwegian outdoor tradition of friluftsliv [source: Drengson 1995; Devall and Drengson 2005].

Core idea of change, as its authors hold it (attributed, not stated as fact): people act for the living world most reliably not from moral duty but from widened identification, so that care and "beautiful actions" flow from experience and joy [source: Defrančeski 2024 reviewing Naess 2021]. In the experiential tradition, Seed and Macy hold that the environmental crisis has a psychological root in an "illusion of separation" and that honouring pain for the world, and speaking for other beings, nourishes an ecological identity [source: Rainforest Information Centre event page; Macy, The Work]. For a psychotherapist the work is therefore mainly: helping a client articulate their own values and ecosophy, working with eco-distress and the meaning of the natural world in their life, preparing and debriefing clients who attend deep-ecology or Work That Reconnects workshops, and, only where separately trained, facilitating such processes [synthesis].

Evidence status in one line: no controlled evaluation of deep-ecology workshops themselves is established here [uncertain: not verified] (organisers report a 1990s doctoral evaluation of the "Ecological Self" by Eshana Bragg [source: Seed, Deep Ecology Online]); the broader category of nature-based outdoor activities improved depressive mood and anxiety and positive and negative affect in a meta-analysis of randomised trials (Coventry et al. 2021), which does not test deep-ecology practice specifically.

2. Framework

Deep ecology has no clinical phase model or session count. Three published structures can be used, each attributed; how they are combined in therapy is [synthesis].

A. The apron diagram (Naess, as Drengson 1999 simplifies it): four levels

Level I, ultimate premises: a person's worldview or religion (Naess's Ecosophy T; Christianity; Taoism). Diversity is greatest here.
Level II, platform principles: shared principles (the eight points). High agreement is possible.
Level III, policies derived from the platform.
Level IV, practical actions. Diversity is again greatest.
Movement between levels: "deep questioning" moves upward towards premises; derivation and application move downward to policies and actions; the process is continuous and back-and-forth [source: Drengson 1999].

B. The eight-point platform (Naess and Sessions 1984), in summary: the platform holds that non-human life has value in itself, independent of usefulness to humans, and that the richness and diversity of life matter for their own sake; that humans should reduce that diversity only to meet vital needs; it links the flourishing of human and non-human life to a smaller human population, judges present human interference excessive and worsening, and calls for change in economic, technological and ideological structures, with an emphasis on quality of life over an ever-rising standard of living and a duty on supporters to work for change. This is a summary in this guide's words, not the platform's wording [source: Drengson 1999; Drengson 1995]. Drengson stresses that the platform can be endorsed from many ultimate premises and that supporters practise Gandhian nonviolence and reject anti-human positions [source: Drengson 1995].

C. The Work That Reconnects spiral (Macy), the main experiential frame for deep-ecology workshops

Coming from gratitude: grounding, quieting a frantic mind, opening empathy and confidence.
Honouring our pain for the world: daring to feel fear, grief, outrage and despair, reframed as compassion; Macy calls this the "hinge" of the workshop.
Seeing with new/ancient eyes: recognising interrelation with all life, past and future generations and other species.
Going forth: action suited to one's situation, gifts and limits, ideally with others.
The spiral is repeated; each pass is meant to bring more insight and resolve [source: WTR, The Spiral; Macy, The Work].

Formats published by the bodies: Work That Reconnects workshops run from an evening to a full lunar cycle (Macy), usually one or two days, with two-hour introductions and intensives up to ten days, and online formats [source: Macy, The Work; WTR, The Spiral]. A Council of All Beings runs from one hour to a full weekend [source: WTR, Council of All Beings]. Seed's Rainforest Information Centre has run residential weekend immersions and a six-week online series [source: Rainforest Information Centre event page; Seed, Deep Ecology Online].

Using it in therapy [synthesis]: a practical sequence is (1) assessment of eco-distress, nature relationship, values and risk; (2) orientation and consent to philosophical or experiential work; (3) values and ecosophy work (deep questioning, apron mapping, platform as values clarification); (4) identification and place work; (5) gratitude and pain-honouring work, in session or via a workshop with preparation and debrief; (6) going forth and integration into daily life; (7) review. Move on when the client can tolerate the feelings raised, wants to go further, and the work serves the client's goals rather than the therapist's convictions. No sources give session counts for therapy use.

3. Guiding principles

Deep questioning. Keep asking why until the client's ultimate premises are reached. Practical meaning: follow "why does this matter to you?" past the first answer [source: Drengson 1999].
Pluralism of ultimate views. The platform can be held from many religions and philosophies; each person builds their own ecosophy. Practical meaning: never press Ecosophy T or any worldview on a client; their faith or secular view is the ground [source: Drengson 1995; Drengson 1999].
Normative, not descriptive. Naess's norms are "oughts" (marked with "!"), openly stated. Practical meaning: name values as values; do not present them as clinical facts [source: Drengson 1995].
Extension of identification. Widening the sense of self to include other beings is the main path to Self-realization in Ecosophy T. Practical meaning: work through felt connection, not argument [source: Drengson 1999].
A healthy ego first. Drengson notes that extended identification assumes a healthy ego, to avoid projecting the small self. Practical meaning: stabilise before identity-widening work with fragile, dissociative or psychotic clients [source: Drengson 1999; clinical application synthesis].
Joy and beautiful action over duty. Following Kant's distinction, Naess favoured actions flowing from inclination and identification over imposed duty [source: Defrančeski 2024 on Naess 2021]. Practical meaning: avoid moralising; look for what the client loves.
Spontaneous experience. Naess held that reality is met in spontaneous experience of great richness [source: Defrančeski 2024]. Practical meaning: give room to direct sensory experience before interpretation.
Respect for difference. Critics (Plumwood) argued that identification can overemphasise sameness; Diehm argues Naess avoids the strongest form of this charge but that identification can still flatten otherness [source: Diehm 2003, abstract]. Practical meaning: let the client honour the otherness of a being or place, not only merger with it.
Life quality, not standard of living. Platform point 7 and "the difference between big and great" [source: Drengson 1995]. Practical meaning: explore what a good life means apart from consumption, without shaming.
Simple means and community. Naess suggested using simple means and cultivating life in community [source: Defrančeski 2024 on Naess 2021]. Practical meaning: actions can be small, local and shared.
Place-based wisdom. No single philosophy or technology fits the whole planet; learn from one's own place [source: Drengson 1995; Drengson 1999]. Practical meaning: anchor work in the client's actual landscape, city or garden.
Nonviolence. Gandhian nonviolence is part of the movement [source: Drengson 1995]. Practical meaning: action planning excludes harm to people.
Pain for the world is not pathology. Macy holds that honouring pain for the world, rather than privatising, repressing or pathologising it, "brings us back to life" [source: Macy, The Work]. Practical meaning: validate eco-distress as meaningful while still assessing for depression, anxiety disorder and risk [synthesis on assessment].
Attribution and cultural authority. The Work That Reconnects is open source with attribution; borrowed ritual from another tradition requires guidance from its practitioners [source: WTR, The Spiral; WTR, Council of All Beings]. Practical meaning: credit sources; do not improvise Indigenous ceremony.
The client is the author. Values, ecosophy and any ritual belong to the client [synthesis].
Competence and roles. Facilitators are encouraged to study, take part with several facilitators and commit to practice [source: WTR, The Spiral]; no certifying body for "deep-ecology practice" is established here [uncertain: not verified]. Multiple relationships (for example a therapist leading or attending a residential workshop with a client) fall under APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05 [source: APA Ethics Code]. Insurance: check that outdoor or group experiential work is covered by the therapist's policy [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

The published deep-ecology sources describe a philosophical method (deep questioning, the apron diagram, the platform, ecosophy, identification) and group workshop practices (gratitude, honouring pain, the Council of All Beings, evolutionary journey work, going forth). They do not describe one-to-one clinical procedures; the therapist-side procedures below (assessment, consent, preparation, debriefing, referral, outdoor contracting) are marked [synthesis].

4.1 Assessment of eco-distress and the client's relationship with the natural world [synthesis]

Purpose / when: at intake whenever climate, ecological loss or nature figures in the presenting problem, and before any experiential deep-ecology work.
Steps: (1) Ask what the client feels about the state of the living world and how often it occupies them. (2) Map functioning: sleep, work, relationships, avoidance of news, guilt about consumption. (3) Screen for depression, anxiety disorders, OCD-type checking or scrupulosity about environmental harm, and disordered eating presented as ecological purity (refer to a registered dietitian or eating-disorder service if present). (4) Conduct standard suicide-risk assessment where hopelessness about the future is voiced. (5) Ask about the client's own places and beings that matter, and any losses (a destroyed landscape, a disaster, displacement). (6) Ask about religion, spirituality and worldview, using the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions if relevant. (7) Ask about trauma linked to nature (fires, floods, animal attacks) and physical access needs.
Example language (illustrative): "When you think about what is happening to forests, rivers or the climate, what goes on in you? How much room does it take up in a normal week?"
Watch for: distress that is proportionate and meaningful versus a clinical disorder needing standard treatment; acute risk. Crisis resources: 988 (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland). Working: a shared formulation that names both the meaning of the distress and any disorder.

4.2 Orientation and consent to philosophical or experiential work [synthesis]

Purpose / when: before introducing deep-ecology ideas or exercises, so the client chooses them knowingly.
Steps: (1) Describe deep ecology as a philosophy and movement founded by Naess, not a treatment [source: Drengson 1995]. (2) Say that its values are openly normative and that the client need not share them [source: Drengson 1995]. (3) Describe what an exercise involves (imagination, speaking as another being, strong feeling, possibly outdoors). (4) Offer alternatives and the right to stop at any time. (5) Record consent.
Example language (illustrative): "Deep ecology is a philosophy, not a therapy. Some of its exercises might help you look at what you value. You can take what fits and leave the rest."
Watch for: the client agreeing to please the therapist, or feeling their own faith is being displaced. Working: the client can say what they want from it.

4.3 Deep questioning [source: Drengson 1999; therapy adaptation synthesis]

Purpose / when: to move from surface preferences or slogans to the client's ultimate premises, the upward movement of the apron diagram; useful when a client is stuck in guilt, conflict about action, or vague despair.
Steps: (1) Start from a concrete concern or action ("I should fly less"). (2) Ask why it matters. (3) Ask why that matters, and keep going gently until a basic value, belief or experience appears. (4) Reflect the chain back. (5) Check whether the premise is truly the client's or inherited. (6) Note where premises conflict.
Example language (illustrative): "And if that happened, why would it matter to you?" ... "So underneath the guilt is a love of this particular coast that goes back to childhood."
Watch for: interrogation that feels like cross-examination; intellectualising. Working: the client reaches a premise with felt recognition.

4.4 Apron-diagram mapping [source: Drengson 1999; worksheet use synthesis]

Purpose / when: to help a client see how worldview, shared principles, policies and daily actions connect, and where they are out of line.
Steps: (1) Draw four levels on paper: ultimate premises; principles; policies; actions. (2) Fill Level I from deep questioning (4.3). (3) Ask which principles the client holds (they may use the eight points or their own). (4) Derive policies (household, work, community). (5) List actions, small and concrete. (6) Look for gaps and contradictions and treat them with curiosity, not blame. (7) Revisit as life changes; Drengson describes the process as continuous back-and-forth.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's put your deepest beliefs at the top and what you actually do on a Tuesday at the bottom, and see what links them."
Watch for: perfectionism and a long list of failures. Working: fewer, more owned actions and less guilt.

4.5 Articulating a personal ecosophy [source: Drengson 1995; Drengson 1999; Devall and Drengson 2005]

Purpose / when: for clients who want a coherent personal philosophy of their place in the living world. Naess encouraged people to develop and revise their own ecosophies (his was Ecosophy T).
Steps: (1) Invite the client to name their ecosophy after a place important to them (Naess's T came from his hut Tvergastein) [synthesis on naming]. (2) Ask for a single top norm in their own words. (3) Draw out a few hypotheses and derived norms. (4) Ground it in the client's tradition, if any. (5) Write it down and treat it as a draft to revise.
Example language (illustrative): "If you were to name your own philosophy after a place, which place? What would its first principle be?"
Watch for: copying the therapist's or a teacher's views; grandiosity. Working: a short, personal statement the client returns to.

4.6 The platform as values clarification [source: Drengson 1999; clinical use synthesis]

Purpose / when: when a client asks what deep ecology holds or is working out where they stand on environmental values.
Steps: (1) Present the eight points in paraphrase, attributed to Naess and Sessions. (2) Invite agreement, disagreement or reworking of each. (3) Explore point 4 (population) with particular care: note that Drengson presents the platform within Gandhian nonviolence and rejecting anti-human positions [source: Drengson 1995]; explore any personal meaning (for example decisions about having children) without steering. (4) Record which principles the client owns.
Example language (illustrative): "These are the principles Naess and Sessions proposed. Which ones feel true for you, and which would you rewrite?"
Watch for: misanthropy, contempt for others or self, or the therapist's views leaking in. Working: the client holds values with conviction and warmth.

4.7 Extension of identification [source: Drengson 1999; Defrančeski 2024 on Naess 2021; steps synthesis]

Purpose / when: Naess's main route to Self-realization: widening the sense of self to include other beings so that their interests are felt as one's own. Use when the client feels isolated, alienated or motivated only by duty.
Steps: (1) Ask the client to pick a being or place they already care for. (2) Invite a slow, sensory description. (3) Ask what it needs to flourish and what threatens it. (4) Ask where the client recognises something of themselves in it, and also where it is wholly other (see 4.18). (5) Ask what action, if any, flows naturally from the connection. (6) Return to the client's own needs.
Example language (illustrative): "Stay with the tree for a moment. What does it need? Is there anything in you that answers to that?"
Watch for: loss of self-boundaries; Drengson notes extended identification assumes a healthy ego. Working: warmth and spontaneous care, not obligation.

4.8 Joy and "beautiful action" [source: Defrančeski 2024 on Naess 2021; application synthesis]

Purpose / when: Naess placed joy at the centre and preferred action from inclination over imposed duty; use when environmental concern has become guilt, burnout or self-punishment.
Steps: (1) Ask what in the living world brings the client joy. (2) Ask which caring actions they do gladly. (3) Contrast these with actions done only from "should". (4) Plan to do more of the glad ones and to drop or share some duty-driven ones. (5) Review.
Example language (illustrative): "Naess thought the best actions come from joy rather than duty. Which of the things you do for the earth do you actually enjoy?"
Watch for: joy used to bypass grief; anhedonia that needs depression treatment. Working: action becomes sustainable.

4.9 Place-based practice and time outdoors [source: Drengson 1995; Drengson 1999; Devall and Drengson 2005 on friluftsliv; Defrančeski 2024 on simple means; application synthesis]

Purpose / when: Ecosophy T grew from friluftsliv and life at a mountain hut; the movement values learning from one's own place. Use to ground values in lived experience.
Steps: (1) Ask the client to choose an accessible place close to home (a park, garden, street tree, shoreline). (2) Suggest unhurried, simple attention there, using simple means. (3) Invite noticing who lives there and how it changes over seasons. (4) Bring observations to session. (5) Agree safety qualitatively: weather, terrain, ticks, allergies, hydration, telling someone where they are, accessibility, and personal safety in isolated places; follow the published guidance of any organisation running an outdoor programme. (6) Do not prescribe amounts or intensity of walking or exercise; if physical activity is a goal, route to the client's physician or a qualified exercise professional and frame it as behavioural activation (Domain II 040). Water settings: cross-refer Domain X 196 and route to RNLI, the Outdoor Swimming Society or national lifesaving bodies; no immersion is part of this practice.
Example language (illustrative): "Is there one place near you, even a single tree, that you could get to know this month?"
Watch for: avoidance framed as being 'not a nature person'; access barriers (disability, safety, urban living, racism in outdoor spaces). Working: a felt relationship with a specific place.

4.10 Life quality rather than standard of living [source: Drengson 1995; Drengson 1999; application synthesis]

Purpose / when: platform point 7 and the "difference between big and great"; use when the client links wellbeing to acquisition, status or overwork.
Steps: (1) Ask the client to describe moments of high life quality. (2) Note which cost little in money or resources. (3) Contrast with what they pursue. (4) Pick one small shift. (5) Avoid shaming about income or consumption; poverty and constraint are not choices.
Example language (illustrative): "When has your life felt great rather than big?"
Watch for: ascetic self-punishment; restrictive eating framed as ethics (screen and refer). Working: more time in what the client values.

4.11 Coming from gratitude [source: WTR, The Spiral; exercise steps synthesis]

Purpose / when: first stage of the spiral; grounds and quiets a frantic mind before painful material. Use at the start of eco-distress work and of each session that will go deep.
Steps: (1) Invite the client to name, slowly, things in the living world they are grateful for. (2) Ask where they feel this in the body. (3) Include people and places as well as other beings. (4) Close by naming one thing to notice this week.
Example language (illustrative): "Before we go into what hurts, what in the living world are you grateful for today?"
Watch for: forced positivity. Working: settling, breath slowing, more presence.

4.12 Honouring pain for the world [source: Macy, The Work; WTR, The Spiral; Rainforest Information Centre event page; in-session steps synthesis]

Purpose / when: the "hinge" of the work; making room for fear, grief, outrage and despair about the world, reframed as compassion, rather than privatising, repressing or pathologising it. Seed's workshops include a grief ritual for lost species and destroyed landscapes.
Steps: (1) Check stability and window of tolerance first. (2) Invite the client to name what they grieve, fear or are angry about. (3) Name each feeling and link it to what the client loves. (4) Allow tears and silence. (5) Ground before ending (breath, contact with the chair or ground, look around the room). (6) Note the love behind the pain.
Example language (illustrative): "Your grief for the reef tells me how much you love it. Can we let it be here for a moment without fixing it?"
Watch for: flooding, dissociation, hopelessness and suicidal thinking; stop, ground and assess. Working: relief, connection, energy returning.

4.13 Council of All Beings (delivered only by a trained facilitator) [source: WTR, Council of All Beings, adapted from Macy and Brown 2014]

Purpose / when: a communal ritual, developed by Macy and Seed for rainforest activists, in which participants step out of human identity to speak for other life-forms, to grow the ecological self and solidarity with life. A group process: the therapist delivers it only with WTR training and experience, or refers.
Steps (outline as published): (1) Optional invocation; borrowed ritual from another tradition only with guidance from its practitioners. (2) Each person takes time alone to let a non-human being (plant, animal, landscape feature) "choose" them, staying with the first impulse and sensing it from within. (3) Silent mask-making; masks must allow seeing and speaking. (4) Optional practice: eyes-closed movement as the being, then small groups introducing the being and its strengths. (5) Gathering: beings enter the circle in character; ceremonial roll call. (6) Testimonies: beings speak of what is befalling them, each acknowledged by the group. (7) A few participants remove masks and sit in the centre as humans, only listening, while the beings address them; roles rotate. (8) Gifts: each being offers a strength to the humans, who may simply say thank you. (9) Ending and formal release: thank the being, let the identity go, hands and forehead to the ground. (10) Masks are burned, composted or kept.
Example language (illustrative, as facilitator): "Let a being choose you. Don't hunt for it; take the first one that comes."
Watch for: the page notes that energy can range from intense emotion to lightness and that quiet participants may be deeply affected; in clinical populations also watch for dissociation, shame in the listening humans, and difficulty de-roling. Working: participants leave feeling connected and resourced.

4.14 Short Council and one-to-one adaptation [source: WTR, Council of All Beings for the one-hour version; one-to-one use synthesis]

Purpose / when: the published one-hour version uses foursomes, each person speaking in turn as their being in three parts: its powers and relationships, the disruptions it faces, the strengths it can offer humans. In individual therapy a single "speaking as" exercise can borrow this three-part structure.
Steps (one-to-one, synthesis): (1) Consent and grounding. (2) Client lets a being come to mind, eyes open or closed. (3) Client speaks as the being: who I am and my relations; what is happening to me; what I offer humans. (4) Therapist listens and reflects. (5) Release (4.15). (6) Debrief as self.
Example language (illustrative): "Speaking as the river, tell me what you are and who depends on you."
Watch for: performance anxiety; role-play blurring into self-attack. Working: new perspective and compassion for self and others.

4.15 Release and de-roling [source: WTR, Council of All Beings for the formal release; clinical de-roling synthesis]

Purpose / when: after any speaking-as or identification exercise, to return fully to one's own identity.
Steps: (1) Invite the client to thank the being. (2) Let the identity go, with a physical gesture (the Council uses hands and forehead to the ground; in an office, feet on the floor). (3) Ask the client to say their own name and something about today. (4) Ask what they take with them.
Example language (illustrative): "Thank the river for speaking through you. Now come back to being you, here in this room. What's your name, and what will you do after this session?"
Watch for: lingering altered states, sadness that does not lift. Working: the client is present and oriented.

4.16 Preparing a client to attend a deep-ecology or WTR workshop [synthesis; formats from Rainforest Information Centre event page and WTR pages]

Purpose / when: when a client plans a Council, evolutionary journey work, grief ritual or residential immersion.
Steps: (1) Find out the format and organiser (residential or online, length, facilitators' training and experience). (2) Explain what such workshops may involve: masks, role-play, grief ritual, group sharing. (3) Assess fit: current crisis, trauma, dissociation, psychosis or bipolar instability suggest postponing. (4) Plan self-care, the right to sit out, and who the client can speak to on site. (5) Check practicalities: cost (often sliding scale), accessibility, diet, outdoor conditions. (6) Book a session soon after.
Example language (illustrative): "It may stir a lot. What would you do if it became too much on the second day?"
Watch for: idealisation of the workshop as a cure. Working: the client goes with clear expectations and an exit plan.

4.17 Debriefing and integration after a workshop [synthesis]

Purpose / when: at the first session after the event.
Steps: (1) Ask for the story of the event. (2) Ask what was moving, hard or confusing. (3) Check sleep, mood and any intrusive or dissociative after-effects. (4) Locate the client's being or ally and what it means to them. (5) Link to going forth (4.19) and daily life. (6) Note any boundary concerns about facilitators or group.
Example language (illustrative): "Which being chose you, and what did it say? What is it still saying now?"
Watch for: post-event low mood; conversion-like zeal that alienates family. Working: insight translated into ordinary life.

4.18 Honouring otherness alongside identification [source: Diehm 2003, abstract, on Plumwood's critique; application synthesis]

Purpose / when: to balance identification work so that a being or place is respected as different, not absorbed into the self; useful with clients prone to merger or projection.
Steps: (1) After identification (4.7), ask what about the being is beyond the client's understanding. (2) Name what it needs that has nothing to do with humans. (3) Reflect on relating to it as a neighbour, not as oneself.
Example language (illustrative): "What about the hawk is completely its own and nothing to do with you?"
Watch for: projection of the client's pain onto the being. Working: respect and curiosity.

4.19 Going forth: action suited to gifts and limits [source: WTR, The Spiral; Drengson 1995 on nonviolence; Defrančeski 2024 on community; planning steps synthesis]

Purpose / when: the fourth spiral stage and platform point 8; action matched to one's situation, gifts and limits, ideally with others, learning step by step rather than waiting for a perfect plan.
Steps: (1) Name the client's gifts and limits (time, health, money, caring duties). (2) Choose one target. (3) Plan a first step and who to do it with. (4) Review and adjust. (5) Keep action nonviolent and legal; discuss risks of arrest or burnout if activism is chosen.
Example language (illustrative): "Given what you're good at and what you can realistically give, what is one step, with other people, for this month?"
Watch for: overcommitment; action as avoidance of grief. Working: sustained, shared, modest action.

4.20 Referral to and coordination with climate-emotion groups [source: CPA-NA, Climate Cafes; Good Grief Network, FAQ; WTR, The Spiral]

Purpose / when: when the client would benefit from peers. Climate Psychology Alliance of North America climate cafes are facilitated, confidential spaces for thoughts and feelings rather than action. Good Grief Network runs a 10-week peer 10-step group, not clinical treatment, with facilitators who complete a 30-hour facilitation training; it is not for acute personal bereavement. WTR offers Communities of Practice and self-guided Active Hope book groups.
Steps: (1) Describe the options. (2) Clarify they are not therapy. (3) Agree how therapy and group fit together. (4) With consent, coordinate only as needed.
Example language (illustrative): "A climate cafe is a place to talk about these feelings with others. It isn't therapy; we can keep working here alongside it."
Watch for: groups used in place of needed treatment. Working: less isolation.

4.21 Contracting for outdoor sessions [synthesis]

Purpose / when: if any deep-ecology work moves outdoors.
Steps: agree in writing: being seen by others and what to do if someone known appears; confidentiality limits; no touch unless discussed and consented before and during, with a right to stop, never sexual; travel and meeting point; weather and cancellation plan; terrain, accessibility, ticks and allergies; a safe return indoors if distress rises; insurance cover.
Example language (illustrative): "If we meet someone you know on the path, would you like to say I'm a friend, or say nothing?"
Watch for: blurred boundaries and social feel. Working: the client feels safe to speak.

4.22 Working with religious, spiritual and moral meaning [synthesis; code from ICD-10-CM]

Purpose / when: when deep ecology becomes a spiritual path, conflicts with the client's faith or family, or a loss of faith is entangled with ecological grief.
Steps: (1) Use the Cultural Formulation Interview with its spirituality, religion and moral traditions module. (2) Explore how the client's tradition already speaks of creation or the living world (Drengson notes supporters build ecosophies on Christian and other foundations). (3) Offer collaboration with the client's religious leader if they wish. (4) Where the difficulty centres on this, the DSM-5-TR "Religious or Spiritual Problem" can be recorded with code Z65.8 [DSM-5-TR wording uncertain: not verified].
Example language (illustrative): "How does your faith talk about the earth? Does what you are feeling fit with it or pull against it?"
Watch for: the therapist taking sides. Working: integration of values.

5. Handling problems

The deep-ecology and WTR sources give little guidance on clinical difficulties beyond the Council notes that energy varies widely and quiet participants may be deeply affected [source: WTR, Council of All Beings] and that facilitators should study and practise [source: WTR, The Spiral]. Everything below is [synthesis] unless tagged.

Overwhelm during pain-honouring or identification work. Stop the exercise; orient to the room; slow breathing; name the love behind the pain; postpone further deep work until stabilisation skills are in place. Drengson's note that identification presumes a healthy ego supports pacing [source: Drengson 1999].
Hopelessness and suicidal thinking about the future. Conduct standard risk assessment and safety planning; treat depression with evidence-based care; avoid apocalyptic framing by the therapist; crisis lines 988 (US) and Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).
Stuck in guilt and self-punishment. Return to joy and beautiful action (4.8) and gifts and limits (4.19); check scrupulosity and OCD; reduce the action list.
Disordered eating, restriction or extreme asceticism framed as ecological virtue. Do not advise on diet; screen and refer to a registered dietitian or eating-disorder service; National Alliance for Eating Disorders for support.
Misanthropy or contempt for humans. Explore the hurt underneath; recall that Drengson presents the movement as nonviolent and rejecting anti-human positions [source: Drengson 1995]; challenge contempt directed at self or groups, and discuss any population-related beliefs with care for their effect on the client and others.
The client experiences the therapist as preaching. Name it as a possible rupture; restate that the values are the client's to accept or reject; return to deep questioning of the client's premises; consider whether the therapist's own convictions are steering the work (supervision).
"Resistance" or disinterest. Many clients find role-play or masks embarrassing; offer drawing, writing or quiet reflection instead; never insist on experiential exercises.
Non-adherence to place-based practice. Explore barriers (access, safety, disability, time, weather); shrink to the smallest version (a window view, a house plant); avoid any exercise targets.
Dissociation, psychosis or mania risk. Avoid speaking-as and guided identity-shifting exercises with clients with active psychosis, mania or severe dissociation; use grounded values work instead; liaise with the treating psychiatrist if relevant.
Trauma linked to nature or disaster. Treat trauma with an evidence-based trauma therapy first; introduce nature-based elements gradually with consent.
Cultural appropriation. If a workshop or the client wants smudging, invocations or Indigenous-style ceremony, follow WTR's guidance to seek guidance from practitioners of that tradition [source: WTR, Council of All Beings]; Indigenous ceremonies only as communities themselves publish and authorise them.
Harm or boundary problems in a workshop. If a client reports pressure, sexualised contact, financial exploitation or mistreatment by a facilitator or group, support the client, explore reporting options and safeguarding, and do not refer others there.
Dual roles. If the therapist also facilitates deep-ecology workshops, avoid having current clients in the group or attending residential events alongside them unless the risks under APA Standard 3.05 have been weighed and documented; offer referral to another facilitator.
Outdoor incidents. Weather changes, falls, allergic reactions, ticks or encountering someone the client knows: follow the outdoor contract (4.21) and the programme's published safety guidance; no water immersion is part of this work (cross-refer Domain X 196).
Family conflict over activism or lifestyle change. Explore values on both sides; consider a family session; support the client to act in ways that keep relationships.
Eco-grief entangled with personal bereavement. Distinguish them; assess for prolonged grief disorder where criteria may be met; note that Good Grief Network says its programme is not for acute personal loss [source: Good Grief Network, FAQ].

Sources

Books and papers cited:

Macy, J., and Brown, M. Y. (2014). Coming Back to Life (2nd ed.) (as cited by the WTR Network).
Naess, A. (2021). There is No Point of No Return. Penguin (as cited by Defrančeski 2024).
Naess, A. (1973). The shallow and the deep, long-range ecology movement. Inquiry [uncertain: not verified; the 1973 date is given by Drengson 1995].
Naess, A., and Sessions, G. (1984). The eight-point platform (as given by Drengson 1999).
Macy, J., and Johnstone, C. Active Hope (as cited by the WTR Network) [uncertain: year not verified].

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