Embodied practice and research with the earth in mind

I am delighted to be writing the editorial for this special issue of Body Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, entitled Ecopsychotherapy, environmental movement and the imperative of embodied practice with the earth in mind. The original call for papers invited practice-led research, case studies, clinical reflections, and theoretical essays, locating mental health and wellbeing in the primacy of moving bodies as actors in wider ecological contexts. That is, bringing a lens to bodies of all kinds as mutually implicated ‘ecokinetic poetic phenomena’ (Frizell, 2023, p. 71). A body is never just a body; it is a dynamic process that exists as part of wider matrix of material bodies, that are always in the making. The call for papers welcomed contributions from interdisciplinary perspectives including environmental movement, dance movement psychotherapy (DMP), ecopsychotherapy, body psychotherapy, new materialism and posthumanism. This special edition showcases this range of perspectives, contributing to discourses about ‘(e)bodied immersion in environmental justice’ (Frizell, 2024, p. 77) as a vital element in therapeutic interventions, practice and research. There were more articles submitted than are included here. All submissions were excellent. However, there were restrictions on the number of articles due to capacity within this special edition. Decisions underpinning the selection of articles were made in relation to balancing interdisciplinary representation, rather than being driven by hierarchies of quality. The title of this special edition articulates the connecting threads of this diverse collection. Do read the articles as a collective, through which the differing vertices provide diffractive meeting places to inspire you, the reader, with thought-seeds to help you shape your own way through the complexities of this world, whatever your capacity, identity or profession.

As the environmental emergency quickens, so it becomes more visible and its impact on communities becomes increasingly apparent, as do levels of awareness and anxieties about the ecological implications. In 2011, I delivered a keynote speech at the Annual General Meeting of the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy (ADMPUK) entitled The Ecological Self (Frizell, 2011). At that time the escalation of the catastrophic effects of environmental destruction was just beginning to make headlines in the media, although climate-chaos denial was certainly prevalent and the environmental reality would easily become obscured by other preoccupations. The notion of the ecological self was well established in ecopsychotherapeutic circles and was seeping slowly into other practices. Eco, as a descriptor, was becoming the must-have prefix and was also becoming commercial capital. One of my slides in that presentation in 2011 was of a cormorant drenched in oil after the then recent Gulf oil spill illustrating the far-reaching environmental destruction caused by human activity. Since that time, the impact of human activity on the earth and the prevalence of chaotic and extreme weather patterns has accelerated. As I write this editorial 12 years on, the historic town of Lahaina on the Haiwaiian islands is decimated by wildfires. This follows news of unprecedented floods in China caused by a typhoon, a deluge of floods in Greece and a devastating earthquake that destroyed communities in Morocco.

Now, more than ever, there is a need for embodied, empathic compassion for ourselves, each other and the earth that is our home. The imperative of environmental justice, as an inherent element of all practice, stands hand in hand with developing anti-oppressive language and practice with regards to race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, poverty and a whole range of identity politics that inform and impact the subjectivity of individuals and communities. We live in a precarious world. Amanda Light’s article ‘Precarity, affect and the human body’ highlights the interplay between precarity and affective mental health. In their article they bring to our attention a neoliberal ideology of individual responsibility for progress and productivity within a positivist paradigm. This is an ideology that abandons vulnerability, relegating those who do not align to normative expectations to the realms of the undeserving. Amanda¹ uses posthuman and new materialist research within a project that asks a range of professionals how moving bodies, environmental awareness, intra-connectedness and trans-species sentience can support practitioners to interrupt the affective flows within a neoliberal agenda and its inherent precarity.

Connecting to nature is not simply a feel-good, introspective, self-serving luxury, it is a political act that disrupts the notion of nature as a disposable commodity, locating nature within a relational matrix of identity politics. Connecting with nature is both an imperative and it is a human right. In her article ‘Eco dance movement psychotherapy (EDMP) and queer embodied kinship with the more than human world’, Becca Parkinson refers to the queering of psychotherapy practice through working outdoors, as assumptions around the boundaries of the therapeutic frame are challenged. Becca points out that the queering of our research and practice invites us to challenge hierarchies embedded in the values and principles of our work. As we shape the language that we use to describe our experience of the world, so the language that we use, shapes that experience.

Contemporary theories of intersectionality, based on the original theoretical articulation of Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991), help us as practitioners and researchers to queer normative values inscribed in social and political discourses, as well as in individual lived experience. We are challenged to ask who and what comes to be privileged and to consider how we perpetuate that privilege in our personal and professional worlds (Frizell, 2024). This is an important arena, particularly in relation to ecopsychotherapy that emphasises the intra-dependency of all the life-forms that makes up this material world. It matters what we call things and how we speak of things. Theodore Roszak (1992) coined the term ecopsychology in 1992, identifying a direct connection between human and environmental health and well-being. Soon after, the Norwegian eco-philosopher and deep ecologist, Arne Naess (1995) coined the term ecological self, which is referred to in Helen Payne’s article ‘Nature Connectedness and the Discipline of Authentic Movement’. Helen considers how Authentic Movement (AM) can serve as a practice that fosters pro-environmental, awareness through the development of the ecological self. Helen articulates the potential shapeshifting process of disidentifying with the smaller individual self, to access a wider collective less-conscious realm. The seminal texts of Roszak and Naess galvanised a paradigm shift that increasingly began to become significant in the work of therapists of all kinds, as well as psychologists and social theorists.

The realisation of the environmental exploitation and destruction can provoke feelings of anger and grief. It is no coincidence that mental and physical health deteriorates as environmental degradation escalates. The loss of biodiversity is enormous. In the article, ‘Cry: the vitalising intelligence in our sounding’, Roz Carroll emphasises the importance of grieving as a necessary skill in the face of the environmental degradation in which this earth community is immersed. Becca Parkinson’s article also articulates how it is necessary to grieve the experience of nature deficit, illustrating this with the shock they experienced in their own transition from a nature-based, pre-school experience to an indoor classroom environment. In the article, ‘Dancing at the edge: finding home’ Céline Butté poignantly tracks the embodied processes of grieving losses, and in particular the loss of their mother, that was given a voice through the language of improvised movement. This writing reminded me of a time in my life when loss cascaded into my realm of experience. One loss in the wake of another and then another. I remember standing in the garden, bringing my hands to my chest, closing my eyes and, as I listened to the exquisite song of a blackbird, the only language that I could find to give my grief a shape was, first, movement and then, second, the language of metaphor and poetry. The most accurate way to describe my internal state at that moment, comprised metaphors connecting my experience to the materiality of the world; a lead weight pulling through me, a chasm of lethargy swamping me and a lost ship enveloped in disorientating fog. The next day I wandered again into the garden (my go-to refuge) and a sparrow hawk was ripping apart that blackbird before my eyes. I was then reminded of the transience of experience and how we can romanticise the notion of connecting with the environment. It is less easy to turn to face the violence.

In their articles, both Céline and Becca demonstrate how moving in landscapes supported them to recover from loss and the embodied trauma of illness respectively. The intimate encounters with the landscape enabled them both to access inner states through embodied, sensory conversations in which time and space could expand into new dimensions, opening possibilities of relating in the world differently. This brings us into new spatio-temporal rhythms that are not driven by normative forces. It is interesting to note that the word normal comes from norm; a utensil used by a carpenter for measuring. The word normal only became part of common currency to describe a benchmark of social and political organisation. The Industrial Revolution demanded that space, time, matter and worth were measured in relation to productivity and with a view to securing an efficient use of resources. People and nature were turned into commodities. However, nature (including human bodies) moves through time, space and matter in ways that are multi-dimensional rather than linear and metric. When we go out into the wilds; hiking in mountains, lying on beaches, swimming in rivers and oceans, tramping across moorland, wandering in woods; we drop into different spatio-temporal rhythms and find ourselves connecting through our kinaesthetic senses. In their article, Amanda notes the connection between this process and the capacity to navigate precarity in an uncertain and unpredictable world.

Working outdoors has become increasingly common in the world of therapy. Helen Payne’s article points out the value of working in outdoor environments, illustrating how, as members of an Authentic Movement training circle came into a deeper relationship with the materiality and spirituality of the ecology, so their empathic sensitivity to the environment was heightened. Moving bodies became bridges to establishing sentient connections. The process is illustrated by examples from a training group in which participants came into intimate connection simultaneously with their own inner experience, with their witness and with nature, as an affective agent rather than a passive backdrop. Geoffery Unkovich’s article ‘Metaphoric synchrony in the development of an outdoor dance movement psychotherapy practice’ focuses on the potential of practising outdoors to evoke symbolic and metaphoric resonance in the service of clients. Using a moving case study to illustrate this practice, Geoffery observes how the pandemic increased our awareness of bringing embedded, embodied kinaesthetic experience into our lives for the sake of our wellbeing. They note how the silent presence of a path, a plant or a tree can offer the client a particular kind of witnessing that allows them to drop into a deeper place of embodied knowing. Similarly, Helen points out nature’s role as silent witness or co-therapist. Céline refers to the sacred quality of dropping into the materiality of the body, whether we are indoors or out. An indoor space without furniture offers an uncluttered emptiness that can invite this sacred state, as can an outdoor area. This place of exploration is a place of becoming, that is a turning point in which we allow ourselves to enter a contingent and indeterminant edge of experiencing ourselves differently through the poetry of movement. The tendency to lean towards the poetic, rather than the prosaic is evident in this collection of articles that draw on sensate, metaphoric images and poetry, alongside critical theory. Geoffery opens and closes their article with poetry. Helen begins with a poem and weaves poetic text into the writing. Céline’s article is peppered with poetic excerpts from her journal. There are many ways that language can shapeshift through genres to represent practice and research.

Reading Roz Carroll’s reflections on the cry as communication in the article ‘Cry: the vitalising intelligence in our sounding’ I am reminded how sound carries its own poetic language; each cry being inscribed with stories of longing, fear, joy, loss, hunger, pain or ecstasy. As cries erupt from an imperative to be heard, the visceral source constellates into a flow of intensity through sound. I remember the first chaotic cry of my children as they struggled into the world and the final cry of my father’s sigh, as the life drained from his body and we said goodbye for ever. Céline writes of the cry of a woman in grief after miscarriages, as well as for the loss of a dear mother. Roz’s writing transports us into soundscapes as realms of communication, emphasising the vital nature of sound as children learn through playing, participating and creating. My mind turns to the sometimes-silent classrooms in special schools and I reflect on those children and adults who move silently in the world, perhaps harbouring internal cries that take a particular kind of listening. Roz illustrates how the world is alive in sound, citing an experience of sitting outside at twilight and noticing sound-collages that emerge as part of an ecological assemblage. All we need to do is hone our capacity for listening and turn down the volume on our own agency in the world. In those cries, our attention is drawn to different kinds of intelligences, other than those that manifest in constructed language and, as Roz points out, cries, in whatever form, signify life and manifest through galvanising internal acoustic systems in bodies. I remember my intrigue as a child when taken to the whispering gallery at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, UK, as the whispers of whisperers travelled around the materiality of the curved wall. This subtle echo that follows our experience of the other can be found in the way a client’s presence resonates with us as a lingering whisper. After a last session with a client, I write,

I stand still and look around the studio, becoming aware of the soft ticking of the clock that veils the silence. The sun creates a rectangular pathway of light that glimmers on the wooden floor in front of my feet. I step into the warmth of the sunlight and notice how my optimism and my fear for Maeve converge in the waters of loss. The absence of my long-gone mother is present like a distant rumble of thunder that echoes through the image of her sewing box (Frizell, 2024, p. 143).

Like the whispering wall at St Paul’s, that resonance is carried in the visceral materiality of embodied connection.

This collection of articles is evidence of the importance of creating ethics-onto-epistemologies (Barad, 2007) (in translation; applied justice within ways of perceiving and making sense of the world) that locate living, moving, feeling bodies at the centre. Bodies as dynamic receptive and responsive organisms have the capacity to cultivate adaptive and empathic ways if being in the world; i.e., ‘…bodies become, again and again, through moving…’ (Frizell, 2024, p. 10).

I was contemplating this editorial whilst travelling to Spain on the train. As we sped through the South of France towards the Pyrenees, out of the train window I saw flocks of flamingos and was reminded of my sense of awe and wonder in the natural world that is echoed in all the articles in this special edition. I pondered on how these distinctive creatures can identify family members amidst a flock of sometimes hundreds; such a different kind of intelligence. As I now complete this editorial, l am in the South-Western corner of the UK. The weather is unsettled. It has been cool and wet for this time of year, while south of the jet stream there are soaring temperatures, excessive heat and raging wildfires. Then, as September continues we have an unprecedented seasonal heat wave in the UK. We live in an increasingly uncertain world and Amanda’s writing reminds us that learning to navigate precarity through embodied practices can enable us to move into our intra-dependency and shift into supportive spaces of reciprocity and connection.

These articles call for paradigm shifts that bring environmental justice and embodied practices into sharp focus. Ecofeminist, posthuman perspectives refuse positivist dogma that suggests that wellbeing to be solely in the hands of the individual, moving towards a collective ethical responsibility to tread through the world with care, empathy and compassion. The wellbeing of individuals and the health of the planet are mutually implicated.

I suggest that when you have made your way through this collection of beautiful articles, do please find a way to listen to the whispers that are left with you by the whisperers. This is an invitation to allow your own creative responsiveness to develop further embodied practice and research with the earth in mind.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caroline Frizell

Caroline Frizell, is a UKCP registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist, supervisor, educator and researcher. In her practice and research, Caroline brings together embodied practice, environmental awareness and critical disability studies. She has worked extensively as a creative dance artist and therapist in special schools and pupil referral units, as well as outdoors with environmental movement and currently works in private practice. Caroline is a senior lecturer in Dance Movement Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths University. Alongside her research with families of learning disabled children and young people, her latest publication is entitled Posthuman Possibilities of Dance Movement Psychotherapy: moving through ecofeminist and new materialist entanglements of differently enabled bodies (Routledge 2024).

Notes

1 In the spirit of ecofeminism (that resists patriarchal oppression and binary identities) I will initially identify each author by their full name, I may, then, refer to them by their first names and furthermore, use the pronoun ‘they’ for each. When referencing some articles, I will be retaining the family names, as alternative referring at this point might simply just create confusion and, besides, perhaps I do not have consent to disrupt the academic code to this extent. Or perhaps I just do not dare!