INTRODUCTION 37
The helping professions, too, have inherited a legacy of
anthropocentrism. Largely divorced from body and Earth, most
psychotherapy is enacted in a square room in a 50-minute hour
within the constraints of a system of managed care. Much of
psychotherapeutic practice accepts a medical model that locates
and diagnoses pathology within the individual rather than in an
unsustainable way of living. Systems of care generally are rooted in
positivistic thinking, which prizes reason, logic and empirical ways
of knowing. Therapies increasingly become more brief and focused
on coping rather than on questioning the fundamental causes of
suffering. Many therapeutic approaches are increasingly dependent
on medication and “evidence-based” practice to mitigate symptoms
of anxiety, depression, sleep problems and addiction.
Writing from a critical theory lens, Hadley (2013) says that
therapists must be aware of the impact of dominant narratives of
patriarchy, heterosexism, anthropocentrism, capitalism, psychology
and medical science on therapeutic practice. Many of these stories
share in common the oppression of subjugated groups and the
privileging of the dominant group. Hadley suggests that we
must deconstruct these narratives, question them and maintain
vigilance in our practice in order to promote social justice and to
avoid complicity in oppressive practices. Using this lens of critical
theory in a nature-based approach, we hope to promote a way of
practice that upholds an eco-social justice framework for the field
of expressive arts.
Many environmental thinkers today believe that the current
state of personal and planetary dis-ease is due not just to collective
apathy and ignorance, but to the Western industrialized world’s story
of human separation from the Earth. Both scientific and religious
traditions have taught that humans have dominion over nature and
that the Earth exists to provide for our needs and wants. Similarly,
Western philosophical traditions largely value thinking and reason
as primary ways of knowing above physical experience, intuition
and imagination.