Frequently, especially in Western culture, there is a tendency toward containing and even avoiding emotion. This is particularly true with less socially acceptable and uncomfortable emotions such as sadness, anger and frustration. What is often overlooked, however, is that emotions are and always have been an essential component to our overall evolution and that expression allows for additional possibilities to emerge and, ultimately, growth to occur.
A child sits up in his hospital bed for the first time in days. He looks out the window and draws the bluish-gray sky, the buildings, and some white clouds. Then, he lightly draws a figure coming out of the clouds. ?Superman!? he exclaims as he holds up his piece and flexes his arm in identification with his image. Ecopsychology is based upon the belief that a culturally induced, unconscious, mental separation of people from the health sustaining, nonverbal wisdom of the natural world within and around ourselves