Ecotherapy
Ecotherapy sessions take place outdoors; the therapist facilitates relationship with the wildness within and without. Our location encompasses two of California’s ecological communities: oak woodland and coastal sage scrub. We share this space with countless, diverse wild animals and plants. We believe that human well-being is directly connected to environmental well-being. Through ecotherapy, we use outdoor experiences to remind us of the reciprocal relationship between inner and outer life and expand the definition of psyche to include the more-than-human world.
At California Woodland Institute, we recognize that the land where we work, heal, and connect is the traditional and unceded territory of the Chumash people. The hills, oak woodlands, and waterways of Ojai have long been cared for by Indigenous peoples who have maintained reciprocal relationships with this land for thousands of years. We see and feel the ongoing impacts of colonization and stand in solidarity with Indigenous-led efforts for land restoration, cultural preservation, and sovereignty.
Healing is not just an individual journey—it is a collective, land-based process. Our ecotherapy practice is rooted in the understanding that the land is alive, responsive, and essential to human well-being. We strive to work in ways that honor the land, respect its history, and contribute to regenerative relationships between people and place.
