Preferred Name
Matthew V. Bukowski
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
ORCID
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-7971-1873
Date of Graduation
12-18-2021
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
Second Advisor
Debbie C. Sturm
Third Advisor
Cara Meixner
Abstract
Recent publications and initiatives within professional counseling indicate a growing interest in the connections between human wellness and the natural world. Despite consistent growth of this trend between the years 2000 and 2021, there has been little dialogue within the profession about the ethical, ideological, and social justice implications of integrating nature therapy with professional counseling and counselor education. This study investigated the views, experiences, and future plans of 10 counselor educators who integrate nature therapy into their professional roles and developed two major themes and 12 subthemes that encapsulate their responses. Participants in the study overall shared a desire to move nature from the margins to the center of professional counseling, and to heal individual and cultural relationships with nature. These data may be useful to counselors, counselor educators, counseling students, and other professionals interested in human relationships with the natural world.
