Kara London

My path to becoming an ecotherapist started in the Sierra Nevada foothills, from the barefoot, creek splashing, forest hiking, bird spotting days of my childhood. I fell in love with the natural world. From a young age, I also grew a passion for people, the mind, and the helping role. Across my life, I faced my own hardships, with family conflict and divorce, the mental health concerns of loved ones, and my own experiences with anxiety and loss. This is what charted my course towards becoming a therapist, and continues to influence my work today. In the Fall of 2020, I became increasingly aware of both my own need to seek solace in the outdoors, and the planetary perils we are facing as a species and in our ecosystem. Through a natural unfolding, I discovered and began study in the fields of ecopsychology and ecotherapy - finally merging my love for nature and people. From this, I’ve come to understand the oft underappreciated role of nature in our mental health, and the importance of re-discovering our innate, reciprocal ties with nature. My passion and drive to continue come from this wish to help others to source themselves in nature, and a deep empathy for the trials that we all face on life's journey.

If you are considering working with me, you may want to know a little more about ecotherapy. Ecotherapy is grounded in the science of ecopsychology, which elaborates on our inborn wisdom that humans are a part of nature and that our relationship with nature predicates our mental health. Being in connection with wider nature around us can offer calm, relaxation, joy, awe, grounding, or childlike curiosity. Further, reconnecting with the animal-nature within us can help us to feel more at home in our bodies, connected with our senses, and alert to the rhythms of nature. We can also begin to recognize how the health of Earth, and the ecosystem of which we are a part, depends on us growing a reciprocal relationship. Ecotherapy then seeks to source us in nature and help us uncover our place in the interconnected web of life. It can lead us to remember ourselves not as superior to or separate from the more-than-human world, but as coherent equal members. It can be an effective approach for working with more common concerns like anxiety, depression, grief/loss, stress, and trauma. It is also particularly well suited for addressing ecological distress like eco-anxiety, eco-grief, or planetary dread.