Naturalness, Personality, and Mindfulness Predict EcoWellness: Implications for Counseling Practice
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Naturalness, Personality, and Mindfulness Predict EcoWellness: Implications for Counseling Practice Christopher J. Holden 1
2
& Ryan F. Reese & Christopher M. Seitz
1
Accepted: 7 September 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
This study explored the role of individual differences in relation to overall EcoWellness (Reese and Myers in Journal of Counseling & Development, 90, 400-406, 2012) in a sample of online participants situated in the United States. Data were collected through self-report measures of mindfulness, personality traits, EcoWellness, and perceived naturalness of environmental settings. Aspects of mindfulness, greater perceived naturalness, extraversion, agreeableness, and openness predicted overall EcoWellness. Thus, individuals who scored higher on these traits were more likely to be regarded as EcoWell. These findings give insight to who might benefit from counseling interventions targeting EcoWellness and help to further build a conceptual understanding of the concept of EcoWellness in the international counseling literature. Keywords Ecotherapy . EcoWellness . Personality . Holistic wellness . Mindfulness
Introduction Wellness, broadly defined as including emotional, cognitive, spiritual, social, and physical health (Myers and Sweeney 2008), is positively impacted by contact and connection with nature (Frumkin et al. 2017). Some scholars in the peer-reviewed international counseling literature have begun exploring ways in which counselors might effectively and ethically integrate nature (e.g., nature objects, indoor plants, and outdoor experiences) into traditional counseling settings (Greenleaf et al. 2014; Kamitsis and Simmonds 2017; Reese 2016).
Ryan Reese is the founder and owner of EcoWellness Counseling and Consulting LLC, a company that integrates the natural environment into counseling and therapy.
* Christopher J. Holden [email protected]
1
Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA
2
Oregon State University – Cascades, Bend, OR, USA
International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling
However, few counseling scholars have developed and empirically explored the effectiveness of nature-based counseling interventions (Swank et al. 2015). EcoWellness as a concept has been introduced into the counseling literature and is described by Reese and Myers (2012) as a person’s sense of appreciation, respect for, and awe of nature resulting in enhanced feelings of connectedness and overall wellness. The EcoWellness counseling model provides counselors and researchers with an empiricallybased framework in determining how nature might be integrated into counseling assessment and treatment planning. Operationalized in the EcoWellness Inventory (Reese et al. 2015), the EcoWellness framework has demonstrated initial reliability and construct validity (Reese et al. 2015; Reese and Lewis 2019; Reese et al. in press), though additional research is needed to further clarify relationships among other hypothetically related constructs as
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