Membership in the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Organization (MBEO)

What is the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Organization?

The Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Organization (MBEO) is an international professional society established in 2023 to foster contact, networking, and education among mental health professionals interested in exploring and applying the healing powers of nature and mindfulness in therapeutic settings .

About Membership in the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Organization

The Mindful Ecotherapy Center, LLC has existed since 2007. We have been training mental health professionals and the general public in the skills of mindfulness and ecotherapy since that time. In 2015 we began offering facilitator certification in the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Program, a 12-week group therapy program that meets once per week. Mental health professionals worldwide have used the program to help their clients.

There has been a great demand among our members worldwide for expanding our training and educational offerings. With this in mind, in 2025 we will be implementing a new, more intensive certification and training program in the skills and techniques of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy. This new program will include greatly expanded training and education requirements. We will also be requiring supervision by a Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Supervisor to obtain certification. Upon completion of the program, graduates will earn the title of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapist (MBE).

Membership includes access to all discussion forums on our site.  Membership at the Professional level includes a 20% discount on all courses and educational materials offered on the Mindful Ecotherapy Center’s website.

Beginning January 1, 2025 membership in the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Organization will be a mandatory requirement to become certified in Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy. All current certified facilitators will be grandfathered in.

As of January 1, 2025 there will also be a mandatory continuing education requirement to maintain certification as a Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapist. All Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapists will be required to obtain 24 hours of continuing education every two years in Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy. Twelve of these continuing education hours will have to be interactive through either live, face-to-face presentations, webinars, or other forms of interactive media.

The Mindful Ecotherapy Center, LLC is also currently in the process of developing a Code of Ethics for membership in the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Organization as Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapists. When this code is completed, members of MBEO will be required to conform to it. If you would be interested in contributing to the discussion as we develop our Code of Ethics, please feel free to join in on the forum.

Ecospirituality Program to Replace Current Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Program

Although the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Program was created to be facilitated by licensed mental health professionals, in the past we’ve had quite a few coaches who have also taken the course. These coaches are not always licensed mental health professionals. While mental health professionals are highly regulated in most states and in many countries, coaches are usually not.

Due to this lack of regulation and credentialing for most coaches, some states and some organizations have restricted the use of the term ‘ecotherapy.’ Because of this, we are re-naming the current Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy 12-week program. In late 2024 the program will become the Ecospirituality Program. Current certified facilitators of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy will be allowed to take the new Ecospirituality Facilitator Training program for free when it is available should they desire this new training.

Changes to the Current Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Facilitator Certification

We are also expanding and upgrading our Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Certification to a much more intensive program. The new Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Certification will replace the current designation as of January 1, 2025. This will be a much more in-depth certification process only available to licensed mental health professionals. Certification will also require membership in the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Organization. Current facilitators will be grandfathered in under the previous requirements, but as of January 1, 2025 certification as a Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapist will only be permitted under the new requirements and only open to members of MBEO.

The new Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy program will require intensive study, supervision, and a case presentation prior to becoming certified. Once certified, licensed mental health professionals will be able to use the designation “MBE” in their credentials, for “Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapist.”

When the first cohort of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapists graduates we will begin a Supervisor Training Program that will educate MBEs in supervision so that future training programs will also have a variety of supervisors to choose from. Graduates of the first cohort of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapists under the new January 1, 2025 standards will be eligible to receive FREE supervisor training. Successful completion of the supervisor training qualifies you to be a designated Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Supervisor (MBES).

As we move forward with these changes we would love your input! Click here to visit the forum and join the discussion!

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What is Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy?

Simply put, Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy is an integration of mindfulness and ecotherapy.

Ecopsychology studies the relationship between mental health and the environment. This field of research views the mental health of humankind as a part of the geo-ecosystem that is the living planet we call Earth. If all life on Earth is interrelated, and human beings certainly are a type of life on Earth, then what happens to the rest of the planet affects us all. Ecopsychology recognizes that not only does the environment impact our physical health, but it also has a direct influence on our mental health. While artificial, stressful, polluted environments have the power to harm, nature has the power to heal, both physically and mentally.

From the perspective of ecopsychology, everything is connected to everything else. According to this paradigm, people don’t exist in a vacuum. They are part of the larger system of their neighborhood, and of the even larger system of their particular societies, and ultimately the system of all life on Earth, circles-within-circles. Each of these systems communicates to us in different ways, and we interact with each of these systems. The individual is not only a part of a system of interacting human beings, but also as a part of an ecosystem. We interact with the environment, and the environment interacts with us. For those who know how to listen, the wind in the trees can sing. The view of a mountain range or a moonlit ocean can tell a story. The smell of the first flowers of spring can speak just as clearly as a loved one’s voice can. The touch of a ray of sun can be as powerful as a lover’s caress.

On the other hand, a crowded, polluted city street can communicate as well. The messages we get from our environment have an impact on us, whether or not we are consciously aware of that impact. This environmental impact changes our sense of self, and our sense of wellbeing. If we could make a paradigm shift to a lifestyle that makes room for nature, what would that do to our sense of wellbeing?

Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) is one of the paths to help to make this paradigm shift.