Frequently Asked Questions

What is Ecotherapy?

Eco-psychotherapy (or just ecotherapy) is rooted in the idea that humans have a deep connection to their environment and to the earth itself.

We are nature.

Denying this, or not nurturing your connection, can lead to poor health, particularly poor mental health.

Ecotherapy can take many forms - for example Green Care, Gardening Therapy, Shinrin Yoku (Forest Bathing), Wilderness Therapy, The Work that Reconnects, Shamanism, Ten Directions (Buddhist approach) and Walking and Talking Therapy. At it's best, it is rooted in ecopsychology/depth psychology. The model I follow ensures your personal, social and ecological identities and understanding are supported and developed.

What I offer goes deeper than some 'ecotherapy' currently advertised. It is backed by scientific evidence, was developed through rigorous training and gaining qualifications and is further informed by my personal experiences and transformation.

Ecopsychology (from which ecotherapy springs) can be seen as the development of modern psychological thinking to meet the challenges of the Anthropocene: industrialisation; disconnection from life & death; disconnection from the outdoor & natural worlds, and disconnection from the rapidly deepening climate crisis which threatens all life on our planet, human and more-than-human.

More information about Ecotherapy from MIND

Is Ecotherapy right for me?

If you are feeling curious, keep looking at things like this with interest or feel drawn to it in some other way, then the answer is probably 'yes'. I firmly believe that when the time is right (or ripe) you will know.

Some people come to ecotherapy driven by personal issues; some through realising they feel disconnected, lost, or that something is missing; some due to specific climate-related grief.

What I offer is deeply based in the work of some of the great ecopsychologists who lead the way:

Bill Plotkin (Wild Mind, Soulcraft, The Schumacher Institute)

Eligio Stephen Gallegos (Four Windows of Knowing, the Personal Totem Pole)

and The Natural Self model from Natural Academy.

Contact me for a free initial conversation to discuss what I offer and to see how it might be beneficial for you.

Contact Larissa Fry

What is your training?

I studied for three years and hold the first accredited UK qualifications in Regenerative Ecopsychology:

'Ecopsychology and Nature-Based Practice'

Level 3 (Foundation), Level 4 (Advanced Pathway)

from Natural Academy.

I also draw on my knowledge and skills as a qualified and experienced Forest School Leader, Teacher, tutor, mentor, wife and mother.

It is important to me that people can be as they are and that they learn to understand and love themselves- in connection with the wider world. I have sought out training in many neuro-diverse conditions in order to support this.

I hold an Outdoor Emergency First Aid Certificate, Food Hygiene Certificate and full insurance. All certificates can be seen on request.

I am a member of several national and international groups including the Nature and Health Practitioners Network, Nature Connection World, the EcopsychologyUK practitioners network, the Forest School Association and Outdoor and Woodland Learning (OWL) Scotland.

What style of QiGong do you teach?

I have learnt and practiced Qigong since 2011, and taught it since 2020. My strongest influences have been from the

Hua Gong style of QiGong SouthWest (Ball, Animals, Self-Healing Form etc) although I also practice and teach Shibashi 1 form.

My teachers have mostly been Daverick Leggett and Brad Richecoeur, with some opportunities to practice with Master Zhizing Wang, Sarah Macdonald, and others from other styles and schools.

In my Mindful Movement sessions I also weave in breath work, visualisation

and additional Somatic Healing practices, to help us fully listen to, and inhabit our bodies.

Where did you learn Sound Healing?

Put simply: through many years of my own practice.

I made my first Native American style flute with Nigel Shaw of Seventh Wave Music in 2016. I have since made others with Rikk Smith of Shining Fox Creations, Guillermo Martinez of Quetzalcoatl Music, a few of my own (in bamboo, plastic and wood) and have the fortune to work closely with David Cartwright of Second Voice Flutes. My first bone whistle came from Kate & Corwen of Ancient Music.

Nigel taught me how to play NA flute with the simple recommendation "Go out into nature and play". The rest is history! Once you've fallen in love with one instrument, it's so easy to fall in love with another. I've played and performed Taiko since 2018 (originally with Bristol Taiko). The overtone flutes - Slovakian Fujara and Koncovka caught me in 2022 and still hold me transfixed. Whatever wonderful sounds they produce when you listen to them is amplified by vibration when you play them (or rather when they play you). They are a deeply meditative practice.

I have studied Chant and Mantra with Sarena Mason of Birch Moon since 2017, her work being informed by Naked Voice and deeply rooted in Vedic healing chant. I have also learnt from Gavin Frank and others, weaving these into my own practices and my teaching.

Where did you learn to hold space?

I offer credit here to every woman (and man) I have ever sat in Circle with - they know who they are - love you sisters and brothers!

Although I trained in creating and maintaining boundaries, holding space safely, and facilitating Circle (or Council) within my ecopsychology training, it is the years of experience that really count.

I offer specific thanks to Carolyn Hillyer of Seventh Wave Music and a truly transformative few years spent with sisters from 2019 and still ongoing - rooted in deepest Dartmoor.

I currently have the pleasure and honour of supporting Carolyn on the Weavers Trail, hosted at The Braided River, and heartily recommend that journey.