Online Zoom Forum: Ecospirituality: Spiritual. Ecological, and Ethical Foundations.
Date: Wednesday 25 March 2026.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
Chanan Tej:
Bio: Chanan Tej is a Buddhist psychotherapist, community herbalist, and yoga teacher, dedicated to the harmonious integration of healing, nature, and spirituality. With over a decade of experience, she skilfully weaves together psychotherapy, yoga, sacred sound, and a profound respect for the natural world.
Her holistic approach emphasises the inseparable connection between spiritual and ecological well-being. Residing on a small farm, Chanan nurtures her bond with the land through practices such as foraging, plant medicine making, forest bathing, and nature resonance. These daily experiences continually enrich her understanding of the spiritual and ethical dimensions of our relationships with ourselves, our communities, and the Earth.
Speakers:
Dr Adam Baimel:
Title: Ecospirituality as a Foundation for Environmental Care.
Description: Across cultures and religious traditions, many people experience the natural world as spiritually significant rather than merely instrumental. This talk synthesizes recent psychological research on ecospirituality—the appraisal and experience of nature as sacred—to explore its ethical and ecological implications. Drawing on four studies spanning more than 15 countries and five world religions, we show that ecospirituality reliably predicts pro-environmental outcomes, including sustainable behavioral intentions, policy support, and willingness to make personal sacrifices for nature. We then examine the psychological pathways through which ecospirituality motivates environmental care. Evidence points to three converging mechanisms: the moralization of nature, relational emotions such as gratitude, and a heightened sense of responsibility and efficacy. Together, these processes orient people toward caring for nature as a moral and relational partner. I conclude by considering the ethical significance of ecospirituality as a shared foundation for global environmental stewardship in a time of ecological crisis.
Bio: Dr Adam Baimel is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University. His research asks questions about the cultural evolution of religion and spiritual systems, how they change and adapt to shifting socio-ecological conditions, with a particular focus on religious and spiritual systems are adapting to pressures of the climate crisis.
Prof Knut-Willy Sæther:
Title: Nature as Place - Key Topics for a Grounded Ecospirituality.
Description: In my contribution, I aim to highlight selected key themes relevant to understanding nature as place. The context for this discussion is an attempt to develop a grounded ecospirituality, also drawing on resources from both ecophilosophy and ecotheology. I focus on four themes, each of which I will offer some reflections on: (1) Nature as physical–geographical place (2) Nature as place where humans and nature are intertwined, (3) Emotional awareness of place, and (4) The transformative potential of aesthetic experiences in nature.
Bio: Knut-Willy Sæther is professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Volda University College, Norway. His main interest of research is interdisciplinary, involving philosophy, aesthetics, spirituality, and theology. Among his recent publications are The Grace of Being Fallible in Philosophy, Theology and Religion and Views of Nature and Dualism: Rethinking Philosophical, Theological and Religious Assumptions in the Anthropocene, with Thomas John Hastings (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 and 2023). More information at: www.knutwillysaether.weebly.com
Dr Rachel Wheeler:
Title: Tending Inner Ecologies for Ecospiritual Regeneration.
Description: This talk imagines the reinvention of the human species for our twenty-first century context of social transition and ecological crises as involving the task of tending our inner ecologies as well as our outer ecologies. In particular, I track the ecospiritual and ethical challenges to tending inner ecologies in an urban setting, while celebrating the opportunities such a setting affords. What might an urban ecospirituality look like? How might it foster regeneration across species? I offer suggestions drawn from our species identity as Earth beings and from our individual and communal ecospiritual practices and urban rituals that counter and nuance ecological boredom and ecospiritual fragility.
Bio: Dr Rachel Wheeler is Associate Professor and Chair of the Theology and Religious Studies Department at the University of Portland (Portland, OR, USA) where she teaches courses in ecospirituality, religion and ecology, and the arts as spiritual formation. Her books include Desert Daughters, Desert Sons: Rethinking the Christian Desert Tradition, Ecospirituality: An Introduction, and Radical Kinship: A Christian Ecospirituality.
Dr Charlton Hall, PhD, MMFT:
Title: Ethics and Ecospirituality: Ethical Practice at the Intersection of Mental Health and Nature.
Description: Ecotherapy and nature-based counseling are growing rapidly as mental health professionals recognize the powerful role that nature plays in psychological healing. However, practicing therapy in natural settings introduces unique ethical considerations that differ from traditional office-based counseling.
In this presentation, Dr. Charlton Hall explores the ethical foundations of ecotherapy practice, including confidentiality in outdoor environments, boundaries and dual relationships in community and natural spaces, risk management, cultural humility, and the responsible integration of nature-based interventions into clinical practice.
Participants will gain practical guidance for ethically incorporating ecotherapy and ecospirituality into their work while maintaining professional standards and protecting client welfare.
Bio: Dr Charlton Hall, PhD, MMFT, is a Marriage and Family Therapist, educator, and founder of the Mindful Ecotherapy Center, PLLC. His work integrates mindfulness, ecotherapy, and evidence-based psychotherapy to support mental health and personal transformation. Dr. Hall has developed mindfulness-based ecotherapy approaches used in counseling, recovery programs, and community education. He teaches internationally on mindfulness, ecotherapy, and the role of nature connection in psychological well-being.
Prof Teresa Messias:
Title: Christian Ecospirituality in Dialogue with Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing): Foundations, Practices and Impact.
Description: Christian ecospirituality is ever more open to other ecospiritualities, opening up to the need of establishing an enriching dialogue that encompasses theoretical foundations, concrete practices and social outcomes. The ecological crisis the world sees itself in has awaken us all for the importance of finding synergies between different ecospiritualities (both religious and non religious), their practices and benefits, in order to foster a deeper awareness of the existing interconnection between all realities, particularly the natural world (understanding this as system formed by all living and non-living elements that exist in nature, encompassing ecosystems, wildlife, plants and physical landscapes), and set in motion a common sense of compassion, empathy and personal transformation that can translate into effective commitment to environmental change and ecological sustainability.
I shall address how Christian ecospiritual practices and the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) can dialogue in a mutual enriching way, drawing attention to the interconnection and synergies between them (both theoretical and practical, the benefits of that practice and how we can adapt such a proposal to our common environment even though we may not have a forest close to home.
Bio: Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Theology, UCP.
She was awarded her doctoral degree in Spiritual Theology by the Faculty of Theology of Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, with her thesis entitled El seguimiento de Jesús como transformación del deseo en Sebastian Moore, published in Portuguese by Paulus.
She lectures on the subjects of Spiritual Theology and Systematic Theology.
She also teaches Christianism and Culture in the Faculty of Law and in the Faculty of Human Sciences of UCP.
She has also taught at the University of Saint Joseph – Macau.
She has provided spiritual support to persons and groups, practicing the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius and running colloquiums on themes interrelating with Christian Spirituality since 2001.
She has published various books and delivered papers on the fields to which she dedicates her research.
She has collaborated with the Patriarch of Lisbon on training projects and taught at the School for Lay People, a project designed to offer theological education and training particularly to Lay People. She also collaborates with Saint Thomas Aquinas Institute of the Portuguese Province of the Order of Preachers.
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Booking: By Paypal.
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000
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The IBAN number:
GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59
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