This essay discusses key epistemological and social issues contributing to the ways in which the field of couple and family therapy has remained anthropocentric and discusses how both Gregory Bateson and a decolonization perspective offer a biocentric view in line with ecological systemic thinking. Clinical vignettes are included to illustrate implications for a systemic eco-informed approach to therapy.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BatesonG. (1979). Mind and nature: A necessary unit. New York, NY: Bantam.
2.
BatesonG. (2000). Steps to an ecology of mind. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
3.
BatesonG., & BatesonM. C. (1987). Angels fear: Towards an epistemology of the sacred. New York, NY: Macmillan.
4.
BuzzellL., & ChalquistC. (2009). Ecotherapy: Healing with nature in mind. New York, NY: Sierra Club Books.
5.
CajigasJ. C. (2010). Esferas cognitivas y prácticas ecosóficas. Aproximaciones a una crítica biocéntrica. Revista aportes ambientales desde Ámerica Latina para la apertura de las ciencias sociales, 47–71.
6.
CumminsD. D. (2012). Good thinking: Seven powerful ideas that influence the way we think. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
7.
DescolaP. (2005). Beyond nature and culture. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
8.
de Sousa SantosB. (2009). Una Epistemología del Sur. La reinvención del conocimiento y la emancipación social. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Siglo XXI Editores.
9.
DickersonV. (2015). The advance of postructuralism and its influence on family therapy. Family Process, 53, 401–414.
10.
DuranE., FirehammerJ., & GonzalezJ. (2008). Liberation psychology as the path toward healing cultural soul wounds. Journal of Counseling and Development, 86, 288–295.
11.
GaglianoM., MancusoS., & RobertD. (2012). Towards understanding plant bioacoustics. Trends in Plant Science, 17, 323–325.
12.
GintisH., & BowlesS. (1980). Contradiction and reproduction in educational theory. In M. Haralambos (Ed.), Schooling, ideology and the curriculum. Sociology: Themes and prospects (pp. 110–155). Suffolk, UK: University Tutorial Press.
13.
HardingS. (2008). Sciences from below: Feminisms, postcolonialities, and modernities. Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press.
14.
HekmanJ. (1990). Gender and knowledge: Elements of a postmodern feminism. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
15.
LugonesM. (2010). Toward a decolonial feminism. Hypatia, 25, 742–749.
16.
MacyJ. (1983). Despair and personal power in the nuclear age. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publications.
17.
MadsenW. C. (2014). Applications of collaborative helping maps: Supporting professional development, supervision and work teams in family-centered practice. Family Process, 53, 3–21.
18.
MarinoL., & ColvinC. M. (2015). Thinking pigs: A comparative review of cognition, emotion, and personality in Sus domesticus. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 28, 1–22.
MignoloW. (2005). The idea of Latin America. New York, NY: Blackwell.
21.
NarayanU. (1988). Working together across differences: Some considerations on emotions and political practice. Hypatia, 3, 31–47.
22.
PankseppJ., ReissD., EdelmanD., Van SwinderenB., LowP., & KochC. (2012). The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. Publicly proclaimed in Cambridge, UK, July 7, at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
23.
PollanM. (2001). The botany of desire: A plant's-eye view of the world. New York, NY: Random House.
24.
QuijanoA. (2000). Coloniality of power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South, 1, 533–580.
25.
RoszakT. (1995). Where Psyche meets Gaia. In RoszakT., GomesM., & KannerA. (Eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the earth, healing the mind (pp. 1–17). San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.
26.
VarelaF. (1996). Neurophenomenology: A methodological remedy for the hard problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3, 330–350.
27.
WhiteM. (2011). Narrative practice: Continuing the conversations. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
28.
WylieA. (2003). Why standpoint matters. In FigueroaR. & HardingS. (Eds.), Science and other cultures: Issues in philosophies of science and technology (pp. 339–351). New York, NY: Routledge.
