Graduate School University Offers A Pioneering, Nature-Connected, Holistic Education Degree Alternative
"Friday Harbor, WA, --September 29, 2009 -- An innovative educating, counseling and healing with nature program from Project NatureConnect announced today that it is accepting graduate school university applications for entrance into its online Masters and Doctoral degree training courses. Sponsored in cooperation with Portland State University Extended Studies, the program's nature-connected holistic health and alternative education studies enable students to research the benefits of conscious sensory contact with natural areas, backyard or back country. The information they collect provides teachers, coaches and therapists the means to help their clients live in greater health, peace and balance with themselves and natural systems, in and around them.
The founder and director of the program, Dr. Michael J. Cohen, author of "Reconnecting With Nature" has completed fifty-four years of investigation that explores the relationship between contemporary people and natural areas. His holistic studies reveal that the beneficial renewal we experience from our good experiences in nature is more than just recreation or getting away from our problems. It is also the re-creation and restoration of nature throughout the web-or-life, including ourselves.
Cohen says, " We have learned to overlook how our contact with nature fulfills over fifty natural senses that we inherit but have learned to ignore or exploit. This omission prevents us from building mutually supportive relationships with the natural environment and each other." 180
A field report from one of Cohen's graduate school university students conveys how the program works: "I am surrounded by many plants and trees on this rainy day; they are vibrant with color, beaming with energy from this water bath. The wind is blowing the branches so they are waving, the sense of relaxation and lightness comes over me as all of my conflicts lessen. I watched one grouping of trees and foliage as my thought that it is like I am kissing the earth came to me. I am linked with all below and above me today. This activity left me connected without even thinking about it, in a state of connection without thinking connection, a state of joy without thinking about joy, a state of unity or oneness.
The graduate school university student concluded: "I discovered unity with nature, that the earth is free and I am free; the atmosphere is charged and I am alive and charged; nature is communicating without words and I am communicating with it without words. Nature, the earth and I are the same. Part of my thinking is educated by this activity, the part about me being whole, connected, magnetic, attractive, complete and free. My self worth, my sense of aliveness and freshness, my youthful energy and rebirth was energized by this activity. I learned that I see my self as nature and I love what I see. I am every part of every molecule. All that is or has ever been is me and I am it."
About Project NatureConnect
Operating online in cooperation with The Institute of Global Education, Portland State University, Akamai University and several additional programs, Project NatureConnect offers low-cost educating, counseling and healing with nature training courses and degrees that are UNESCO approved. Its pioneering graduate school mission is to increase personal, social and environmental well-being by helping people genuinely connect their thinking with the sensitivity and intelligence of nature's self-correcting flow, in and around them. This revolutionary process enables our psyche to walk nature's path to socially and environmentally responsible relationships, stress reduction and sustainable livelihoods. The program gives credit for appropriate prior learning and life experience. It offers scholarships, jobs and internships that strengthen nature-supportive thoughts and feelings.
For Additional Information:
www.ecopsych.com/
360-378-6313 nature@interisland.net
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Program Founder and Director:
Recipient of the 1994 Distinguished World Citizen Award, Ecopsychologist Michael J. Cohen, Ph.D. Michael J. Cohen, Ph.D. is a Program Director of the Institute of Global Education, where he coordinates its Integrated Ecology Department and Project NatureConnect. He also serves on the faculty of Portland State University and Akamai University. Dr. Cohen has founded sensory environmental education outdoor programs independently and for the National Audubon Society and Lesley University (AEI), conceived the 1985 National Audubon Conference "Is the Earth a Living Organism," and is an award winning author of nine Applied Ecopsychology books including The Web of Life Imperative, Reconnecting With Nature, and Educating Counseling and Healing With Nature. A video about his lifework may be viewed at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1357054/
CONTACT:
http://www.ecopsych.com/mjcohen.html
Email: nature@interisland.net
360-378-6313, Pacific Time Zone
