Elizabeth Ann Bolles Acceptance Speech for the Doctor of Humane Letters
SBGI Graduation, July 12, 2008

Thank you. I feel grateful, and honored, validated and seen. The coolest part is how I feel acknowledged and encouraged in putting forth my beliefs about some important work that we as humans need to accomplish.

In order to best express what that work is, I am going to cite from disjointed areas of my dissertation proposal. It’s about two pages long, just to orient you…

This paper will propose a qualitative research project concerning the relatively new fields of somatic psychology and ecopsychology. At the core of somatic psychology is the realization that life experiences are embodied experiences; breath flow, movement habits, musculature tone, cognitive style, emotional expression, and relationship patterns are shaped by past and present experiences. Somatic psychology seeks to bring humans balance and wholeness through the elements of breath, touch, movement, somatic awareness and sensing
Ecopsychology is the emerging synthesis of ecology and psychology. At the core of ecopsychology is the realization that our relationships with the environment directly affect our relationships with each other, and that as a species, our relationship (or lack thereof) with our natural environment is an expression of our psychological health. Ecopsychology seeks to help humans experience themselves as an integral part of nature.
This dissertation will begin with a sound theoretical case for the intrinsic links and connections between these two fields. Informed by a critical analysis, I will then develop the argument that we as a species are in great need of radical social and environmental change on a global, local and individual level. Central to this argument is the idea that both personal dissociation from our bodies and dissociation from our natural environment is a form of, and results from, oppression, which serves to maintain the current socio-economic structure.
It is my proposition that burnout comes from having too much energy focused in our heads, not listening to our body’s messages, failing to process emotional pain, and being separated from the support of the natural world. These four components often entail the psychological processes of dissociation, splitting, and numbing, and denial.
There are key similarities in how the fields of ecopsychology and somatic psychology describe the same phenomena, particularly those of dissociation and addictive patterns of consumption and denial. Yet, the theoretical frameworks of each field, when used alone, are insufficient to explain the magnitude of our personal and collective malaise. Ecopsychology frequently leaves out direct somatic experience and the relational aspects of becoming a self. Somatic psychology is frequently too personally absorbed, and leaves out the greater socio-environmental context of many of our pressing psychological stressors. With an eye toward root causes, I am proposing that both these lenses can be used together to examine our environmental and political crisis more holistically. My goal is to extend both fields into areas where they have been insufficiently applied and to elucidate the potentially far-reaching implications of these extrapolations.
To fully reclaim our physical selves and our ecological selves demands that we work to integrate psyche, body, and environment. To achieve that requires addressing the larger cultural and political relationships in which our individual lives are imbedded. These larger contexts are held in place, in part, by our dissociative states. We will need to end the sources of oppression that benefit from our reduced capacity and connection. This means global transformation, which also must take place locally and individually.
Somatic psychology and ecopsychology both have perspectives on how healthy humans ought to look, including how to be healthy in relation to one’s physical environment. Both fields have examined the problems of how our species got into such a widespread and potentially globally genocidal predicament, and they are both modalities for change. There is even some study of the connections between issues of physical embodiment and environmental connectivity. Both of these fields have practical solutions for assisting people in awakening to a sense of efficacy and power, but predominately on a personal level, rather than (potentially) enabling people to get involved in change work, and sustain effective justice work over a lifetime. What is missing from the literature is an understanding of how individuals' psychological relationship to their bodies and the natural environment may shape their propensity to engage in activism and sustain their activity.
I could find no research whatsoever linking the physical, body-centered aspects of psychology, somatic or ecological, with social change work, activism, or environmental issues. The study I am proposing will directly address these missing pieces.

Ok, that’s the end of the excerpts.

That’s the gist of what I think is crucial for us to explore.

I’ve facilitated a lot of healing of other people in my life. I’ve worked a lot of projects, I’ve taught classes and workshops. They have sometimes seemed all over the map, but as I read other people’s superb summaries of my work through the decades, I’ve been really impressed with the common threads that run through my life. Liberation, being home in one’s body, awakening the sensory experiences of the body, connecting to nature as our larger body, connection and goodness in relationships, and treating targeted populations with respect and dignity.

Thank you.