Earthday 2001: Environmental Psychologist Offers an Antidote for Ecozombies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Information contact:
Dr. Michael J. Cohen 360-378-6313

Earthday 2001: Environmental Psychologist Offers an Antidote for Ecozombies

(Friday Harbor, WA March 26, 2001) "Anybody, including ecozombies, can successfully rehabilitate ecozombies," says Dr. Michael J. Cohen, a Greenwich University ecopsychologist who has produced nature connected education and counseling programs since 1959. Cohen says "The environment and most of us needlessly suffer because we have become nature disconncted Ecozombies and don't know it." His newly developed Natural Systems Thinking Process is an outdoor science that helps anybody remedy personal or environmental disorders by sensuously connecting their thinking to nature . Uniquely, it enables people and the environment to restore each other.

Cohens website at www.53senses.com links to free ecozombie antidote Earthday activities, courses and degree programs. He may be contacted at 360-378-6313

An Ecozombie is a person who has become environmentally desensitized to the point that it psychologically deadens them. Cohen says, "An ecozombie's apathy and limited consciousness makes them relate irresponsibly to ecosystem and human life. Too often that describes our society and most of us."

Using Cohen's guide book "Reconnecting With Nature" (Ecopress), James Rowe, Director of the Outward Bound School in Costa Rica says, "We dramatically increased our programs effectiveness by adding the Natural Systems Thinking Process to it. It enables our participants to connect with their sensory origins in nature and use that peaceful power to improve their relationships with self, society and the environment. "

Cohen says, "Self-improvement, education and healing have always been more successful when they include contact with nature."

The Institute of Global Education, a special NGO consultant to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, today issued a Proclamation from Dr. Cohen who directs its Department of Integrated Ecology and Project NatureConnect. The Proclamation declares Earthday, April 22, 2001, to be the official start of Ecozombie Rehabilitation Year.

The Institute's distance learning degree programs and courses attract students and mid-career professionals from a wide variety of interests. Each adds nature reconnecting skills to their means of helping people and the environment survive the destructiveness of our nature disconnected lives. This improves their effectiveness, marketability, and credibility.

Dr. Cohen may be contacted at 360-378-6313, or www.ecopsych.com .

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Press contact: Michael J. Cohen 360-378-6313

Please see CREDENTIALS and QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS below:

Complete contact Information:

Institute of Global Education
Special NGO consultant to the United Nations Economic and Social Council
Integrated Ecology/Project NatureConnnect

Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director
Chair: Greenwich University Applied Ecopsychology
Faculty: Portland State University Extended Studies
Faculty: International University of Professional Studies

P. O. Box 1605,
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
888-285-4694 (toll free)
360-378-6313
www.ecopsych.com
nature@pacificrim.net

CREDENTIALS:

Michael J. Cohen, BA, MA, Ed.D.

Michael Cohen is an ecopsychologist who founded and coordinates Project NatureConnect, an environmentally sensitive distance learning course and degree program. He is the director of the Integrated Ecology Department of The Institute of Global Education, a special NGO consultant to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, where he also serves as faculty for Portland State University, Greenwich University and the International University of Professional Studies.

Dr. Cohen developed the Natural Systems Thinking Process through his studies at University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Clayton University and 36 years of researching and teaching multisensory nature activities in outdoor settings. He founded degree granting environmental outdoor education programs for the Trailside Country School, Lesley College and the National Audubon Society.

Books and articles by Dr. Cohen include "Reconnecting With Nature: Finding Wellness Through Restoring your Bond with the Earth," the 1990 award winning "Connecting With Nature: Creating Moments that Let Earth Teach" and the self-guiding Applied Ecopsychology training manual "Well Mind, Well Earth: 97 Environmentally Sensitive Activities for Stress Management, Spirit and Self-Esteem." He is the recipient of the Distinguished World Citizen Award. His new book "Einsteins World" is the heart of an accredited distant learning course "Natural Attractions, Intelligences and Sanity"