Ecofacilitation is a new approach to
psychotherapy, formulated by Ukrainian psychologist Pavel Lushyn in his
book “Personal Transitions as a Process: Theory and Practice” published
in 2002 and over a hundred other articles. Eco-psychological facilitation
(ecofacilitation) is the process of regulating individual as an open
and dynamic system in order to preserve the state of self-development. Ecofacilition grew out of Rogerian facilitation, yet fundamentally different in mechanisms of regulation.
Facilitation is aimed at regulating individual’s existing potential.
Ecofacilitation is aimed at supporting self-development. Need in such support arises under the circumstances of transitioning to a new identity in psychological and social ecological systems (systemic transition). These circumstances are experienced as stagnation, i.e. deceleration of self-development (in temporal terms - interruption of self-developmental rhythm).
Ecofacilitor engages in accelerating client’s self-development by reconstructing the rhythm in a sequence of life events. In dialectical logics (according to Hegel) self-developmental rhythm can be represented as thesis - antithesis - synthesis. Ecofacilitation helps “navigate” individual’s ambiguity when new identity and new resources for consequent development are being generated (this is consistent with tolerance for ambiguity phenomenon).
Facilitation is provided under lack of congruency, contradictions in clients’ emotional experiences.
Ecofacilitation is provided when either a client or a therapist is experiencing a communicative barrier (dead end) in self-development. Thus, psychotherapy is processes that underlies reconstruction of social ecosystems bases.
The result of facilitation is improvement of client’s state.
The result of ecofacilitation is generation of new self-regulating options for the individual as a social subject and for the social ecosystem as a whole.
In facilitation achieving the aim is a result of creating unconditional positive regard towards the client; in ecofacilitation it is experiencing transitional developmental zone, characterized by a high degree of ambiguity on the part of all participants of the self-regulated psychotherapeutic system.
Technically speaking, facilitation has to do with procedures of active listening, emphatic and advanced listening; and ecofacilitation has to do with collectively-generated insight. The structure of the later corresponds to the nature of rhythm-reconstructing activity (Lushyn’s revision of EMDR protocol).
Eco-psychological facilitation is revising individual psychotherapy format into a distributed activity within the therapeutic community of inquiry as a self-regulated ecosystem. In this system both the therapist and the client have functions of participating and facilitating, i.e. they both introduce clinical/psychotherapeutic material and foster group dynamics.
Summary
- Ecofacilitation is related to reconstructing individual’s resources in times of systemic transitions.
- The nature of personal change is systemic. Personal change transforms the system and systemic change transforms the individual.
- Crises is not pathological. It is a transitional formation targeted at developing new resources on both levels: individual and systemic.
- Time as a sequence of interrelated events in individual’s life is a factor that determines (in addition to the form), the content of transition. This is why “time is the best healer,” “all in good time,” etc. Therefore, time is ecological, nothing should be disregarded: one event naturally leads to the other.
- Content of events is shaped by the law of spontaneous self-development and self-regulation, for example, according to Hegel, thesis - antithesis - synthesis.
- What does help entail, if everything is governed by the law of spontaneous self-development? Help is imbedded in the presenting problem. Individuals are responsible for who they ask for help and what speaks to them in the response. Thus, it is most important for the helper to match the program imbedded in the presenting problem!
- You accelerate individual’s development when you match, and slow it down when you don’t.
(Compiled and translated by Iryna Natalushko) | 
