Explore the science, psychology and lived experience of the human relationship with the natural world—from nature relatedness and environmental identity to psychological measurement, well-being, culture, reciprocity and nature-based practice.
Learn how to facilitate meaningful, evidence-informed relationships between people and the natural world. Explore psychological theories of nature connection, sensory and relational practices, ethics, facilitation, nature-based invitations and the practical application of nature connectedness in guided experiences.
Explore the Training →Nature connectedness is not one single psychological construct. Explore its theories, measurements, applications, limitations and different cultural and relational perspectives.
Explore nature connectedness as an umbrella concept involving belonging, emotional attachment, identity, interdependence, experience, meaning and relationship with the more-than-human world.
→Being physically present in nature is not the same as experiencing psychological belonging, relationship or identification with nature.
→Understand Nature Relatedness and its dimensions of self, experience and environmental perspective, including the NR-21 and NR-6 measures.
→Compare major psychological instruments including the Connectedness to Nature Scale, Nature Relatedness Scale, Nature Connection Index, Inclusion of Nature in Self, Environmental Identity Scale, CN-12, AIMES, ABC-CNS and child-specific measures.
→Explore the difference between a relatively enduring relationship with nature and temporary changes in connectedness arising during particular experiences.
→Affect, cognition, identity, direct experience, environmental responsibility, spirituality, meaning and reciprocal relationship may each represent different dimensions of connection.
→Examine research linking connection with nature to positive affect, vitality, meaning, life satisfaction and eudaimonic well-being while considering the limits of causal interpretation.
→Explore relationships between nature connectedness, environmental values, conservation attitudes and environmentally supportive behaviour.
→Contact, emotion, beauty, meaning and compassion provide one influential framework for understanding how experiences in nature may deepen psychological connection—while remaining a model that requires critical and cultural consideration.
→How might guided encounters, forest bathing, gardening, mindfulness, environmental education and other activities influence nature connectedness?
→Explore developmental perspectives, children's connection measures and the roles of schools, families, freedom of movement and environmental experience.
→Nature connectedness does not necessarily mean the same thing across countries, languages and cultural contexts. Explore measurement invariance and the limits of universal assumptions.
→Consider understandings centred on land, kinship, reciprocity, ancestry, responsibility and relationship that may differ fundamentally from individualised Western psychological models.
→Opportunities to develop relationships with nature are shaped by mobility, income, neighbourhood design, land access, safety, disability and environmental inequality.
→Examine construct overlap, self-report bias, psychometric limitations, cultural assumptions, anthropocentrism and the risk of reducing nature to an instrument for human well-being.
→Explore stronger approaches to nature-connectedness research, including longitudinal designs, behavioural measures, ecological quality, biodiversity, qualitative research, state–trait distinctions, cross-cultural validation and relational approaches.
→Nature connectedness may therefore be understood not simply as creating a connection that did not exist, but as becoming increasingly aware of and participating in relationships that are already present.
Scientific study can help us explore how attention, emotion, identity, meaning, behaviour, place and reciprocity shape the ways people experience those relationships.