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College of Psychology
Professor - Psychology
Counseling
College of Psychology
Maltz 2031
Arie T. Greenleaf, Ph.D., is a professor of mental health counseling in the College of Psychology at Nova Southeastern University. He joined NSU in 2022 after nine years at Seattle University and two years at the University of Arkansas. He earned his doctorate in counselor education and supervision from the University of Iowa and his master’s degree in community counseling from Clemson University.
Dr. Greenleaf’s scholarship connects counseling theory with philosophical questions about consciousness and the nature of the self. He developed Deconstructive Inquiry (DI), a counseling theory that examines how thought and language form the apparent division between a self and the psychological problems it seeks to resolve. DI explores how efforts to overcome those problems can sustain suffering. He introduced DI in a 2025 article in Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice.
His philosophical research develops a relational theory of consciousness that identifies experience with the organized activity of thinking, feeling, and perceiving. His Positional Demand Theory (PDT) offers an explanation for why nature can promote well-being. Natural settings often engage us without asking us to prove our worth, compare ourselves with others, or become someone better. He has also presented his research on the possibility of conscious experience in artificial intelligence at the Science of Consciousness conference.
His research on nature-based counseling includes walk-and-talk therapy and ways to bring nature into school counseling programs. His work with military veterans has examined care farming (therapeutic farm work) and a rite of passage ceremony as approaches to supporting wellbeing and improving symptoms of depression and PTSD.
Dr. Greenleaf is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Hypnotherapist who maintains a private practice. His clinical experience includes college counseling and work with couples and families. He teaches counseling theories, community mental health counseling, career counseling, and human sexuality, and provides clinical supervision in practicum and internship. He served as Associate Editor for Theory and Practice of the Journal of Counseling & Development from 2018 to 2022.