diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index 9375767..684c23c 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
         "symfony/config": "^5.4 | ^6.4 | ^7.0",
         "symfony/dependency-injection": "^5.4 | ^6.4 | ^7.0",
         "symfony/dom-crawler": "^5.4 | ^6.4 | ^7.0",
+        "symfony/dotenv": "^5.4 | ^6.4 | ^7.0",
         "symfony/error-handler": "^5.4 | ^6.4 | ^7.0",
         "symfony/filesystem": "^5.4 | ^6.4 | ^7.0",
         "symfony/form": "^5.4 | ^6.4 | ^7.0",
diff --git a/src/Codeception/Module/Symfony.php b/src/Codeception/Module/Symfony.php
index 2e6f4d7..6323e52 100644
--- a/src/Codeception/Module/Symfony.php
+++ b/src/Codeception/Module/Symfony.php
@@ -28,11 +28,13 @@
 use Codeception\TestInterface;
 use Doctrine\ORM\EntityManagerInterface;
 use Exception;
+use LogicException;
 use ReflectionClass;
 use ReflectionException;
 use Symfony\Bundle\SecurityBundle\DataCollector\SecurityDataCollector;
 use Symfony\Component\BrowserKit\AbstractBrowser;
 use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerInterface;
+use Symfony\Component\Dotenv\Dotenv;
 use Symfony\Component\Finder\Finder;
 use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\DataCollector\DataCollectorInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\DataCollector\TimeDataCollector;
@@ -84,6 +86,7 @@
  * * `cache_router`: 'false' - Enable router caching between tests in order to [increase performance](http://lakion.com/blog/how-did-we-speed-up-sylius-behat-suite-with-blackfire)
  * * `rebootable_client`: 'true' - Reboot client's kernel before each request
  * * `guard`: 'false' - Enable custom authentication system with guard (only for Symfony 5.4)
+ * * `bootstrap`: 'false' - Enable the test environment setup with the tests/bootstrap.php file if it exists or with Symfony DotEnv otherwise. If false, it does nothing.
  * * `authenticator`: 'false' - Reboot client's kernel before each request (only for Symfony 6.0 or higher)
  *
  * #### Sample `Functional.suite.yml`
@@ -167,6 +170,7 @@ class Symfony extends Framework implements DoctrineProvider, PartedModule
         'em_service' => 'doctrine.orm.entity_manager',
         'rebootable_client' => true,
         'authenticator' => false,
+        'bootstrap' => false,
         'guard' => false
     ];
 
@@ -204,6 +208,9 @@ public function _initialize(): void
         }
 
         $this->kernel = new $this->kernelClass($this->config['environment'], $this->config['debug']);
+        if($this->config['bootstrap']) {
+            $this->bootstrapEnvironment();
+        }
         $this->kernel->boot();
 
         if ($this->config['cache_router'] === true) {
@@ -459,6 +466,26 @@ protected function getInternalDomains(): array
         return array_unique($internalDomains);
     }
 
+    private function bootstrapEnvironment(): void
+    {
+        $bootstrapFile = $this->kernel->getProjectDir() . '/tests/bootstrap.php';
+
+        if (file_exists($bootstrapFile)) {
+            require_once $bootstrapFile;
+        } else {
+            if (!method_exists(Dotenv::class, 'bootEnv')) {
+                throw new LogicException(
+                    "Symfony DotEnv is missing. Try running 'composer require symfony/dotenv'\n" .
+                    "If you can't install DotEnv add your env files to the 'params' key in codeception.yml\n" .
+                    "or update your symfony/framework-bundle recipe by running:\n" .
+                    'composer recipes:install symfony/framework-bundle --force'
+                );
+            }
+            $_ENV['APP_ENV'] = $this->config['environment'];
+            (new Dotenv())->bootEnv('.env');
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Ensures autoloader loading of additional directories.
      * It is only required for CI jobs to run correctly.