Wilderness Therapy

I provide ecotherapy in multiple ways, by engaging Spirit during sessions, facilitating therapy sessions at outdoor trails and parks, altar building, integrating herbalism and more!

17 years experience facilitating groups in wilderness settings (backpacking, canoeing, earth-based ceremonies)

I offer walk-and-talk therapy sessions in beautiful environments. I believe that nature has calming benefits and moving the body while talking about difficult topics can help with anxiety.

Nature is a great mirror for humans, since we too are nature. It is spiritual by nature and teaches us how to live abundantly and in alignment with ourselves. Nature doesn't need humans to survive but we most definitely need nature. Everything is alive and well in nature so we have a lot to gain from being in relationship with all the elements of nature.

I have training in the facilitation of deep imagery from the Animas Valley Institute.

I am still very much deep in learning and always will be in this field. It is important for my clients that they have a general idea of where they come from, what came on the land before them, and what is there now. I want them to have these things in mind when we are out on the land so that they can orient themselves and learn from the rich history, bio-life, and experience that they have during our sessions.

I have 9+ years of experience within outdoor education, wilderness therapy guiding, nature connection, and primitive skills. I have worked within a variety of different settings and system configurations to do this work. For example, I have facilitated a weekend of family therapy while camping in the San Juan Mountains and I have guided a day hike for a group of youth activists on retreat in the Sierra Nevada in California.

After working for years out west in wilderness therapy contexts, I bring components of the wilderness into session with us. Making distinctions between what we have control over and what we are eternally powerless over is one component of this model. I believe risk-taking is inherent in this adventure we call life, but exploration can feel scary or confusing when taking risks without the trust, humility, curiosity, and safety needed to strike off. Expand space in your life for more adventure.

Restoring relationship to nature and connecting to self. Creating safety and grounding within your environment.

While I do not offer traditional Wilderness Therapy, I do offer Nature Based Therapy. This often looks like incorporating the natural world around us into each session either through mindfulness, movement, or grounding practices! I practice on a 20 acre farm in the St. Croix Valley, so the natural beauty is abundant.

I worked as a field guide at a wilderness therapy program for adolescents struggling with a variety of mental health and behavioral issues. In my years working in the field, I rose through the ranks to become a Master Field Instructor, all the while developing a passion for the therapeutic benefits of nature therapy with adolescent boys and eventually working as a therapist at the same program.