Collaborations with the Natural World

A 5-Day In-Person Certificate Program for Counselors and Healers

Learn and Practice Therapeutic Nature-Based Theory and Skills in a Wilderness Setting

Collaborations with the Natural World gives you the opportunity to learn and practice a wide variety of therapeutic nature-based theories and skills in a wilderness setting. 

After this Somatic Nature Therapy Institute training, you’ll be able to confidently and competently incorporate this work into your healing practice. 

This experiential, five-day in-person training focuses on ways that you and your clients can work in partnership with the natural world to address anxiety, depression, and PTSD. 

You’ll also be able to work with nature to help your clients develop self awareness, self-esteem, and self-compassion. You’ll explore the power and practice of mindfulness-based sensory awareness, nature-based parts work, ceremony and ritual, experiential facilitation skills, and much more!  You’ll also learn the essential skills you need to facilitate ecotherapy, or nature-based therapy–outside or indoors—in a safe, effective, and ethical way. 

This training will inspire, deepen, and transform your relationship to yourself, your work, and ultimately to the natural world!

Who This Training is For

Collaborations with the Natural World is for counselors, coaches, educators and healers who want to use nature-based therapy skills with those they serve. The nature-based interventions you’ll learn in this training can be applied indoors, outdoors, and even online as you support clients' learning and growth. You’ll deepen your confidence and therapeutic skillset, increase value for your clients, and elevate therapeutic outcomes.

silhouette of fir tree in front of bright orange and yellow sunset

What You’ll Get From This Training

  • A basic understanding of the core principles of nature-based therapy

  • An overview of the professional fields of wilderness therapy, adventure therapy and ecopsychology and the different ways they are being practiced

  • Many practical tools, experiential exercises and interventions that you can immediately utilize with clients and students of diverse ages and backgrounds

  • Theory and practice in creating relevant, nature-based interventions for specific therapeutic or educational goals

  • Lived experience and practice of what it means to collaborate with the natural world

  • A roadmap for incorporating nature-connection safely and ethically into your work

  • Inspiration and clarity for your next steps in collaborating with the natural world as healer

“Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are.”
— Gretel Ehrlich

Training Outline

Day 1: Overview, nature-based interventions for orienting and connecting, introduction to the fields of ecopsychology and wilderness, adventure, and nature-based therapy, relationship with nature and ecological identity

Day 2: Nature as resource, the role of mindfulness in nature-based therapy, sensory awareness tools, clinical considerations in creating interventions

Day 3: Nature-based parts work, wanders on the land, conversations with the natural world

Day 4: Ceremony, ritual and rites of passage, practices of mirroring, council, and personal ceremony creation

Day 5: Facilitation skills and practice, professional issues and considerations, personal integration plans

What People are Saying About Collaborations with the Natural World

  • "Katie was AMAZING! The humans who were part of this group were AMAZING! It was all such a beautiful experience. I feel prepared to offer day retreats and have a plan for what activities may be beneficial. Katie modeled facilitation that was safe, curious, fun, empathetic, and just pure love. Thank you!"

    Anonymous

  • “This training gave me the parts language I needed to improve myself and it supported me in learning so many adaptable interventions and techniques to help my clients transform their lives.”

    Anonymous

  • “This training gave me renewed energy and excitement for my job, as well as for my life in general. The skills I learned will help my clients process, regulate, resource, and heal. I will also be using these skills in my own life for the same purposes. :)”

    Anonymous

About the Training Creator and Your Facilitator

Katie Asmus sitting in nature smiling

With several decades of experience in outdoor education, therapy, teaching,and rites of passage guiding, Katie Asmus, MA, BMP, LPC, the founder of the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, is a master facilitator and educator on nature-based therapeutic interventions.

Katie started her career as an instructor for Outward Bound and after becoming a clinician, began training outdoor educators and facilitators how to identify and address trauma and panic responses among students on wilderness trips.

Katie also has had a 20-plus-year career working with therapy and coaching clients and teaching graduate-level wilderness therapy, adventure therapy, ecotherapy, and somatic therapy at Naropa University and Prescott College.

She is a skilled facilitator, educator, speaker, and therapist who has trained practitioners internationally in somatic and nature-based interventions for working with trauma, attachment, and nervous system regulation with a strong emphasis on parts work. Katie also focuses on incorporating ceremony and rites of passage into healing work in order to honor life transitions. She has developed a number of professional trainings for helping professionals in these areas, has presented internationally for over 20 years, published a variety of writings, and has been a frequent guest on podcasts and as a speaker in international communities. She is passionate about sharing the many ways nature connection can be woven into the therapeutic process and empowering practitioners to lean into the inherent wisdom of the natural world.

Training Details

  • June 15, 2024, 9 a.m. MT — June 19, 2024 date, 4:30 p.m. MT (most days go from 9 a.m. MT — 5:30 p.m. MT with a 50-minute break for lunch; on days two and four we will go until 9 p.m.)

  • In the mountains 45 min northwest of Boulder, on private land (at 9,200 feet)

  • $1595 regular rate

    $1,450 (early bird pricing, ends April 15, 2024)

    Payment plans are available (please inquire)

  • Introduction to Nature-Based Interventions is recommended, but not required.

  • Camping is available on or near the land where the training will be held. We have an additional $20/night facility use fee which includes camping toilets (porta potties), water, camp stove and fuel (let us know if you need assistance with equipment rentals). There is no running water on the land. There are also several hotels in Boulder (about a 40 to 45 minute drive to the land or AirBnBs, and campgrounds near the property. If you’re interested in this option, please let us know and we can help with recommendations. We provide dinners during the two evenings that end at 9 p.m. For other meals, we provide a shared 2 burner camp stove and coolers for your prep and food storage needs.

 

Apply for Collaborations with the Natural World

To apply, click the link below to fill out an application and share about your goals for attending the training. We’ll review your application and schedule a time to talk with you, share more about the program, answer any questions you have, and collaboratively determine if it is the right fit for you. From there, we will send you enrollment and payment details.

 

For questions or if you’d like more information, reach out to us.

Learn more about all of our Wilderness Therapy and Nature-Based trainings for counselors, coaches, educators, and healers.