Connecting with Ground

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

Nature-Based Interventions for Working with Trauma, Attachment, and Nervous System Regulation

The Somatic Nature Therapy Institute’s Connecting with Ground is a five-day, in-person, experiential training designed to teach you the basic theoretical underpinnings of acute and complex trauma, as well as attachment theory. 

We explore how nature can assist in nervous system regulation and healing through a wide range of nature-based interventions for managing stress, anxiety, and trauma symptoms. 

And we use a combination of didactic and experiential methods to learn how to support longer-term trauma resolution and healthy attachment. 

Participants will have the opportunity to deepen their own relationship with the natural world and learn how to draw upon this connection to inform their work with others.

Who This Training is For

Connecting with Ground is for counselors, coaches, educators and healers who work with, or want to work with, clients who are struggling with trauma. The nature-based interventions you’ll learn in this training can be applied indoors, outdoors, and even online as you support clients. You’ll deepen your skillset, increase value for your patients, and improve therapeutic outcomes.

woman looking out at forest

What You’ll Get From This Training

  • Gain an understanding of the basic neurophysiology of stress and trauma

  • Be able to identify more subtle stress and trauma responses when they are happening with clients

  • Learn, practice, and experience many nature-based interventions that support grounding, anxiety management, and nervous system regulation (including mindfulness, sensory awareness, metaphor, expressive arts, and direct relationship with the natural world)

  • Understand the role of mindfulness and body-mind connection within the facilitation of nature-based interventions

  • Learn how to create and assess appropriate nature-based interventions for specific client symptoms

  • Deepen your own relationship to nature, as a foundation for providing nature-based interventions for others

  • Additional resource that include handouts, articles, reading recommendations, descriptions of experiential exercises, and more

““Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.””
— Albert Einstein

Training Outline

Day 1: Training overview, group connection, introduction to trauma and nature-based resourcing interventions

Day 2: Introduction to the neurophysiology of trauma, deepening resourcing in nature, the role of mindfulness and sensory awareness in nature-based interventions

Day 3: Introduction to nature-based attachment theory and related interventions, practicing pendulation, conversations with the natural world, and wanders on the land

Day 4: Secure attachment with the Earth and nature-based attachment interventions

Day 5: Practical applications and considerations of nature-based therapy, case-specific examples and practice, nature’s support in post-traumatic growth, next steps, group closing

What People are Saying About Connecting with Ground

  • “I was able to gain a better understanding of how to resource and help clients attune, connect with self-care, and grow capacity to accept nourishment. The refresher on psychoeducation was helpful. This was exactly what I needed!”

    Anonymous

  • "Katie's patience, mindfulness, and facilitation is exceptional, warm, and nurturing 100% of the time."

    Summer Smith

  • "This training did a great job of making sure everyone can integrate some of these practices into their lives and work. It has widened my perspective on how to integrate resources from the natural world. I also loved the way Katie teaches attachment theory; it made a lot of sense!"

    Rachel

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

  • August 10, 2024, 9 a.m. MT — August 14, 2024, 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)

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

  • $1,450 (early bird pricing, ends June 10, 2024)

    $1595 regular rate after June 10, 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 a shared 2 burner camp stove and coolers for your prep and food storage needs.

 

Apply for Connecting With Ground

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, please contact us.

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