Intro to Therapeutic Nature-Based Interventions
An 8-Week Online Certificate Program for Counselors and Helping Professionals
Ecotherapy Theory and Tools for Outside, Indoors, and Online
The Somatic Nature Therapy Institute’s Intro to Therapeutic Nature-Based Interventions training equips you with essential skills and theoretical framework you need to facilitate therapeutic nature-based experiences–outside or indoors—in a safe, effective, and ethical way.
Who This Training is For
This online training is perfect if you are in a helping profession and want to add therapeutic nature-based interventions to your toolkit.
Research confirms that connecting with the natural world can reduce stress and anger, and support nervous system regulation. It can also have a positive impact on self-esteem, emotional and behavioral health, cognition, and your physical wellbeing.
Intro to Therapeutic Nature-Based Interventions is also a powerful way to deepen your own relationship with the natural world, so you can move from a place of embodied connection with nature and feel more grounded, centered, and confident in facilitating others.
What You’ll Get From This Training
Deepen your own personal relationship with the natural world
Learn therapeutic nature-based theory, skills, and practices
Learn and practice experiential facilitation skills
Receive guidance for assessing and creating interventions to match therapeutic goals
Learn considerations for taking clients outdoors (safety, ethics, logistics, guidelines)
Find clarity and inspiration for your next steps incorporating nature-connection into your work
Take home a nature-connection ebook with dozens of therapeutic practices you can use with clients
“Nature has the power to heal because it is where we are from, it is where we belong and it belongs to us as an essential part of our health and our survival.”
Training Outline
Week 1: Training overview, exploring relationship with nature, ecological identity, and skills practice
Week 2: History of wilderness and adventure therapies, research behind nature-based interventions, and ecotherapy skills practice
Week 3: Ways to incorporate nature into your work, intervention categories, sensory awareness, ecotherapy skills practice
Week 4: Experiential facilitation theory, the role of mindfulness, conversations with nature, ecotherapy skills practice
Week 5: More experiential facilitation skills, wanders in nature, ecotherapy skills practice
Week 6: Creating nature-based interventions for specific therapeutic goals, case studies, ecotherapy skills practice
Week 7: Ethics, considerations and safety for nature-based therapy and healing, ecotherapy skills practice
Week 8: Integration, next steps, and additional resources
What People are Saying About Intro to Therapeutic Nature-Based Interventions
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“I have been a therapist for more than 10 years and love being in nature, but had zero knowledge of how to integrate the natural world into my work. This has helped me do that.”
Halie Boardman, LCSW in Draper, Utah
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“This training has confirmed that I’m headed in the right direction working with clients. It has also normalized my natural tendency to talk to trees 😁.”
Anonymous
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“This course has helped me to support my own journey as a therapist, and it has renewed my heartfelt interest in helping others heal, as I heal as well.”
Louise Davis, LCSW in Portland, Oregon
About Your Facilitator
Heather Menzie May, MA, is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Yoga Therapist, teacher, and wilderness guide. Since 2001, Heather has been leading therapeutic wilderness expeditions through the mountains and rivers of Colorado and Utah. Heather earned her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Wilderness Therapy through Naropa University and has a private practice in Evergreen, Colorado. She integrates EMDR Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Wilderness Therapy into her work with clients. Heather is the co-founder of The Strong and Mindful Family Program, which involves bringing families out into the wild to strengthen their relationships.
About the Training Creator
With over 3 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 25-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 25 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
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To be determined, check back soon!
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$579
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.