Wilderness Therapy
Looking to Integrate Connection with Nature Into Your Therapeutic Process?
Wilderness and Nature-Based Therapy and coaching offer holistic, embodied approaches that can help you manage anxiety and stress, process trauma and losses, move through life transitions, and develop the courage to take the next step in your life.
Do you have a hunch that doing your healing work in collaboration with nature will allow you more presence, insight, and ease?
Yes! Nature has a way of supporting us to feel more present, connected, regulated, and inspired. We gain clarity and perspective by taking time and space to pause from technology and our daily lives. Wilderness Therapy provides an opportunity to do just this, allowing us to feel more grounded and connected to the greater web of life, while reflecting on the resources and wisdom that live within each of us.
At the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, our therapists are experts in Ecopsychology, Ecotherapy, and Adventure Therapy. We use a wide range of tools to collaborate with nature in support of your therapeutic goals. We invite curiosity and help you access the wisdom of your body, mind, and spirit so you can discover your unique pathways to health and wellness.
Contact us today to find out more about integrating nature connection into your therapeutic practice—whether you are an individual looking for support or a therapist or healer who wants to introduce the benefits of therapeutic nature-based practices to your clients.
What, exactly, is Nature Therapy?
At the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, we define Nature Therapy as the conscious incorporation of the natural world into the therapeutic process.
Depending on your unique experience and goals, this could look many different ways. It could include sensory awareness for nervous system regulation, or incorporate walking outside as we explore your goals. It could mean connecting with nature as a mirror, or simply observing the wisdom of this wild world. It could also be the development of nature-based ceremony and ritual to help you navigate life transitions. Ultimately, we orient therapy toward each client’s unique desires, goals, and intentions.
The term Nature Therapy is often associated with Adventure Therapy and the therapeutic benefits of spending long periods of time in the backcountry, living off of the land. Today, Nature Therapy is an umbrella term for a whole host of Nature-Based Therapy practices and theories, including Ecotherapy, Ecopsychology, Equine Therapy, Horticulture Therapy, Wilderness Questing, Adventure Therapy, Nature Therapy and more.
Whether you seek to connect with nature within your day-to-day environment or to participate in a Nature-Based Therapy intensive, we are here to ensure that the process is done safely, using an individualized, holistic approach.
A brief history of Nature Therapy and Wilderness Therapy
For centuries and throughout a wide range of civilizations, humans have looked to the natural world for peace, connection, clarity, and answers. From this perspective, Wilderness Therapy and Nature-Based Therapy are grassroots in their foundations, influenced by and influencing a wide range of fields, including Anthropology, Adventure Therapy, Ecotherapy and Ecopsychology, Wilderness Quests, and Outdoor Education programs like Outward Bound.
There are now worldwide professional networks and gatherings of Ecotherapists, wilderness therapists, adventure therapists and other nature-based practitioners. And master’s level trainings in Wilderness Therapy have been available and recognized at the university level since 2002.
Katie Asmus has 30 years of Wilderness & Nature Therapy experience
Somatic Nature Therapy Institute founder, Katie Asmus, is a somatic (body-based) therapist who has been working in collaboration with nature in education and therapy since the early 90s. Beginning with her work as an outdoor educator (with Outward Bound, Women’s Wilderness Institute, and other programs), Katie wove nature and somatics throughout her graduate studies, internship, and thesis. She became the first assistant director of the nation’s first Wilderness Therapy graduate program.
Katie has been an integral part of the professional development of this field, with dozens of related presentations, keynote talks, and published chapters and articles on her resume. She is the U.S. representative of the Adventure Therapy International Community and won the U.S Heart of Adventure Therapy award in 2023. Katie has been training students and therapists to incorporate nature into their work since 2000.
Ecotherapy, Ecopsychology, Adventure Therapy, Wilderness Quests, and other nature-based modalities have been central tenets of the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute’s approach since its inception. We acknowledge the many cultures and ancestors who have come before us that have lived in communion with the Earth’s rhythms. And we acknowledge the history of the places we are in relationship with; They have significant histories and stories of their own.
We specialize in Wilderness Therapy, Ecotherapy, Adventure Therapy, and Nature Therapy
Influenced by the vast field of Wilderness Therapy, we collaborate with nature to support our clients to connect with their innate wisdom and guidance beyond themselves.
Within this holistic paradigm, we illuminate how nature provides a mirror and metaphor for your inner experiences—inviting you into reflection and self-discovery. This relationship with nature ultimately leads to greater compassion for your own human nature. How we respond in relationship to the dynamic states of the natural world offers insight into how we respond to other uncertain and unpredictable situations.
Because nature exists all around us, our Wilderness Therapy process truly is designed to address your unique situation and intentions.
We are also available to provide EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and other structured therapies in a nature-based setting (read more about our approach to EMDR therapy). Our model of Wilderness Therapy can be crafted to fit your unique healing goals, facilitating a holistic process of body-mind-soul and nature connection.
To see if Nature-Based or Wilderness Therapy or coaching is right for you, schedule a free 20-minute consultation.
Take a Wilderness Therapy Training with the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute
In addition to working directly with clients, we offer Nature Therapy Trainings to fellow therapists, coaches, educators, and other helping professionals who are in search of guidance to safely and ethically integrate nature-based practices into their work.
Read more about our Nature Therapy and Ecotherapy trainings for helping professionals.