Healing With Nature: An Immersive Wilderness Therapy Workshop

This retreat is open to all helping professionals (therapists, teachers, coaches, medical providers, SLPs, OTs, RNs, psychiatrists, etc.) who are interested in learning and experiencing how nature-based therapeutic interventions can help restore and heal our clients and ourselves. Through psychoeducation, small group activities, large group activities, and experiential activities in nature, participants will gain an understanding of the foundations of wilderness therapy and be able to include nature-based interventions in outpatient practice. Topics covered will include the most current research on neuroscience and the benefits of nature immersion for our brains and bodies; the philosophy and theory behind wilderness and eco therapies; language and terms used; how to assess clients for nature-based therapy; how to choose wilderness therapy locations; liability and insurance coverage; group curriculum; and specific nature-based interventions for individuals, families, and groups; treating ecological grief and climate anxiety; and “hot topics” in wilderness and eco therapy.

About Your Retreat Leader: Andrea “Snowy” Lajoie, LCSW-R, KMOG (she/her) was born and raised in rural upstate New York, on the ancestral and occupied lands of the Gana’dagwëni:io’geh. She received a B.A. in Philosophy for Children from SUNY Plattsburgh before earning her MSW from Wheelock College at Boston University in 2010. Snowy spent the next few years in western Massachusetts in clinical practice and as an adjunct professor. In 2014, Snowy moved back to upstate New York and found a home in the finger lakes on the ancestral and occupied lands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫʼ and the Hodinǫhsǫ́:nih. She is licensed as an LCSW-R in New York and as a Certified Kripalu Mindful Outdoor Guide (KMOG). Snowy is also a Level III trained AEDP therapist. Snowy has an outpatient mental health practice in Ithaca, NY that includes traditional office-based therapy for folks of all ages and also clinical supervision for mental health professionals. In 2020, Snowy founded Wolf Tree Wilderness Therapy and has been leading individuals, families, and groups into the more-than-human world since. Snowy is an unlikely hiker, who celebrates diversity in all forms and encourages folks with different abilities, different shapes and sizes, different backgrounds, and who are underrepresented and marginalized, to find a safe home in the wilderness. She is a queer, white, cis-female, tattooed, spinal fusion warrior who loves spending her free time knitting, playing music, or taking pictures of her two cats. On most days you will find her roaming around the Finger Lakes National Forest or mapping out invasive species on local trails. Despite not having the greenest of thumbs, Snowy is proud of her herb garden (and, if you join in one of her wilderness groups, you will be treated to a cup of homegrown herbal tea). For more information about Snowy, visit www.wolftreewildernesstherapy.com

Meals: All meals are included and are vegetarian.

Cost: On-campus, single room package is $550 On-campus, shared room package is $500 Commuter package is $450

To Register: visit https://www.wolftreewildernesstherapy.com/workshop