The Power of Nature Therapy
December 29, 2024 No Comments
What Is Nature Therapy? Nature therapy, or using nature’s inherent goodness to support your change process, feels intuitive to many Pacific Northwesterners. We’re drawn to
I’m so glad you’re here. Dr. Brené Brown, a renowned researcher of emotions, said “Life is a search for belonging and connection.” So true, and often, so hard to attain. Instead, we find ourselves in situations and relationships that feel out of sync and, no matter how hard we try, we can’t see a clear path to feeling better. It can feel scary to hope, but after working with thousands of people and relationships, I can assure you, it is possible to have a different experience.
Science tells us that to create lasting change, it is essential to feel safe, present, and embodied in your therapy experience. Nature inherently helps us feel those things, so we built our nature-based practice to incorporate as much nature as possible, while also providing all the indoor sensory comforts you could want. Yes, fellow neurodivergent peeps, this is for you :)
You are warmly invited to show up as you are, take a deep breath of fresh air, and settle in under a weighted blanket and talk, or not, with someone who gets you.
My acronyms mean that I have graduate degrees in business and Marriage and Family Therapy, which is a specialized program focused on working with couples and families.
A couple things you’ll likely notice about me are that I’m tall, tattooed, feminine, and have warm energy. Other, more internal elements of my identity may surprise you, such as my autism and ADHD. Relationally, I am lucky to know what secure attachment feels like, but am also well-acquainted with wrestling with parts of myself.
Some of my special interests include science facts, DnD, tattoos, therapy, neurodivergence, gentle parenting and, of course, yurts. I also love listening, learning, and connecting the dots to see a pattern emerge. Lastly, I am deeply honored and humbled by the trust folks place in me when they come to counseling and walk around inside themselves.
Our unique therapy spaces in Gig Harbor and Fox Island combine the best of coziness and nature. Both locations offer sweeping views of nature and the water. Our Gig Harbor home offers paddlboarding, specialized rooms for play therapy, running on lawns and sitting on a couch sipping tea. The Fox Island therapy yurt is a homey circular structure that feels far, far away from the bustle of life. The yurt soars to a domed skylight, flooded with natural light. Every detail has been designed with your sensory experience in mind. Trust us, once you try it, you will wonder how you ever went without it.
We all have parts of ourselves that we don’t understand or enjoy. Similarly, past events and relationships can shape how our nervous systems respond to present day experiences, which isn’t always adaptive. We’ll work with your mind, body, and emotions, at your pace, to move from discomfort to harmony. For neurodivergent folks, this is a safe space to discover your unique wiring and way of being. We practice using Internal Family Systems therapy and other somatic methodologies.
We all want to connect and belong, to turn to our partners for comfort, care, and shared joy. Unfortunately, life is busy, patterns get established without us realizing it, and before we know it, we don’t recognize ourselves or our relationships. Our Gig Harbor marriage counseling and relationship therapy sessions help couples communicate in a different way-from their hearts, not their protections.
There is beauty in the unexpected…until the chaos becomes more than we can comfortably hold. Parenting style conflicts, neurodiversity, sibling dynamics, sociocultural expectations, lack of time, support and resources…it’s all very real. Family counseling will help you move together, from chaos to compassionate, regulated, relating using Emotionally-Focused Therapy, AutPlay, sand tray, play therapy and more.
Often times, people seek out counseling and therapy as a way to alleviate the pain they are feeling, believing that “absence of pain” is the best they can hope for. I respectfully disagree. I believe we are all capable of living a present, embodied, connected, life filled with moments of startling joy and breathtaking awe. This is my goal for you, for me, for all of us… a life grounded in wellbeing in beautiful Gig Harbor.
Learn to detect when you are getting activated and leaving your window of tolerance (e.g., losing control, having a panic attack, acting aggressively, etc.). Develop a toolbox of ways to calm yourself down and return to a feeling of safety and connection.
Become aware of your patterns of interaction, noticing how you get activated, the stories you tell yourself unconsciously, and the pain you’re protecting yourself from. From there, we learn to do it differently.
Get to know your internal world, including the parts of you that protect you from feeling pain, the core “you”, and ultimately embrace and heal the younger, aching, versions of yourself.
Learning to be with self and others in a new way brings a feeling of control, safety and lightness to everyday life. Symptoms decrease as protections are no longer needed and memories are not as charged.
What Is Nature Therapy? Nature therapy, or using nature’s inherent goodness to support your change process, feels intuitive to many Pacific Northwesterners. We’re drawn to
A few years ago, I had the honor of giving a keynote address to the incoming MBA class at my first graduate alma mater, UC
