Nature as Guide

We aren’t separate from the natural world. What if our healing wasn’t either?

Shaped by the earth.

Our bodies, our psyches, and our nervous systems are all designed to be in conversation with nature. We respond to the weather, the seasons, to trees, birdsong, and fire! Think of how often we seek out ‘natural’ spaces to find ground. What a beautiful instinct.

In the same way, how could we not be impacted by the struggles of these times? A shifting climate, economic instability, fires, floods, and relentless extraction—these realities leave their mark. What happens to our fellow humans and the wild beings we share this world with echoes through us.

Nature-based therapy locates the individual inside of the greater whole- the ecosystems to which we belong. In our work together, we’ll create space for your inner themes, struggles, and longings to emerge and be witnessed, held, and informed by the land itself.

What’s involved?

A session might be as simple as taking a walk through the park while exploring the themes and challenges that are present for you in the moment.

Or, we may draw on eco-therapy practices to more intentionally engage in dialogue with the natural world.

Using nature awareness, somatic practices, conversation, curiosity, and even ritual, you’ll be supported to deepen your relationship with the more-than-human world.

Who could benefit from a Nature Therapy Session?

People who are looking to:

  • deepen a connection to the natural world

  • include nature in their therapeutic explorations,

  • recentre your self in the wider whole

  • build resilience through broadening your support network to include the plants, animals, elements,

  • learn more about ecology

  • gain support cultivating healthy land-based practices

  • get a break from staring at the screen!

  • have in-real-life conversations

  • learn about eco-therapy

  • develop intuition

  • explore the idea of soul-

  • Explore the idea of animism (the notion that its possible to be in dialogue with other-than-human species

my connections

Many of my own tales of nature-therapy begin by bringing a question, or heartache or excitement out onto the land, and listening for a response. For instance; being met by a pair of coyotes during a particularly hard break-up, or trailing crows through the woods to discover a hawk’s nest. Once, a client and I followed the sound of an owl and got to watch it fall asleep!

But it’s mostly the little things. The way the first spring flowers remind me of resilience, or feeling the groundedness of a large stone, or noticing the subtle shift within me after I’ve shared a truth or a dream with the river.

How can nature therapy help?

Regulated nervous system

Let’s start with the most popular idea. Spending time in nature has physiological, well-researched benefits like stress reduction. It helps reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, and boosts creativity!

Expanded social network

Nature connection is a process of relationship building. One with a very real possibility of becoming moved by, supported by and in dialogue with the many beings of the earth. For me, I’m surprised all the time to watch my relationships deepen and new ones be revealed the more I practice.

Tuning into cycles

For me, becoming aware of the natural cycles on the landscape helps me to accept the ebbs and flow within me. It also helps me feel comfortable with change- and excited to witness beauty over time.

Development of intuition/ inner knowing

Nature is an exceptional practice ground to play with following your intuiton. Be it through body radar,

Belonging

Josh Shrei (the Emerald Podcast) says, ‘animism is normative conciousness’. What he’s referring to is that for most of human history, and still today in many cultures, cosmologies of belonging exist(ed) to remind us of our part in the bigger ecosystem. Being orphaned from this is at the centre of our epidemic of disconnection, and contributed in a big way to our mental health.

Resilience

Not as a form of hardening, or pushing through, but rather

Logistics

Sessions are 75 mins.

I offer a sliding scale of 120-150/ session

We’ll meet in a West end Toronto park, accessible by public transit.