Ecotherapeutic Mentoring Sessions

Now Scheduling Ecotherapeutic Mentoring Sessions on the Farm

Who are Ecotherapeutic Mentoring Sessions intended for?

Ecotherapeutic mentoring sessions are for children ages 6+, adolescents, young adults (ages 18-30), and women and gender expansive/non-binary/trans-identifying individuals of all ages. These sessions are intended to support those who may be:

-Looking for a nature-connected experience to support healing

-Navigating grief or loss, including ecogrief (to learn more about ecogrief, click HERE)

-Struggling with forming meaningful social connections and relationships with others

-Seeking ways to navigate daily life with greater peace as someone with a gift of high sensitivity and attunement to the world’s suffering, pain, and dis-ease

-Navigating the important questions of “Who am I?,” “Why am I here?,” “What is my purpose/place in the world?”

-Seeking to grow emotional regulation and coping skills and decrease stress

-In inquiry related to one’s own gifts and the delivery of these gifts in relationship, work, vocation, etc.

-Wanting to develop a mindfulness practice

-Desiring to deepen relationship and/or spiritual connection with the natural world

-Seeking healthier balance in relation to social media, electronics usage, etc.

-Seeking a soul-centered approach to healing and wellness

-Looking to integrate nature-based ritual and ceremony into the healing process

-Overall, seeking to resource one’s own healing journey through meaningful ecotherapeutic experiences

If you have any questions, you can reach Shae at shae@faunaforestfarm.org

Shae is an ecotherapeutic guide and counselor who holds a Masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and a graduate certificate in Ecopsychology. She has a passion for the revitalization of the human relationship with the natural world, and the integration of relationship with plants, animals, wild landscape, and authentic community in the therapeutic process. She is particularly inspired by the meaningful impact not only the land, but also the animals, have on people and loves partnering with them in educational and therapeutic processes.

Shae is committed to contributing to the cultural movement of reconnecting self and community with nature. She understands a healthy relationship with the natural world to be foundational to mental and psychospiritual health and overall wellness. In 2019, Shae co-founded Seedkeepers Forest School, and served as a Co-Director and Instructor from 2019-2022, serving children ages 3-9. Prior to this, Shae worked as a senior field guide in the field of wilderness therapy, working with children and adolescents, and supported the launch of Emerald Arrow, a wilderness therapy program for young adults ages 18-30. Following this, Shae developed and led trainings for wilderness therapy field guides with Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness, where she worked as Program Developer. Shae now serves as Co-Director of the Earth School at Fauna Forest Farm, as well an adjunct professor in ETSU’s Nature-Based Therapy graduate certificate program.

She has long had a love of supporting children and adults on their journey of remembering their roots in the earth, and deepening relationship with the natural world. With an undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies and having completed her thesis on women’s healing processes following trauma, she has particular experience supporting girls and young women upon the healing paths in which they feel called. She is also passionate about supporting girls and women in gaining the confidence, knowledge, and skills to embark upon their own journeys into the inner and outer wildernesses that call to them in their lives.

Shae is deeply committed to inclusivity in the counseling and outdoor education fields, and to creating a safe space for all.

During her counseling internship, Shae was grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the Journey Center for Healing Arts in Johnson City. Shae specializes in facilitating nature-based therapeutic experiences. During her graduate program, she was given the opportunity to co-found a Nature-Based Therapy graduate certificate, along with colleague Dr. Bethany Novotny. She continues to pursue a vision of making nature-based therapeutics and nature-connection experiences accessible to all in East Tennessee.

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Credentials:

Adjunct Professor, ETSU Nature-Based Therapy Graduate Certificate, 2023

M.A., Clinical Mental Health Counseling: 2019-Spring 2022

Co-Designer & Curriculum Development, Nature-Based Therapy Certificate at ETSU, Spring 2021

Lead Trainer & Program Development, Emerald Arrow, wilderness therapy program, 2021-present

Intern Adolescent & Young Adult Therapist with Journey Center for the Healing Arts, Fall 2019-Summer 2020

Ecopsychology Graduate Certificate, Pacifica University: Spring 2019

Senior Field Guide, working with children, adolescents, and young adults, Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness, 2016-2019

Yoga Instructor, Asheville Yoga Center, 2012

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Session Fees

An ecotherapeutic session fee is $100 per session, and sessions are 50 minutes long. A very limited number of sessions are offered below this rate. Please reach out with any further questions.

For 50-minute personalized small group ecotherapy sessions or ecotherapy training, it is $120 for the session, and the cost can be shared among the participants.

If interested in personalized training, individually or in a personalized group, in the field of ecotherapy, wilderness guiding, or nature-connection, please reach out to me directly to learn more at: ecosessions@faunaforestfarm.org

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Want to learn more about Ecotherapy?

Resources:

“Recovering with Nature”: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7758313/

“Ecotherapy/Nature Therapy”: https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/econature-therapy

Interview with Ecotherapist and professor, Linda Buzzell: https://www.pacificapost.com/ecotherapy-nature-reconnection-as-a-powerful-transformational-healing-practice-a-short-interview-with-linda-buzzell

What are Ecotherapeutic Mentoring Sessions?

Ecotherapy is rooted in an eco-psychological framework. Foundational to this framework is the understanding that our human wellness is inextricably tied with the wellness of the planet— that an individual’s healing and the healing of the earth are inseparable. Rather than a traditional seated session inside an office building, my clients and I work together outdoors, inviting the natural world into the therapeutic process in a multiplicity of ways.

As explained by Philip Tedeschi, LCSW, an animal-assisted psychotherapist and professor, at the heart of the therapeutic process is the understanding that “…health is optimized in contact with other healthy living systems.” Thus, in ecotherapeutic sessions, I am focused on supporting the client’s healing process through creating opportunities for deepening relationship with healthy living systems in the natural world.

Oftentimes, navigating loneliness, emotional pain or distress, anxiety, depression, etc. all impact a person’s felt sense of connection. Thus, in an ecotherapeutic session, I work with clients to identify and track the kinds of nature-connection experiences that emotionally and pschospiritually resource that person.

My approach when working with people is experiential. I believe that healing takes place more profoundly when the whole self is engaged— intellectually, psychospiritually, and physically, engaging the senses through smell, sound, taste, touch, and feeling which the outdoors offers in so many ways.

The following are examples of nature-connected experiences that may be integrated in an ecotherapeutic session: nature-based expressive arts, sit spots, tending animals, planting seeds, bird watching, harvesting food, therapeutic forest walks, exploring plant life, poetry, journaling, starting and tending a fire, therapeutic storytelling, nature-based mindfulness practices, emotionally regulating nature-based rituals, crafting with herbs, practicing primitive skills, etc.

At the heart of my therapeutic orientation is the belief that every person has the capacity for wellness and carries within them an invisible intuitive thread that will guide the healing journey if trusted and followed. Together, we work to track the inclinations and directives of this thread: for some, it is a whisper of curiosity related to growing food— for others, it is an affection for birds or insects or flowers. For another, it may be a remembering of a childhood love of crafting fairy houses. For a child, it may be the emotional regulation that comes from putting their feet in the water and watching the aquatic life. These inclinations of the heart offer powerful guidance as I walk alongside individuals and support in their journey.

If you are interested in exploring ecotherapeutic sessions further, please register your interest, and I will be in touch when they begin.