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Nature Informed Therapy Training: Integrating Nature Into Your Clinical Practice. Live 3-day Program
A Premiere Training Course
Spring 2022 Dates: April 5,6,7
For individuals who want to integrate nature and mental health, includes 19.5 CEU Credits for professional counselors
Center for Nature Informed Therapy is seeking to offer continuing education credit.
CNIT (www.natureinformedtherapy.com) is the conditionally approved CE provider and the entity offering the course. To become a certified Nature Informed Therapist, students must attend the 3-day live course and the 3-month online mentoring program.
About the 3 day in person Training
Participants will receive an overview of significant research findings, learn how to assess a client for nature informed therapy, choose appropriate therapy locations, discover suitable therapeutic approaches, and practical elements to get you and your clients into the natural world.
Participants will receive a Starter Kit to launch your own nature informed therapy practice. The kit will include:
- Informed consent for NIT
- Sample Outdoor Waiver
- Intake Form that includes ecological assessments
- Important gear list
- Safety checklist
- Sample statement/reading that speaks to ethical land use and acknowledges decolonization efforts
- Code of Outdoor Therapy Ethics
- A booklet with nature informed interventions, exercises, and activities
We offer the interest-free installment payment option. Please email billings@cmhcweb.com to set up the installment option.
$100 of the charge is non-refundable, in order to reserve your spot with the venue.
About the 3 month online Mentorship
A virtual, one-on-one meeting with a mentor for consultation purposes, once per month. A virtual meeting with a small group to discuss nature informed practice and application of content and goals, once per month. The Online piece will also consist of training videos, select reading materials and consequent assignments.
For those seeking Certification in Nature Informed Therapy: To become a certified Nature Informed Therapist, students must attend the 3-day live course and the 3-month online mentoring program. Certification is provided by the Center for Nature Informed Therapy and includes membership into our nationwide directory of nature informed therapists.
*To become a certified nature informed therapist with CNIT both the 3 day training and 3 month mentorship are required. For our spring 2022 training, small groups will be held virtually: May 6, June 3 and July 1 from 9am-10:30am. You must attend all small groups to receive the full NIT certification.
Program Details
Program Instructors
Dr. Heidi Schreiber-Pan
Heidi Schreiber-Pan, Ph.D., LCPC, NCC is a successful psychotherapist, author, clinical director and sought-after nationwide speaker on topics of resilience, anxiety, neuroscience, and occupational burnout. As an affiliate and former faculty member of Loyola University, Maryland, her past research has focused on resiliency, psychological well-being, and nature-based mental health.
Dr. Schreiber-Pan has developed unique continuing education courses that combine established clinical methods such as CBT with innovative treatment approaches including nature-based psychotherapy and neuro-counseling.
Her largest research project investigated the role of nature on mental health and spirituality.
She is the author of Taming the Anxious Mind: A guidebook to relieve stress and anxiety.
In 2021 Dr. Heidi became a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School
Zoe Jack
Zoe Jack is a licensed psychotherapist at Chesapeake Mental Health Collaborative where she specializes in nature informed and client centered work with children, adolescents, and adults. As a former wilderness therapy field guide in Utah and a behavior interventionist at a trauma informed school in Vermont, Zoe incorporates the teachings of the natural world into her treatment approach with individuals and groups.In 2017, Zoe had the opportunity to thru hike the 2,190 mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, solidifying her therapeutic philosophy that connection and presence lead to meaningful healing and growth. Zoe holds her Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland and currently serves as the advisor to CMHC's Center for Nature Informed Therapy.
Phillip McKnight
Phillip has experience teaching a wide variety of ages, backgrounds, and abilities and uses his MA in Instructional Systems Design to determine the needs of the participant and help them develop skills in mindfulness meditation with tools for body, heart, mind, and community. Trained in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, Phillip will help design and facilitate course implementation. In addition, Phillip brings with him fifteen years of environmental leadership where he has acted as a naturalist, educator, community advocate, and guide for groups such as The Audubon Society and Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Bradford Drewniak
Bradford Drewniak, M.A, LCPC is a licensed psychotherapist at Chesapeake Mental Health Collaborative and the Center for Nature Informed Therapy. Bradford specializes in nature-informed therapy while also integrating elements of mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy (MB-CBT), client-centered therapy, reality therapy, and gestalt approaches in his work with adult clients. Bradford is passionate about training other clinicians and making nature-informed therapy a more accessible and widespread form of treatment.
Prior to his current role as an advisor to the Center for Nature Informed Therapy (CNIT), as an avid outdoorsman, Bradford founded an outdoor recreation group responsible for organizing 100+ backpacking trips and day hikes in the Baltimore/Washington region. Previously, Bradford served as an REI classroom instructor, researcher under the UMB School of Psychiatry, and psychotherapist in a community mental health setting. Bradford also draws from prior training from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).
Course Objectives
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Working knowledge of current research in the field of nature informed therapy
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Assess specific populations, diagnoses, and treatments goals
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Assess clients fit for nature informed therapy
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Evaluate appropriate locations and gears.
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Administer an Ecological Wellness Checkup
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Describe Dr. Schreiber-Pan’s Ecological Model of Psychological Well-being
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Apply suitable therapeutic approaches
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Apply activities that use Metaphor, Ritual, and Ceremony
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Use nature-based interventions that inform treatment goals
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And many more...
Who Should Attend
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Psychologists
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Counselors
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Social Workers
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Life Coaches
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Wilderness professionals
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Practitioners in the wellness and nature fields.
Prerequiste
1. Write your own nature autobiography
2. Assigned readings / film
3. A Mental Health First Aid course is required for all non-mental health practitioners.
3 Month online mentorship program
Small group mentorship to maximize learning includes:
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A virtual meeting with a small group to discuss nature informed practice and application of content and goals, once per month.
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In addition to the mentorship elements, the 3-month, online nature informed therapy training program and certification through the Center of Nature Informed Therapy will include a self-directed learning module. This module will consist of training videos, select reading materials and consequent assignments. You will receive all materials for this module at the end of the intensive. Those materials are delivered asynchronously where participants can learn on their own schedule (self-paced learning).
By the end of the Nature Informed Therapy Training three day intensive, participants will be able to:
1. Summarize current research in the field of nature informed mental health
2. Assess specific populations, diagnoses, and treatment goals (loneliness, grief, etc.) that are well suited for nature informed therapy
3. Assess client's fit for nature informed therapy, including understanding how a client's nature autobiography and genealogy influence their relationship to nature
4. Evaluate appropriate locations for nature informed therapy and how to prepare for sessions, including safety considerations, appropriate gear, etc.
5. Administer an Ecological History Assessment and Ecological Wellness Evaluation for a new or existing client
6. Apply suitable nature informed therapeutic approaches and interventions based on a client's treatment goals
7. Perform an effective risk assessment of outdoor environments
8. Integrate ethical and legal considerations specific to nature informed work into the practice of nature informed therapy
11. Apply activities that use metaphor, ritual, and ceremony
13. Describe how considerations of race, culture, ethnicity and gender influence a client's relationship to nature and how a therapist uses this understanding to inform appropriate nature informed therapy interventions
15. Understand how Attachment Theory & Inter(personal) Neurobiology are ways of calming the nervous system and encouraging nature bonding
WHAT OUR PARTICIPANTS SAY
“Hands down, the best, most inspiring, training I have attended in my 25 years as a social worker. I am, today, the very next day impactfully using the strategies and concepts that I learned in this training to help my clients. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”