Nature-Based Therapy for Youth, Families & Adults
We specialize in helping youth, families, and adults recover from the impacts of trauma, generational trauma and systemic trauma (including mental health systems). We have experience working with foster, adopted, LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent youth and adults. We offer nature-based groups for adults and caregivers. For providers we offer clinical supervision, consultation and retreats.
What is Ecotherapy?
Ecotherapy is the practice of inviting nature into the therapy session. We welcome all of our emotions that arise from ecological issues and our interactions with nature.
Nature is everywhere: inside of us, on the sidewalk, in the fibers of the couch. Being connected to Nature is being connected to life.
We offer nature-based sessions in East Portland, office sessions in SE Portland and telehealth sessions as needed.
Land Acknowledgement
I live and work on land that is the rightful homeland of the Clackamas, Cowlitz, Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Native People who have always lived here and continue to do so. This land was forcefully taken by the U.S. government and continues to be occupied: it is held and sold as private property inhabited by and profiting settlers. I recognize my role in this settler colonial oppression and work toward unsettling this land.
I also recognize that the field of mental health is inseparably intertwined with white supremacy: justification of racism, genocide, cultural suppression, and cultural erasure. While I make significant efforts to challenge my beliefs, attitudes, and actions, the legacy of these injustices impacts my efforts and continues to harm Native and Indigenous peoples and people of color. Working within a system built on racist ideology means that I use language and diagnoses that are harmful to cultures that do not align with the medical model. There has not been necessary reconciliation for the harm and wrongdoing that has occurred and continues to occur. I continue to work toward improving my ability to provide anti-racist therapy and make ecotherapy accessible to people of color.
I recognize that this acknowledgement is a necessary and imperfect step toward healing relationships ruptured by continued settler colonialism and white supremacist practice and ideology. This statement will continue to change and evolve as I grow in my knowledge and awareness around how to unsettle this land and my relationships.