Recently, in an ecotherapy session, I invited a nervous client to go within and sense what animal or ecological energy might support her during an upcoming and difficult family conversation. She closed her eyes, took a few slow breaths, and waited for something instinctive to rise.
After a moment, her body began moving in a wave-like motion. Her posture grew taller. Her spine softened and became more fluid. With eyes still closed, she continued this subtle undulation and then said: “I’m not sure why, but my spine is growing a tail, and I’m becoming a dragon.”

She felt confused by the imagery. Yet this made perfect sense to me.

🐉 Awakening Our Dragon Layer
Dragons are powerful symbolic beings connected to the hara or womb energy center. They govern this core hara layer of our energetic self and unfortunately are rarely activated in our human development process. Dragons are associated with creativity, initiation, transformation, and embodied truth — qualities my client had been longing to step into, especially in relation to her family.

Before I shared anything about dragon symbolism or evolutionary memory, I invited my client to breathe into this lower energy center in a way that felt coherent with dragon energy. She instinctively knew what this meant. Through her breath and imagery, she activated this dragon quality within her. Afterward, she practiced what she wanted to say to her family and how she wanted to express it. Her voice, confidence, and overall presence were noticeably different.

In those few minutes of inhabiting dragon, something awakened in her. Since then, we’ve continued to deepen this energy and integrate it with the intelligence of her heart. Dragon without heart can become forceful. Heart without dragon can become overly accommodating. Together, they create balanced, embodied power.

Eco-Somatic experiences like this are becoming increasingly common as I integrate eco-somatic experiments into my ecotherapy sessions. Clients have inhabited eco-ancestors such as:

• Wolf
• Jaguar
• Panther
• Heron
• Mother Tree

Through these ecological memory encounters, they awaken dormant natural energies and discover new and ancient ways to meet life’s challenges - guided by animals and other eco-ancestors.

​Ecotherapy sets itself apart from psychodynamic approaches in several significant ways. One of the primary distinctions is its focus on the expansive perspective of what it means to be human--Homo sapiens—over time and space. The cosmology of Ecotherapy is rooted in concepts of deep time, deep connection, deep ecology, and a profound trust in the intelligence inherent in nature, the world, and the universe. While such a perspective might initially seem distant from the immediate needs of a client facing personal trauma, it is crucial to remember and ground ourselves in those layers of being that remain untouched by wounds.
​
Embracing Ecotherapy as a cosmology involves attuning to and actively participating in meaningful and sacred seasonal events. At this point in the cycle of the year, we encounter the Autumn Equinox—a celestial event that significantly influences both our biology and psychology.

​The word "Equinox" translates to "equal night," describing the period when the sun appears to rise and set in nearly the same place for several consecutive days. This phenomenon occurs because the Earth's orbit and axial tilt position the sun directly above the equator, creating an equal division between the planet's light and dark halves. Notably, equinoxes are not unique to Earth; every planet in our solar system experiences them (as noted by National Geographic). After September 21st, nights become longer than days until the arrival of the Spring Equinox.

The Equinox marks a transition toward winter, increased darkness, and greater opportunities for rest, retreat, reflection, and regeneration. For many, this moment passes unnoticed amidst artificial lighting, indoor lifestyles, and a relentless pace that prioritizes productivity. Its significance has faded for much of modern society, and sometimes, discussions around these themes are met with skepticism. Nevertheless, these topics remain central in ecotherapy sessions, where inquiries about seasonal cycles, cosmological events, intuition, and clients' spiritual or religious orientations are not impositions but invitations to deeper reflection.
​
When given space in ecotherapy to consider their evolutionary and long-term human selves, clients often notice internal and external changes. They become aware of shifting urges, impulses, behaviors, and perceptions throughout the year—an acknowledgment frequently neglected or dismissed by mainstream society.

​Beyond recognizing important seasonal events, a Bio-Mantic cosmology in Ecotherapy incorporates transformative elements that have been part of healing traditions throughout human history. This framework may include ritual, circadian and circannual practices, deep nature attunement, prayer, sound, movement, shapeshifting, soul work, eco-somatics, and ceremony. The term "Bio-mantic" translates to "life-magic," (Azra Bertrand) referring to the inherent magic of our biology’s interdependence with Earth and the expanse of deep time. This is not about ideology; it is about biology. For example, simply increasing sunlight exposure can have profound transformative effects on our physiological and spiritual systems.
​
Our ancestors, regardless of origin, honored and synchronized their lives with nature’s cycles and transitions. They understood that our biology operates on circadian and circannual rhythms, and that aligning with these organic cycles brings harmony to cellular and hormonal processes while awakening our energetic and bio-magical fields. By consciously attuning to the natural flow of intelligence and creation, we do more than regulate—we regenerate.

From the standpoint of conventional, evidence-based therapy, such ideas may be dismissed as "Woo." In a society dominated by mechanistic and reductionist thinking, integrating poetry or prayer into practice can feel challenging. Yet, the healing professions are experiencing a paradigm shift, inviting exploration of broader perspectives. Psychological and even somatic therapies have their roots in the bio-medical model—a framework that often overlooks soul work and mythological thinking, even though these traditions long predate modern psychotherapy. These ancient perspectives are now re-emerging. It is anticipated that in the coming years, what is now considered "Woo" will be recognized as true. There is no need to wait for this acceptance to begin integrating these elements now.

​During autumn, plants draw their vitality from fruit back into their roots. Our biological processes mirror this descent. Fall is a season for acknowledging our year’s harvest and deepening into lower energy centers and gentler rhythms. For therapists and change-makers, this is an opportune time to expand practice from a purely scientific theory toward a more holistic, Bio-mantic (Life-Magic) Ecotherapy cosmology.
Considerations for practice include:

• How do you currently incorporate ancient transformation practices into client work?
• Which of these elements can you begin integrating this fall?
• What hesitations or concerns might arise when introducing prayer, sunlight, lunar cycles, animals, or ceremony into therapy?

​Engaging in these practices may feel unconventional in the context of traditional therapy training. It requires dialogue, collaboration, and courage to implement approaches that fall outside established norms. However, recognizing that change is the only constant allows for greater acceptance and grace in navigating the discomforts associated with conscious, beneficial transformation.

Autumn Blessings,
​Kimberly 

The Wheel of the Year is a visual calendar of nature’s cycles, seasons, and time. Many nature-based spiritual practitioners observe the eight celebrations or sabbats represented on the Wheel.

These eight points include:

• Four solar festivals: the equinoxes and solstices, which mark key turning points in the sun’s journey.
• Four cross-quarter sabbats: midpoints between seasons that hold deep significance in many traditions.
  
  

Following the sun’s cycle—from growth to retreat—is as ancient as humanity itself, with diverse cultures worldwide honoring seasonal shifts through rituals, ceremonies, and festivals. These sacred times predate modern Judeo-Christian holidays and serve as portals for connecting with the energies of the Sun, Earth, and our own bodies.

But here’s the truth: You don’t need to follow any specific spiritual or religious tradition to work with the Wheel of the Year.
If you:

✔️ Experience shifts in energy at different times of the year
✔️ Notice changes in your body or emotions with the seasons
✔️ Adapt your clothing, food, or lifestyle based on the time of year

Then--consciously or not—you are already moving with the Wheel.

Using the Wheel in Ecotherapy

Our biology is deeply influenced by solar and lunar cycles. Some people feel this on a spiritual level, while others resonate with it physiologically or philosophically. As an ecotherapist, I integrate this awareness into my work in a way that is both biological and metaphorical, allowing clients to see themselves as part of a greater cycle.

A Client Story: Reclaiming the Body Through Nature’s Cycles

Sam, a 16-year-old, queer-identifying client, has been working with me for two years. While they have a strong sense of self-esteem and social identity, they struggle with anxiety and physical discomfort due to puberty and a congenital condition. These bodily changes weigh heavily on them, leading to feelings of isolation and disconnection from their own body.

In one of our outdoor therapy sessions, I led Sam into the forest near my office. We found a quiet clearing, and I invited them to gather sticks to form a circle on the forest floor, marking the eight directions of the Wheel. As we walked the perimeter of the circle, we discussed each direction’s corresponding season, time of day, element, human life stage, and energetic quality.

For example: South represents summer, midday, fire, adolescence, and the energies of activity, growth, and change—all themes that resonated with Sam’s current stage of life.

After introducing the big-picture framework, I invited Sam to walk the Wheel again—this time mapping it to their personal life journey. They started in the Northeast, which symbolizes the in-utero stage before birth. This was a significant moment in Sam’s history, as their mother experienced verbal and physical threats during pregnancy, causing distress that imprinted in Sam’s early nervous system.

Step by step, we moved through the cycle:
👶 Birth → 👧 Childhood → 🧑 Adolescence → 🌅 Imagining their adult and elder years.

Using imagery, memory, somatic awareness, and developmental insights, we explored how their body, emotions, and sense of identity have evolved over time. Tears, laughter, and deep insights emerged as Sam began to see their body’s changes not as something "wrong," but as part of a natural rhythm.

Most importantly, this practice helped Sam reconnect with self-compassion. Rather than resisting change, they started embracing their body as a living, breathing part of a much larger unfolding story.

Reclaiming Natural Rhythms in a Disconnected World

As an attachment-based therapist, I explore my clients' social and familial influences. As a nature-based therapist, I also consider their biological, seasonal, and energetic patterns.

Our modern world is often out of sync with natural rhythms. We live in a culture that prioritizes comfort, productivity, and instant gratification, making us intolerant of the ebbs and flows of energy inside and around us.

But nature does not operate in a straight line—life is cyclical.

🌊 The tides rise and fall.
🌙 The moon waxes and wanes.
🍂 The trees bloom, shed, and bloom again.

When we lose touch with these regenerative cycles, we struggle with transitions—whether that’s growing up, growing older, experiencing grief, or facing uncertainty. Reconnecting with the Wheel of the Year allows us to ride these currents rather than resist them.

The Wheel as Medicine

Part of my eco-therapeutic work is reminding clients that they are not just connected to nature—they ARE nature.

The Wheel of the Year is not just a symbol; it is a mirror reflecting our ever-changing bodies, emotions, and life experiences.

For Sam, this perspective shifted their relationship with their body—from shame to self-acceptance, from fear to empowerment.
For many others, it provides an existential anchor, offering both a sense of temporality and a deep belonging to the greater cycles of life.

In my work, I rely less on medications and rigid protocols and more on nature’s wisdom as a guide for healing.

Because, to me, the Wheel is medicine.

The field of Ecotherapy (AKA: Nature-based therapy, Walk-N-Talk therapy, Green therapy) is growing significantly across the country. This confirms the spirit of reconnection to nature that both clinicians and clients alike are craving.  With ‘permission’ being granted to ourselves for stepping outside the clinical box, and new research validating how our physiologies, minds, and spirits are designed for ongoing nature exposure and connection, there is a dramatic increase in ecotherapy offerings and trainings nationwide. 

As an ecotherapy practitioner for 15 years, I receive many questions from new and established therapists from all over the country. Below are a few of the most common questions I receive with some of my brief responses. My hope in sharing this is so you can make informed decisions about your learning and professional path. 

What is ecotherapy to me? (Meaning what is my own definition of this practice)
Do I need ecotherapy training? 
Do I need an ecotherapy certification to integrate this into my service options? 
What could I learn from ecotherapy training, and what are the benefits or drawbacks? 
How much does it generally cost to get certified in ecotherapy? 

What is Ecotherapy (AKA: Nature-based therapy)?
While there are some variations on ecotherapy definitions, here is my definition of ecotherapy/nature-based therapy: 

Ecotherapy/Nature-based therapy situates the therapeutic process and therapeutic relationship in and into* natural settings that more accurately reflect the dynamic, interdependent, and complex nature of both. Ecotherapy/Nature-based therapy is an experiential, collaborative, and relational therapy that draws on the presence, wisdom, and spirit of nature as well as the clinician’s theoretical orientation and creativity to support client’s presenting concerns and therapeutic goals.  (K.Rose, 2017)

*Situating ‘in’ signifies location; situating ‘into’ denotes relationship. 

Do I need Ecotherapy training? Do I need an Ecotherapy Certificate?

The quick answer is ‘no’. There is no national, or to my understanding, state-based requirement for practicing psychotherapy in outdoor spaces. (Please check with your own professional governing board for your state and/or license.) You are not required to be certified in Ecotherapy to integrate this into your services. However, there are ethical guidelines within all professions, regulatory bodies, and professional organizations to practice within the scope of your expertise and training. 

Therapists love, find solace, and find restoration in nature. Of course, and thank goodness. Yet sometimes our love of something or someone is not enough. In this case, love is not enough to move client sessions outdoors. To be ethical, safe, creative and thoughtful in nature-based therapy, it is our responsibility to receive some additional training in this modality if we are going to do this long term and/or consistently. Naturally there are circumstances where a training is not necessary. I am speaking to clinicians that want ecotherapy to be a regular part of their operation structure and do not have a background in nature awareness, eco-literacy, ecopsychology theory, and interventions in nature.
 
What could I learn from an Ecotherapy training? 

While I could spend pages answering this question, I will answer from a general perspective (for further questions, please contact me). One response is… it depends on who you are training with and how you are training. There are a variety of ecotherapy training programs or ecotherapy certifications across the country and they offer a diversity of content. Most trainings usually include:

• Some science/research/theory information regarding rationale and benefits of nature-based work or nature exposure
• Pillars or philosophies of what is important (to them) in eco-therapeutic/ecopsychology work
• Attention to some logistics for preparation
• A specific focus such as doing rites of passage work or mindfulness-based ecotherapy work
• Overview of ethics of ecotherapy
• At Colorado Ecotherapy Institute, we include the above and our unique focus is on Ecotherapy through an attachment, Polyvagal, contemplative, and eco-literacy lens. We offer many experiments and interventions
  
  

The format of trainings also varies from program to program. Some are solely pre-recorded and just teach through video; some are solely live and in-person; and some are a hybrid of both. Pre-recorded, non-interactive trainings are less experiential and cost less while hands-on trainings are more experiential, impactful, and tend to cost more.  When I teach botany, I tell my students that ‘botany is a contact sport, so we need to be engaged and touching and interacting with the plants.’ I will say the same here… ecotherapy is a contact sport. It needs our sensory, animal body, relational engagement.😉 

What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of an ecotherapy certificate training?

It is important to me to be competent in my work and to encourage competency in my students. While no practitioner is perfect and we’re all on an ongoing learning journey, I feel more confident and rooted in my ventral state while doing therapy or teaching when I have trained and practiced in a new modality. My client’s neuroception will be able to sense my comfort level when outdoors, and it is important they feel safe with me, consciously and unconsciously. What are your clients picking up from your nervous system when you are guiding them in nature? Knowing your Place, your bioregion, the specific spaces you take clients to, the hazards of each place and their micro-climates… support both clinician and client to feel safe or safer in a location. 
 
Benefits of Ecotherapy Certification Training: 

• Increased competency and confidence in outdoor therapy sessions. This translates to more trust between you and your clients;
• Increased sense of safety and security in your therapy locations;
• Deepened groundedness and presence within you;
• Knowing more interventions and experiments to do with clients in collaboration with place;
• Knowledge of the effects of nature exposure and nature relationship on you and your clients and ability to better track these effects;
• Increased awareness of:
  • You and your clients’ nervous systems 
  • Your multi-dimensional environment
  • Your spontaneous creativity
  • Other species you can know and collaborate with
• Growing support for our own struggles through deeper nature and peer relationships
• Sense of empowerment with increased clinician confidence and eco-literacy training
• Learning of the particular theme of one’s ecotherapy training (ie: rites of passage work; mindfulness, for CEI – attachment, development, & polyvagal…)  
  
  

Any drawbacks of Ecotherapy Certification Training? 
Any drawbacks experienced from ecotherapy training may be directly related to the specific person or organization you train with. It is possible to there is a gap between what you expected and what you experienced, or that the facilitator is not rooted enough in the content and spirit of the work to seem credible. Also, a clinician may desire to do Eco-therapeutic work in a quality way but they choose an on-line, no interaction training. These do not offer substantial knowledge and experience in guiding someone in an outdoor space. They can be a good start for some of the theory and logistics, but the lived, raw work outdoors should be experienced outdoors – and get in your bones.  
One real risk though, is that after an ecotherpy certification training, you may not want to go back into the office again. 😉 

What is the cost of an Ecotherapy Certification Training? 
The answer to this question varies greatly depending on the format of the training (on-line, in-person…) and the length/depth of the training. It can be 10-40 hours on-line, a year-long training on-line, a week-long training in person, or a hybrid of sorts. So much variety and options it is difficult to state the range. In general, trainings run from $200 - $3000. 

What we provide: 
At Colorado Ecotherapy Institute, we pride ourselves on the blend of on-line and in-person, making this accessible to in and out-of-towners. We bring 15-50 years (Kimberly and Duey together) of nature-based, wilderness-based therapy, equine therapy infused with a high-quality attachment, human development, nervous system, and contemplative focus. 
Our ecotherapy certification training consists of: 

• 4 hours of on-line, group sessions; 
• 3 days of in-person, experiential, and theoretical learning; 
• A private consultation with each participant, which can be on-line or in-person;
• Optional for additional hours: A case presentation
• Optional for additional hours: Up to 10 consultation hours
  
  

Participants can earn a certificate for 30-45 hours, depending on what they choose. The base training is 30 hours. After training, participants receive a certificate verifying their attendance and completion. This certificate includes what is required by NBCC and many other governing agencies to receive Continuing Education hours: Name of participant; Name/title of training and themes/topics covered; Number of hours of participation; Dates of participation; Signature of facilitators. 
​
In Conclusion: 
The world needs more competent therapists and more quality, soul-based, contemplative Eco-therapists. Being a therapist willing to step into this path supports people in our communities struggling with attachment and trauma wounds as well as the effects of a culture separating us from our bodies, intuitions, souls, and the earth. If you feel called within your heart to address these wounds and to contribute to healing of people and the planet, listen to your heart. Do some research for the best training path for you, and step into your destiny.  
​