5 CEUs
Part 1: Saturday, February 19, 2022 | 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Via Zoom
Part 2: Saturday, March 19, 2022 | 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon | On location (Vaccination required)
Overview
Do you have an early memory of a nature connection? Some have shared feeling joyous and free. Others say they’ve experienced curiosity and vitality. Yet most admit losing that connection over the years.
In a time of high stress, loneliness, despair, and endless screen time, we can connect to the natural world for restoration and wellness. Studies show that time in nature can reduce anxiety, depression, attentional difficulties, and loneliness. It can improve creativity, memory, and the immune system while restoring an embodied sense of awe. Learn how to restore and nurture this connection for yourself and support others through present-centered awareness and nature therapy practices.
This workshop will be a lively course for beginners to advanced practitioners. It will start with a 3-hour virtual session with readings, videos, and discussion. One month later, the second 2.5-hours is an in-person, outdoor adventure. We will put what we’ve learned into practice, allowing us to sink into experience and experiment with new concepts. You will learn how mindful time in nature expands our senses and changes our brains. You’ll understand the benefits of slowing down and cultivating a non-judgmental awareness of our internal and external landscapes, and how to bring nature connection and mindfulness into your life and your work.
We will explore how deepening our knowledge of the natural world can combat “species loneliness” and help us live more fully. You’ll hear from various experts, learn about Environmental Justice considerations, and see how allowing curiosity and “wildness” can support self-determination and agency.
In this workshop, participants will:
- Learn about changes in our brain due to toxic stress, trauma, environmental injustice and systemic racism, and nature deficit, as well as how utilizing present-centered, nature-based practices make positive physiological changes to our brains and benefit our mental and physical health.
- Learn about the foundations and intersection of present-centered awareness and nature observation: slowing down, non-judgement, welcoming the whole, opening our senses for connection and curiosity, and shifting from our thinking minds into our feeling, sensing bodies.
- Explore deeper nature therapy concepts–Biophillia, Species-Loneliness, Belonging, Wildness, Nature Deficit Disorder, and Attention Restoration Theory–and how they can apply to clinical work.
Program Leader
Molly Freiberg, LCSW studied at the Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership in 2018 to become a certified Mindful Outdoor Guide. She leads monthly Mindful Nature Walks for the Rensselaer Plateau Alliance, the land trust where she works as the Community Engagement Manager. Molly is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who trained at the Gestalt Training Institute of Philadelphia and is engaged with nature-based therapies, provides training to therapists and counselors about mindfulness in nature, and supervises MSW students. We are not just in relationship with nature–we are part of it, from it, and supported by it. When we remember our reciprocal connection to the living earth and allow our roots to be nourished, we allow our own authenticity to emerge. We can experience embodied liveliness and awe, and can discover new paths for ourselves.
CEUs: 5
Tuition
- $150 full tuition
- $135 GTIP Associate Members
- $110 Students and GTIP Trainees
Location
Saturday, February 19 | Zoom
Saturday, March 19 | West Mount Airy address shared upon registration.
Registration
Maximum 25 registrants
GTIP offers Continuing Education credits to: LSW, LCSW, LPC, LMFT, PSY, GENERIC. Should you be requesting CEUs, please indicate what license you hold and your license number on the registration form.
REGISTER HERE
This session is co-sponsored by Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research for a maximum of 5 credit hours. Bryn Mawr College GSSWSR, as a CSWE accredited School of Social Work, is a pre-approved provider of continuing education for Social Workers in PA and many other states.
GTIP is approved by the Pennsylvania State Board of Psychology to offer 5 hours of continuing education for psychologists. GTIP maintains responsibility for the program. The Pennsylvania State Board of Psychology requires Psychology workshop participants to furnish their license number to receive a certificate of attendance.
If you have any questions, please reach out to our Operations Manager Laura Henrich at laurah@gtip.org