Wild Alchemy, Somatic Nature-Based Therapy

05/09/2025

05/08/2025

Get this book! Stacy Schaffer just published her new book “With Love From a Children’s Therapist” and it is hands down one of the best books I have ever read in the therapy world. It should be read by anyone who works with or ever interacts with kids and teens, anyone who is a therapist, or anyone who is interested in taking their own healing journey one more step. In other words: everyone. Stacy interweaves her own story along with the stories of clients of hers throughout the years to deliver a captivating, engaging, raw, clear, and deeply true look at our deepest needs, at what every kid wishes the grownups around them knew, and about what it means to take steps along a healing journey.
For all my therapist friends- I cannot tell you how much this book has meant to me. It is the guiding light that my brain is referencing every time I sit with a client now. So many nuggets of truth and powerful stories.
Get yourself a copy and prepare to cry, to laugh, and to be changed for the better.

09/13/2024

In my work as a somatic nature-based therapist I often work with emotions that clients are feeling. Emotions are literally energy that shows up in our body that are designed to motivate an action. They tell us about what we want, something that our body wants us to do.
Our emotions are known in our body, not through our mind. Your mind, your complex brain that is conscious of social interactions, is really good at telling you how you ‘should’ be feeling based on conditioning, on how you were raised, on the cues you are picking up from the culture around you. But the truth of what you are feeling resonates deep in your body.

09/03/2024

Our connection with the More than Human world can help to ground us in this moment in time, in this space we are in. This can include our connection to a particular tree that we have walked under, or an animal that we have come into contact with. When I pause to notice all of the life around me I come back to a right perspective on my place in the web of life and my own connection to everything. The problems and emotions that felt insurmountable and overwhelming a moment ago begin to feel manageable again. I can feel my own power, resilience and problem solving ability return. This doesn’t mean that the problems go away, but my collapse into powerlessness and overwhelm begins to shift. I feel profoundly different in my body. This is the work that I get to do with clients as they shift out of stuck places and move towards their own sense of thriving.
What life do you notice around you today?
*pictures taken on a bike ride yesterday.

08/30/2024

Intention. Not purely reacting to the chaos of what is coming at you, but living in inner alignment, following your inner voice, listening for your own deeper wisdom- the wisdom of your body.
In my therapy practice I have created spaces for intentional listening. After a session clients are invited to pause before they head out into their busy lives, and take a moment to intentionally mark the threshold of the session they are leaving, to listen for what they heard in themselves during therapy, for what they want to take with them and work to integrate into their daily life. Sometimes this comes to them in a word or a phrase, sometimes it’s a feeling deep within their body. They can choose an object to leave on the altar as a way of marking this threshold. This simple, physical practice is a touchstone that helps us remember to live with intention.

08/21/2024

We all know people in this world that we sit in awe of. We watch how they are living their lives and know they are fully present, living their own life, not the life someone else imagined for them, the life they were told they 'should' be living. But it is a journey to get to that place of presence, of following your own inner voice. Listening for your own inner voice requires the courage to slow down, pause, and be willing to sit with the hard and uncomfortable that you find there as well as the beautiful. It's a hard journey, but one that doesn't have to be made alone. This is the work I get to do every day, partnering with people on a journey home to themselves.

08/14/2024

Mindfulness: being present with what is. Allowing ourselves to truly notice, with acceptance, what is present in this moment in time, even if what you notice is uncomfortable or unpleasant.

08/08/2024

Welcome! I believe our sense of well being and belonging begins within ourselves and is solidified in our connection to the people and the natural world around us. It is not in what we do, but in pausing, noticing, slowing down, and being. It doesn't have to take long. Have you walked outside today? Pause for a moment. Notice the sounds around you, the smells, the temperature, the light. Let your eyes rest on whatever they are drawn to. This is the practice of being present in our lives and always helps me to feel more grounded and alive in this moment in time.