Portland Hiking Therapy

New Class Offering: I am looking forward to teaching this experiential class with Portland Underground Grad School in April and you are invited to join us. Nature as Medicine is all about exploring your relationship with nature as a way to reduce stress, regulate the nervous system, and connect with something larger. For most of human history, we lived within tightly knit natural ecosystems, sustained by the rhythms of nature. We were closely attuned to our environments—the air, water, land, plants, and animals—and we existed in reciprocity with the living world around us.

Today, most of us live largely disconnected from nature, and we feel it. On a psychological level (the focus of this course), this disconnection shows up as stress, anxiety, chronic overstimulation, and a diminished sense of identity and belonging. On a systemic level, it has contributed to the commodification of the natural world and the climate crisis we now face.

This course is an experiential journey into the relationship between the natural world and the human mind. Drawing on ecotherapy and environmental psychology, we'll explore what it means to have a nature-based identity, and how reclaiming that identity can transform your well-being.

Through guided reflections and embodied practices, held both indoors and outdoors, you'll discover how time in nature supports resilience, reduces stress, and opens space for creative renewal. This course is ideal for anyone who loves spending time outdoors, is drawn to psychology and well-being, or is simply curious about how nature can support their mental and emotional health. Come open to sharing your thoughts and experiences and ready to step outside.

PUGS — Nature as Medicine (April 2026) How to Reduce Stress, Calm Your Nervous System, and Reconnect to Something Larger by Deepening Your Relationship to the Outside World

Announcing: A winter community therapy group to support connection, energy, and mood. Winters in Oregon are especially dreary, and it’s common for the dark, short, rainy days to impact our energy, social connectedness, and mood. Join us as we gather weekly in community and solidarity, online during the lunch hour- bring your food! We will check in, learn about behavior activation to support mood and energy levels, and navigate the rainy winter months alongside one another.

Grateful to have my latest blog post shared by Psychology Today, where I reflect on how bringing sessions out of the office and to the trail impacts the therapy practice. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Walk-and-Talk Ecotherapy Sessions Could Change Your Practice Taking therapy sessions outdoors offers unexpected benefits. Learn how walking ecotherapy sessions may benefit your work.

I'm happy to share my first Psychology Today blog post! Check it out here:

Can a Hike Change Your Mental State? Research Says Yes Hiking through the forests provides different mental health benefits than moving through mountains or near water. Learn how to hack your hike to support mental health.

The APA just published this great article by Zara Abrams about integrating walk and talk into practice. This is a HUGE win to have the APA's recognition (it's like the equivalent of winning the Superbowl for walk and talk!). The article shares the research behind the value of time in nature on mental health and steps for integration. I was honored to contribute a few thoughts alongside other leaders in the walk and talk field. Check it out- I would love to hear your thoughts!

How to integrate walking therapy into your practice Walk-and-talk therapy can help people feel connected with nature and more comfortable in therapy.

I am honored to share my work in the New York Times today, alongside so many other therapists who are practicing outdoors and expanding therapy in transformational ways! Check it out:

Therapists Trade the Couch for the Great Outdoors (Gift Article) Mental health practitioners are hiking, camping and braving the elements with their clients — all in an effort to help them connect with the Earth, and with themselves.

ATTACHMENT TO PLACE: Environmental Psychologists have studied a phenomenon that we have all experienced, called an “attachment to place”; This is where we develop a trusting, meaningful relationship with a place that may go as deep to bring us a sense of security, pride, self and connection. We can get attached to all types of different places- our home, a childhood park, a treehouse, or a place of cultural relevance.

Our sense of attachment is formed through experiences at that place.

What can an attachment to a place offer to us? A sense of connectedness, and a sense of adventure and exploration, and well-being. We may also develop a “place identity”- where we associate ourselves with social or environmental identities- our ways of making meaning and our beliefs and values all become intertwined with our experiences and connections to a place. Where are your place attachments?