Nature-Based Therapy Certificate Course: Clinical Tools and Best Practices for Bringing Nature into Treatment for Trauma, Anxiety and More

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Faculty

Heidi Schreiber-Pan, PhD, LCPC Related seminars and products

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Heidi Schreiber-Pan, PhD, LCPC, is a successful psychotherapist, author, clinical director and sought-after nationwide speaker on topics of resilience, anxiety, neuroscience, and occupational burnout. As an affiliate and former faculty member of Loyola University, Maryland, her past research has focused on resiliency and psychological well-being, including nature-based mental health.

Dr. Schreiber-Pan has worked with various organizations, schools and corporations to reduce stress on a communal level and to increase structural well-being through training in positive psychology as well as emotional intelligence coaching.

She has developed unique continuing education courses that combine established clinical methods such as CBT with innovative treatment approached including nature-based psychotherapy and neuro-counseling. She is the author of Taming the Anxious Mind: A Guidebook to Relieve Stress and Anxiety.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Heidi Schreiber-Pan is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Nature Informed Therapy and the Owner and Clinical Supervisor at Chesapeake Mental Health Collaborative. She receives royalties as a published author. Additionally, Dr. Schreiber-Pan receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Heidi Schreiber-Pan is a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA) and Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES).

Additional Info

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepepesi.com

Objectives

1. Utilize neuroscience-based strategies to reduce chronic sympathetic activation.
2. Use nature-informed practices to support attachment repair and emotional regulation.
3. Choose awe-based and cognitive defusion tools to reduce anxiety and rumination.
4. Develop trauma-sensitive and culturally inclusive approaches to ecotherapy.
5. Modify nature interventions for clients in indoor, urban, or virtual environments.

Outline

Foundations: The Neurobiology of Stress and the Healing Power of Nature

• Core brain structures involved in stress and emotional dysregulation (amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex)
• Neuroplasticity and the potential for healing across anxiety, trauma, and mood disorders
• How nature supports regulation of the autonomic nervous system (SNS/PNS balance)
• Atachment theory and the nervous system: Early relationships, co-regulation, and how nature fosters safety and connection
• Attention Restoration Theory (ART): Cognitive replenishment through immersive nature experiences
• Scope of practice, risks and limitations
• Practice: Breathwork and somatic grounding using natural elements
• Practice: Techniques to discharge sympathetic arousal in outdoor settings

Clinical Interventions: Apply Nature-Based Strategies Across Diagnoses

• Psycho-evolutionary theory: Why negativity bias and chronic vigilance emerge – and how nature counters them
• Treat trauma, anxiety, and mood disorders with awe, sensory integration, and embodied presence
• Cognitive and emotional regulation through nature-informed reappraisal
• Nature as co-therapist in working with grief, existential distress, identity confusion, and emotional burnout
• Practice: Cognitive defusion and mindfulness using metaphor and imagery from the natural world
• Practice: Experiential tools to reduce emotional rumination and increase resilience

Expand the Frame: Culture, Identity, and Ethical Practice in Nature-Based Work

• Racial and cultural barriers to outdoor healing spaces and land-based practices
• Eco-identity: Explore how one’s background shapes their relationship with nature, safety, and embodiment
• Ethical considerations in practicing outdoors: Consent, power dynamics, cultural humility, and more
• Practice: Cultural Wheel reflection to explore clients’ and clinicians’ connections to land, heritage, and healing
• Reflection: How to incorporate decolonial perspectives in both clinical and personal engagement with nature

Integration: Clinical Cases and Group Dialogue

• Case examples: Apply nature-based interventions across diagnoses and populations (e.g., trauma recovery, attachment disruption, emotional dysregulation
• Discussion: Integrate cognitive, somatic, and ecological tools within existing modalities
• Reflection: What shifts in the therapist’s role when nature becomes part of the therapeutic container?
• Group Dialogue: Key takeaways, clinical application, and next steps for sustainable, nature-informed care

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Addiction Counsellors
• Case Managers
• School Counsellors
• Nurses
• Physicians
• Other Mental Health Professionals