Inner-Wilderness.com

Benefits of this nature-based approach:

• Increased feelings of “oneness” with nature; excitement
• Increased personal growth and increased meaning
• Increased skills to be comfortable in nature
• Living a more full, balanced life by regular inclusion of the other-than-human world
• Non-strenuous approach, available to all ages and physical abilities
• Richer connection to nature and to self

How does that happen?

• Through consultation with a counselor, you develop your own plan for getting out regularly into nature, even just for short periods in your backyard. Plan and skill coaching assists you to  get much more form your unstructured time out there.
• Counseling helps you discover more about yourself and how to work to make your own inner ecosystem regenerative– more than just sustainable–by discovering what your whole self needs and wants.
• Counseling focuses on developing mindfulness, and especially works deeply with applying mindfulness skills to your nature experiences.
• With the counselor, you co-create what is important to work on and how to best address your needs from a variety of possibilities.
   

Who is this nature-based approach most likely to appeal to? Personal counseling or retreat/workshop participation may especially appeal to persons interested in: 

• Depth psychology- This nature-based approach is geared towards deepening self-understanding, meaning, creativity, excitement and engagement in your inner and outer life. Perhaps you are wanting to do soul work- to discover or refine  your unique purpose in the world. 
• Wilderness experiences- If you are active outdoors with camping, hiking, kayaking, caving, rock climbing or other sports, but want to foster a different relationship to nature than just sport, this nature awareness approach which stresses concrete skills for applying mindfulness to nature settings may be for you. You will get new outer awareness practices as well as inner imagining and creativity skills. 
• Nature spirituality and soulcraft experiences- Many people report a connection between their personal spirituality and nature. My belief is that as we attend to our personal growth we experience  a sense of opening, becoming bigger unto ourselves as we grow in self acceptance, self-knowledge , expanding our range of feelings and possible behaviors. We become psychologically “bigger” as we become more whole. For many people, more wholeness is the the essence of spiritual growth. Add to that discovering or creating meaning and doing so within a nature practice and you will have a solid psychological basis for any other spirituality practice you may engage with. 
• Dream and nature image interpretation- Dreams are so baffling to most people that they are just ignored. Jung says that we often conclude if we don’t know what dreams mean, then they must mean nothing.  But dreams can function as the door to deeper aspects of ourselves we never encounter in our day-to-day consciousness. We’ll explore an overarching process and context for you to start to explore your own inner life. 
• Naturalist studies- Perhaps you have always been drawn learn all the fascinating ecology of nature. Maybe you are a birder with a life-list, or a wildflower fan. Maybe you can name every tree. Perhaps you’ve mastered the intricacies of ecology and now you are ready to go inward and find out what more this means to you personally. Perhaps you are ready to balance your deep didactic knowledge of nature with a mythic meaning that has co-evolved with humans since our beginnings. This can be a beginning of an even larger dialogue with the natural world. In addition, more than just learning to identify things, learn ways that give you concrete skills at seeing, hearing and experiencing more via skills developed by indigenous people over time. Skills that allow you to “know” from intuitive, transrational ways of knowing. 

Come join us!