Somatics In Partnership With Nature: Exploring somatic work through forest therapy

Who This Course Is For

  • Mental Health and Medical Professionals seeking to understand and experience how forest therapy works as a generative somatic framework that can be used to complement treatment in a wide range of settings.
  • Somatic coaches, therapists and practitioners who want a deeper understanding of how forest therapy supports clients in building somatic awareness, somatic transformation and somatic opening in alignment with their goals.
  • Professional Guides who want an introduction to somatics and wish to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which forest therapy fosters somatic awareness, somatic transformation and somatic opening as well as the variety of ways in which forest therapy is a generative somatic practice.
  • Anyone wondering, what can Forest Therapy bring to somatic work?


Explore the connection of somatics in partnership with nature.


What's Included In This Self Paced Course

  • Video Lessons: Take in this content with ease through a series of short-length videos that let you relax with the material at a self directed pace.
  • Explanation and Experiential: Topics and concepts are explained but also have accompanying experiential activities so you can experience the connection yourself.


What You Will Learn

A foundational understanding of:

  • Somatics and the somatic frameworks this course is built on including distinguishing somatic awareness, somatic practice, somatic transformation and somatic opening.
  • Relational Forest Therapy framework
  • The multiple ways relational forest therapy may be done as a generative somatic practice.
  • How relational forest therapy specifically supports the building and deepening of somatic awareness, somatic transformation and somatic opening.

The Six Course Modules Cover:

  • Introductory Overview of Relational Forest Therapy
  • Introductory Overview of Somatics and Somatic Methodology
  • Nature Is, Nature Brings...
  • Key Aspects of Somatics and How They Are Present In Forest Therapy
  • Aspects of Forest Therapy That Support Somatic Work
  • Practicing Somatics In Partnership With Nature


About Forest Therapy and Somatics

Somatics invites us to engage all of our being; our sensing, actions, feeling and thinking. You may be most familiar with somatics in relation to trauma but it is also a holistic way to know ourselves as well as to transform and heal. Somatics invites us to be in relationship with all of ourselves, to be in our full aliveness.

Somatics is holistically a part of both the spirit and the structure of Forest Therapy. The unique ways forest therapy intuitively blends with somatic practice, is very special indeed. In forest therapy, there is a clearly defined sequence of guided events that provides structure to the experience, while embracing an open partnership with the land that provides opportunities for exploring health, healing and wellbeing for each individual. Forest Therapy is a somatic practice, but more than that, it also supports the Arc of Somatic Transformation on many levels. Specifically, the practice of relational forest therapy supports the building of somatic awareness in partnership with nature and fosters resiliency and connection, all critical elements in the Arc of Somatic Transformation. Explore all of this in detail with examples and activities along the way.

"The term somatics derives from the Greek somatikos, which signifies the living, aware, bodily person. It posits that neither mind nor body is separate from the other; both being part of a living process called the soma.”  —Richard Strozzi-Heckler

Somatics invites us to engage all of our being; our sensing, actions, feeling and thinking. You may be most familiar with somatics in relation to trauma but it is also a holistic way to know ourselves as well as to transform and heal.

I am both excited and blown away by the phenomenal ways the practice of forest therapy supports somatic work and the ways in which somatic work holistically supports everything we do. Somatic work in partnership with nature!  —Nadine Mazzola, ANFT Trainer and Certified Forest Therapy Guide

Instructor

Mentor, Trainer

Nadine Mazzola

Nadine Mazzola (she/her) has been a Certified Forest Therapy Guide since 2015 based in Acton, MA. She founded her guiding business, New England Nature and Forest Therapy, in 2016. Nadine guides regularly and has formed partnerships with multiple organizations, She also does speaking engagements on forest therapy and occasional consulting with a variety of organizations. Nadine has also been a trainer/mentor with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and has a business and marketing background spanning twenty-five years. In 2019, Nadine added award-winning author to her list of accomplishments. She wrote the book “Forest Bathing with Your Dog”, which won four awards. The book combines the practice of forest therapy with our practice of walking our dogs and elevates the depth and meaning of both. She has been featured on PBS Windows to the Wild twice, ABC’s Chronicle and in the Boston Globe and Boston Magazine. In addition to Nadine’s business and marketing background, she was also formerly a world professional pocket billiards player competing on the Women's Professional Billiard Tour. Nadine has been guiding forest therapy walks since 2015. Also, an artist, she facilitates expressive arts classes often incorporating elements of forest therapy throughout.

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