"Allow nature’s peace to flow into you as sunshine flows into trees."

- John Muir

About Our Nature Trauma Healing Retreat
This immersive day retreat is designed for individuals navigating grief and trauma who seek the restorative power of nature as a healing companion. Grounded in nature-informed therapy, this retreat offers participants a sanctuary to explore their emotional pain, process their loss, and cultivate resilience through guided experiences in the natural world.​Throughout the day, we will engage in experiential exercises that harness the therapeutic elements of nature to support the grieving process. Participants will learn how to attune to the wisdom of the land, trees, water, and sky as they journey through their emotions. With gentle facilitation, this retreat provides a compassionate space for reflection, renewal, and deep connection with the healing presence of the natural world.​

Who Should Attend: 

This retreat is open to anyone experiencing grief or past trauma who is looking for a supportive, nature-centered approach to healing. No prior experience with nature-based practices is necessary—only a willingness to engage with the land and allow nature to be a companion in the journey toward healing.​Join us in this transformative experience where the wisdom of the natural world meets the deep needs of the human heart. Together, we will walk the path of grief with reverence, curiosity, and the gentle support of the earth beneath us.The retreat is offered once a year and co-facilitated by Dr. Heidi Schreiber-Pan, LCPC, and founder of the Towson-based Center for Nature Informed Therapy, and trauma and addictions recovery therapist, Mary Sue McCarthy, LCPC, CCTP, who is in private practice in Hunt Valley. Together, Heidi and Mary Sue both Maryland-based licensed professionals, provide retreat participants with a unique opportunity to begin or continue their trauma-healing process. Other professionals will support the retreat with expertise in trauma-informed yoga and somatic-based therapies.

A BROADER VIEW OF TRAUMA
When most folks hear the word trauma they immediately envision devastating combat, horrific child abuse, or frightening and unexpected natural disasters.  We look at this differently.  Trauma can be as subtle and as personal as living as the family scapegoat, being constantly compared to siblings, considered second-best, or never good enough.  Living with bullying, narcissistic gaslighting, and toxic positivity is often not classified as traumatic, but research has shown that being on the receiving end of bullying, for example, can have a lasting and subtle impact on developmental growth and self-confidence.  The loss of a loved one,  including a pet is a more obvious example.  Religious persecution, the effects of systemic racism, and cultural cancellation can all be deemed traumatic. Witnessing climate change and destruction can have a disturbing impact, as well.​Traditional therapies for trauma healing include Internal Family Systems, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and EMDR, eye-movement desensitization, and reprocessing.  While both Heidi and Mary Sue supports these traditional therapies, they believe that joining with nature provides another somatically soothing modality.

THE CHALLENGE OF TRAUMA RECOVERY
The challenge with trauma recovery is that the trauma that happens to you is often accompanied by or manifested in feelings of powerlessness, desperation, and overwhelming fear that are rarely resolved by cognitive-based therapies. As Dr. Bessel  van der Kolk states in his best-selling book, ‘ The Body Keeps the Score,’ trauma is stored in the body as memory, attached to strong and disturbing body sensations. These feelings can be so intense that what is happening now in the present actually feels the same as it did in the past. Triggers or memory flashbacks can take us back into the furthest reaches of our survival brain causing us to fight, flee, freeze, or feign death.To quote awakenwithally, a transformational guide with 

“ Our nervous system is the foundation of our lived experience here on earth. To understand how the nervous system regulates itself towards safety and connection it is important to recognize that the nervous system has evolved in connection with nature, communities, and the universe at large. Disconnecting  from nature and the natural elements and rhythms is dysregulating for our bodies.”