Nature-Based Mental Health Training

This summer, the graduate school will launch a new certificate program that invites students to think about healing in expansive terms—through body, art, environment, and relationship.

The Eco-Soma-Arts certificate will be directed by Pilar Hernandez-Wolfe, professor of marriage, couple, and family therapy.

The two-year certificate, available to students enrolled in an L&C counseling or therapy master’s degree program, integrates four foundational pillars:

• Ecological systems thinking—acknowledges that nature is instrumental in balance, healing, and cooperation
• Somatic experience—redirects focus to the body and draws connections between our physical and emotional sensations (e.g., breathing, movement, tensions)
• Expressive arts—addresses the therapeutic potential of art making
• Situated knowledge—recognizes the power structures present in all modern processes, including our ideas about nature and animals

“Lewis & Clark is an amazing place where we can learn with nature on campus,” says Hernandez-Wolfe. “It’s all right here.”