Somatic Nature Therapy Institute

About

The Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, based in Boulder, Colorado, operates at the intersection of somatic psychotherapy, ecopsychology, and wilderness-based ceremonial healing. Founded by Katie Asmus, who has facilitated wilderness quests since 1999, the Institute offers both direct therapeutic services and professional training for clinicians seeking to integrate nature into their practice. Programs include the four-day Inner Quest Retreat, a four-month rites-of-passage program called Courting Your Medicine, and wilderness quests of variable duration designed to facilitate psychological transformation through embodied encounter with the natural world. The Institute maintains two clinical locations in Boulder and offers both in-person and online therapeutic services, with modalities including somatic therapy, EMDR, ecotherapy, and nature-based counseling. Their approach treats the relationship between psyche and the more-than-human world as foundational to healing, drawing on ceremony, expressive arts, and somatic practices to address trauma, grief, loss, and life transitions. The Institute's work is informed by the understanding that disconnection from the natural world is itself a source of psychological distress, and that rewilding this relationship is central to the work of individuation and wholeness.

Depth Orientation

The Somatic Nature Therapy Institute integrates somatic psychotherapy with ecopsychology and wilderness rites-of-passage ceremony, working at what they term the 'mind-body-earth connection.' Their approach treats the natural world not merely as therapeutic backdrop but as an active participant in healing, drawing on traditions of vision quest, ceremonial descent, and expressive arts to facilitate psychological transformation through embodied encounter with wild nature.

Treatment Modalities

Program Details

Best for

• Trauma recovery
• Life transitions
• Grief and loss
• Ecopsychological exploration
• Women's initiatory work

Notable Clinicians

• Katie Asmus — Founder, wilderness quest facilitator since 1999

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