Advanced Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy: Healing Trauma and Grief through Nature

An Advanced Live Webinar Series

Advanced Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy: Healing Trauma and Grief through Nature is a five-session live webinar series and is a "sequel" to our Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy Level One Course. You can register for this advanced series without taking Level One-- this is a self-contained course with additional principles, concepts, frameworks, and practices in nature-based approaches across the lifespan. This webinar series will focus specifically on how nature-based expressive approaches address trauma and loss in adults, children, adolescents, and communities-- because with traumatic events, grief is also present. In fact, climate grief via environmental changes and natural disasters is becoming a concern in psychotherapy, counseling, coaching, and other helping professions. 

This course provides numerous strategies for using nature as a pathway to increasing sensory and body awareness; resensitizing body and mind through expressive and somatosensory approaches grounded in nature; using nature as a resource; reconnecting our clients and patients to health and wellness through eco-counseling and psychotherapy approaches grounded in current research; and cultural humility and indigenous wisdom as foundations for ethical practice and theory. 

We explore how an expressive continuum of practices informs nature-based expressive arts therapy; applying a Circle of Capacity model; using personal autonomic maps; and integrating the richness of nature-oriented cultural and spiritual traditions that attune us to awe, compassion, and community to address trauma and grief. Join us to learn how to re-sensitize and enliven body and mind through image, sound, rhythm, movement, enactment, and narrative found through nature-based practices with children, adolescents, adults, groups, communities, and yourself.



Continuum of Nature-Based and Eco-Focused Expressive Arts Therapy

A Model for Nature-Based Practice in this Live Webinar Series

Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, © 2022 Expressive Arts Therapy Nature-Based Model

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Will there be recordings that I can watch after the live webinar sessions?

    Yes-- we record the lecture portions of the events for replay and you can watch them for 45 days after the event. We do not post the experiential portions of the event where participants are sharing experiences to protect participants' confidentiality.

  • When are the Live Webinar Sessions held?

    June 16, 2022 from 12 noon-3:00 pm, June 23, 2022 from 12 noon-3:00 pm, June 30, 2022 from 12 noon-3:00 pm. July 7, 2022 from 12 noon-3:00 pm July 14, 2022 from 12 noon-3:00 pm All times are US Eastern Time/New York Time. All sessions are held on a Zoom platform.

  • Will I receive a Certificate of Completion?

    Once you complete all the required sections of the course site, you will automatically receive a Certificate of Completion for "Advanced Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy Live Webinar Series." Your continuing education hours will appear on the certificate.

  • I do not currently offer nature-based approaches--why should I take this course?

    Nature-Based approaches are increasingly becoming part of work with trauma survivors as well as other individuals with various challenges in psychotherapy, counseling, healthcare, and other settings. Gaining a deeper understanding of these approaches is important to all practitioners who work with individuals with traumatic stress or loss. Various approaches found in Polyvagal Theory, sensorimotor and bilateral stimulation methods, and expressive arts therapy are foundational to this form of treatment.

  • Does this course count as part of the hours for the EXAT and EXA-CE designations?

    Yes, of course! This is great opportunity to add to your knowledge of how expressive work can be integrated with nature-based work and understand the principles that support this integration.

Course curriculum

Expect the complete curriculum by June 1, 2022. And we always add resources, links, downloadable documents, and films throughout the course to meet participants' needs.

    1. ▶️ ZOOM LIVE Format: Notes and Tips!

    2. Walkthrough this Live Webinar Site and Its Features

    3. About Your Instructors

    4. Syllabus, Goals and Objectives of this Course

    5. Special Note About Materials and Expressive Arts Assignments!

    6. Introduce Yourself Here!

    7. Nature Images for Collage and Course Experientials

    8. More Nature Images for Collage and Contemplation

    9. Basic Foundations: Expressive Arts Therapy

    10. Nature Brushes and Paints

    11. Making Nature-Based Paints

    1. ▶️ ZOOM Link and Supplies!

    2. Template

    3. Three Part Harmony of the Expressive Therapies Continuum

    4. Resensitizing the Body Through Expressive Arts

    5. Looking at the Expressive Arts Therapy Continuum with Nature in Mind

    6. Film Presentation: Expressive Arts Therapy and Trauma: Movement, Sound, Image, Silence

    7. Bottom Up or Top Down? An Expressive Arts Therapy Perspective

    8. Trauma and the Circle of Capacity | Psychology Today

    9. Five Patterns We Can Find in Nature and Apply in Re-Sensitizing the Body and Mind

    10. Connecting with Nature through the 5 Senses

    11. 53 Senses

    12. Sensation & Perception

    13. Grief as an Antidote to Trauma

    14. Re-Sensitize Yourself

    15. Positive Effects of Nature

    16. Recovering with Nature

    17. Nature Prescription

    18. Health Benefits of Immersion in Nature

    19. Session One Replay Part One

    20. Session One Replay Part Two

    21. After Session One...Share Just One Thing Here

    22. Please UPLOAD an image from Today's session!

    23. A Dandelion Story...

    24. How Animals Perceive the World and How We Humans Impact Their Senses

    25. Optional Circle Journal-- A Quick Tutorial

    1. ▶️ ZOOM Link and Supplies!

    2. Eco-Spirituality: A Brief Definition

    3. Spiritual Ecology

    4. Eco-Spirituality | Thailand

    5. Eco-Spirituality: A Call to Reconnect

    6. Visit a Centre for Ecotherapy

    7. Watch: How Ecotherapy is Defined in the UK

    8. Eco-Spirituality | Holistic Nursing Study

    9. Deep Ecology

    10. Eco-Feminism

    11. Eco-Spirituality | Cardiovascular Disease Abstract

    12. Eco-Recovery

    13. Eco-Spirituality Scale

    14. Dark Green Religion

    15. Eco-Spirituality | African Mythology

    16. Session Two Part One

    17. Session Two Part Two

    18. After Session Two..Share Just One Thing Here

    19. Please UPLOAD an image from Today's session!

    20. Assessing Connection to Nature

    21. Bonus Articles from Today's Lecture

    1. ▶️ ZOOM Link and Supplies!

    2. Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Humility

    3. Kaani Tribe | Climate Change & Eco-Spirituality

    4. Visit this Website on Climate Change and Eco-Spirituality

    5. Latin America | Indigenous Wisdom & Eco-Psychology

    6. Ecological Attachment | Indigenous Perspective

    7. Healing and Talking Circles

    8. Art Therapy and American Indian Medicine

    9. Healing Pathways Study

    10. Creative Arts Therapy | Indigenous Perspective

    11. Wild Therapeutic Garden

    12. Empowering Native Youth | Maria's Story

    13. Dibaajimowin (Stories) | Health Promotion through Digitalized Oral Stories

    14. Session Three Replay Part One

    15. Session Three Replay Part Two

    16. Session Three Replay Part Three

    17. Session Three Replay Part Four

    18. Session Three Replay Part Five

    19. After Session Three...Share Just One Thing Here

    20. Please UPLOAD an image from Today's session!

    21. Video | Art Therapy & American Indian Medicine

    22. Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Humility | Cathy Malchiodi PhD

    1. ▶️ ZOOM Link and Supplies!

    2. Feeling Stressed about the Environment? You’re Not Alone

    3. From American Psychological Association: Is Climate Grief Something New?

    4. Climate Grief: The Emotional Toll of Climate Change

    5. Interventions with Children Post-Earthquake in China

    6. Play Therapy and Natural Disaster

    7. An Affirming Talk on Climate Change and Disaster

    8. Climate Change | Children's Mental Health

    9. Climate Crisis | Mental Health Impact

    10. Indigenous Knowledge | Climate Change

    11. Art-Based Research | Stress and Immunity

    12. Session Four Replay Part One

    13. Session Four Replay Part Two

    14. Session Four Replay Part Three

    15. After Session Four...Share Just One Thing Here

    16. After Session Four...Share Just One Thing Here

    17. Experiential | Part 2 | Dialogue

    1. ▶️ ZOOM Link and Supplies!

    2. The Circle of Capacity | A Review of Applying a Strength-Based Model to Our Practices

    3. Maintaining a Connection to Nature for Health and Wellness in Ourselves and Others

    4. Trees and Contemplative Practices

    5. The Spiritual Wisdom of Trees | A Pathway to Reconnect and Stay Connected to Nature

    6. The Cicada: A Process of Re-Emergence from Darkness to Light

    7. Rhythms and Sounds of Cicada!

    8. Empirical Research | Forest Bathing

    9. Response to Eco-Psychology and Climate Crisis

    10. Recovering with Nature

    11. Replay Session Five Part One

    12. Replay Session Five Part Two

    13. After Session Five...Share Just One Thing Here

    14. Please UPLOAD an image from Today's session!

    15. Cathy's Tree of Nature-Based and Eco-Focused Practices Graphic

    16. Prompts from Cathy Malchiodi PhD

About this course

  • $299.00
  • 122 lessons
  • 8.5 hours of video content

Get on the Mailing List for More Information

This course can be applied to our upcoming Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy Practitioner Certificate. More details are coming soon and will be posted here!

More Details Soon!

Instructor(s)

Institute Faculty | Supervisor Elizabeth Warson, PhD

Elizabeth Warson, PhD, ATR-BC, LPC, NCC, EMDR III, EXAT, EAP II, is a trailblazing force in the integration of equine-assisted therapy and expressive arts. As the founder of American Indian Art Therapy, her work stems from extensive faculty research at George Washington University and Eastern Virginia Medical School. Currently based in northern Colorado, Elizabeth operates Healing Pathways LLC, where she combines EMDR with art and horses, drawing on her expertise as a certified EMDR practitioner and consultant, Registered Art Therapist-Board Certified, certified Eagala professional and an EquiLateral trained equine-assisted EMDR therapist. As a faculty member at the Trauma-Informed Practices & Expressive Arts Therapy Institute, Elizabeth teaches both in-person and online courses focused on polyvagal-informed, equine-assisted, nature-based, bilateral stimulation, and sensorimotor-informed expressive arts therapy. Her research interests span stress and pain reduction interventions for Native American cancer survivors, culturally responsive practices, and trauma-informed methods. Her significant contributions include receiving a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts grant for her community-driven Coharie Heritage Empowerment Project, emphasizing cultural preservation. Elizabeth’s academic journey includes a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art, an MA in Art Therapy from Vermont College, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from Colorado State University. She has presented extensively at regional and national conferences, focusing on medical art therapy and culturally-responsive interventions, and has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Recently, she co-authored E.Qi: Equine & Expressive Arts Inspired Qigong with collaborator Sifu Kurtis Tilley. In addition to her therapeutic work, Elizabeth is a professional artist whose sculptural pieces have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, earning her an Ohio Arts Council fellowship award. Her multifaceted approach bridges art, counseling, and equine therapy, creating impactful experiences for individuals and communities alike.

Instructor(s)

Institute Faculty Cathy Malchiodi PhD

Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT, ATR-BC, REAT is a research psychologist, a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist, and a licensed mental health counselor. She is the executive director of the Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute and is an investigator with the US Department of Education, integrating trauma-informed expressive arts into classrooms. She has also worked with the Department of Defense since 2008 to bring expressive arts therapy programming and psychotherapy to combat military and their families and Veterans with posttraumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. Dr. Malchiodi studied with Francine Shapiro and is qualified in EMDR Level I and Level II. Cathy has assisted more than 500 agencies, organizations, and institutions in developing trauma-informed programming including the United Nations, Department of Defense, Kennedy Center, Harvard, MIT, and Johns Hopkins University. An international presenter and workshop leader, she given over 750 invited keynotes and workshops throughout the US, Canada, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. She has authored 21 books, including the bestselling Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy: Brain, Body, and Imagination in the Healing Process and Handbook of Expressive Arts Therapy. Her books have been translated in over 20 languages. A life-long learner, Dr. Malchiodi's latest research and practice includes sensory processing and neurodiversity affirming models of psychotherapy to address trauma through expressive approaches to intervention.