Some healing can only happen outside.
Somatic Nature Intensives take therapy out of the office and into real life at China Camp State Park, San Rafael.
There is something the therapy office cannot offer that the natural world can: the felt sense that you belong here. That you are not separate from life, but part of it.
For people who have spent years learning to manage, control, and override their bodies, time in nature can be quietly revolutionary. The nervous system softens in ways it simply doesn't indoors. The body begins to reclaim its resources and what it already knows. Healing that has stalled in old stories and patterns setting starts to move.
Somatic Nature Intensives are monthly, two-hour therapeutic sessions held outdoors at China Camp State Park, which offers 1,500 acres of oak woodland, tidal salt marsh, and bay shoreline just minutes from downtown San Rafael. These sessions bring together the depth of somatic psychotherapy with the ancient, embodied wisdom of the natural world.
This is not a walk in the park with a therapist. It is immersive, intentional therapeutic work held in one of the most ecologically rich and historically significant landscapes in the Bay Area.
Why nature for therapy?
Research consistently shows that time in nature reduces cortisol, regulates the nervous system, and increases a sense of safety and belonging. These are the exact conditions needed for deep therapeutic work. But beyond what science has shown, most of us know the power of nature in our bodies. We feel different outside: more ourselves, less pressure, and whole.
For people navigating trauma, chronic stress, anxiety, body image struggles, or a persistent sense of disconnection, these shifts in the body are not incidental. It’s what’s possible when we engage with embodied wisdom.
Nature also has a way of reflecting our inner world back to us. The tide that comes in and recedes, the oak that bends without breaking, the marsh that holds what the land releases. Working therapeutically in this environment opens dimensions of insight and healing that words alone rarely reach. This is how healing can happen in the wilds of real life.
About China Camp State Park
China Camp State Park sits on the ancestral homeland of the Coast Miwok people, who for generations found refuge, resource, and sustenance in this land. The park preserves a historic 1880s Chinese American shrimp-fishing village and coastal landscape. It holds immense cultural significance, highlighting the early Chinese immigrant experience, the impacts of systemic racism, and the preservation of natural shoreline and forest habitats. The land weaves together adversity with resilience, loss with reclamation.
Today the park protects some of the most pristine wetlands in the San Francisco Bay Area, alongside miles of hiking trails through oak woodland and meadow, and sweeping views of the Bay from San Pablo Ridge. It is home to over 140 species of birds, coast redwood groves, and a landscape that shifts with the seasons in ways that invite genuine presence.
What to Expect
Somatic Nature Intensives are offered monthly as a depthful, extended therapeutic experience. Each session is approximately two to three hours and is tailored to where you are in your healing process. A session might include:
Walking and Talking
We can move through the landscape as a way of loosening what feels stuck, allowing the body to process what the mind struggles to work through.
Somatic Resourcing
We’ll embody the five core resource states of the Rhythms of Resource (Present, Playful, Purposeful, Persistent, and Peace) with the natural environment as an active part of that process.
Mindfulness Practices
Working with the breath and the present moment, we’ll observe and feel what arises when we stop moving through life and simply inhabit its supportive relationship.
Reflective Dialogue
Meaning making is key. We’ll integrate what emerges somatically and experientially into actionable insight and intention.
Who is this for?
People who have limited time for self care but still want to do meaningful work together.
People who are already in therapy with me and want to go deeper through an extended, immersive experience.
People who feel stuck in indoor talk therapy and are ready for something that works differently.
People drawn to nature as a source of healing, meaning, or spiritual connection.
People navigating major life transitions, burnout, grief, or a sense of existential dread.
People who simply know they need more than fifty minutes in an office to access what needs to move.
Sessions are available to current therapy clients as a complement to ongoing work, and on a limited basis to new clients as a standalone intensive experience.
Practical Details
Location: China Camp State Park, San Rafael, CA. The park is three miles northeast of downtown San Rafael, easily accessible from across Marin County and the greater Bay Area.
Frequency: Offered once monthly, with limited availability.
Duration: Approximately two to three hours.
Investment: $400 per session. This reflects the extended duration, the depth of clinical expertise, and the intentionality of the experience.
What to bring: Comfortable clothes and shoes for walking on natural terrain, water, and anything else that helps you feel at ease outdoors. All are welcome regardless of physical ability. There are accessible trail options available within the park.
A free 20-minute consultation is required before your first Nature Intensive to discuss fit, goals, and any relevant clinical considerations.
A note on the land
I offer these sessions with deep respect for the Coast Miwok people, the original and ongoing stewards of this land. The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria are a federally recognized sovereign nation whose ancestral connection to this landscape continues. I am honored to do healing work on land that has held people for generations, and I carry that responsibility with humility and care.
