Nature-Based Therapy
Outdoor & Nature-Based Therapy in Asheville and Western North Carolina
What is Nature-Based Therapy?
Nature-based therapy offers an opportunity to step outside the traditional therapy room and engage with movement, outdoor spaces, and the natural world as part of the therapeutic process. Sessions take place in parks, forests, trails, and other community spaces around Asheville and Western North Carolina and may incorporate counseling, recreational therapy, mindfulness, emotional processing, skill-building, movement, or simply conversation while spending time outdoors.
You don't need to be outdoorsy, athletic, or an experienced hiker. Nature-based therapy can be adapted around your interests, comfort, accessibility needs, and therapeutic goals.
Depending on your goals and preferences, we might walk, sit, use mindfulness or grounding practices, engage in a recreational or experiential activity, practice skills, or incorporate the environment into our work. Nature-based therapy at Solstice can draw from both counseling and recreational therapy rather than following one prescribed format.
Please call or email to inquire about group nature-based activities and programming. Individual sessions are typically one hour, however intensive sessions (3-5 hours) are also available.
What Can Nature-Based Therapy Look Like?
Creative or experiential activities outdoors
Exploring relationships with rest, play, recreation, and the natural world
Practicing coping or emotional-regulation skills in real-world environments
Using nature, metaphor, observation, or reflection to explore experiences and emotions
Simply having a therapy session outside when sitting in a traditional therapy space doesn't feel like the best fit
Walking and talking along an accessible trail or greenway
Sitting together in a park or natural space
Mindfulness and grounding practices
Using sensory experiences in nature to support regulation and present-moment awareness
Movement incorporated into conversation or therapeutic work
Who Might Enjoy Nature-Based Therapy?
People who enjoy nature-based therapy often…
Want to reconnect with hobbies, movement, recreation, or nature
Prefer experiential or hands-on approaches
Spend much of their life indoors or behind a screen and want therapy to create intentional time outside
Are interested in mindfulness but don't necessarily want to sit still with their eyes closed
Simply want to try something different from traditional therapy
Feel more comfortable talking while moving or sitting side-by-side
Find traditional therapy environments uncomfortable, restrictive, or overly clinical
Have ADHD or find movement helpful for focus and regulation
Feel grounded, curious, or more like yourself outdoors
Initial Intake Appointment: $150
Follow-up Appointments: $125
We do not accept insurance at this time.
Solstice is a private-pay practice and does not currently accept insurance. Sliding-scale, reduced-cost, and pro bono therapy options may be available. We also participate in Open Path Collective If finances are a barrier to care, please reach out—we're happy to discuss current options.
FAQs
Do I Need to Be Physically Fit or Able to Hike?
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Absolutely not. Accessibility and comfort come first. Nature-based therapy does not require hiking, athletic ability, or any particular level of fitness. Sessions can involve walking, sitting, gentle movement, staying in one comfortable spot, or adapting the experience entirely around what works for your body.
Mobility, pain, fatigue, sensory needs, chronic illness, disability, and other access needs should never automatically mean that nature-based therapy isn't for you. We can work together to find accessible locations, adjust the pace or activity, plan around rest and comfort, and get creative about removing barriers.
If there's a place or experience you're interested in but aren't sure you can access, let's figure it out together. That might mean finding an accessible route, exploring adaptive equipment or other accommodations, choosing a similar environment that better meets your needs, or finding ways to bring elements of the experience to you.
You know your body and your access needs best. My job is not to decide whether you can “keep up”—it's to help create a therapeutic experience that works for you.
How Does Privacy Work When Therapy Happens Outdoors?
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Privacy and confidentiality remain a priority during nature-based therapy, but outdoor and community settings come with considerations that are different from meeting in a private office. While I take steps to protect your confidentiality, complete privacy from other people in a public space cannot be guaranteed.
If we encounter someone you know during a session, you get to decide how you'd like to proceed. I will follow your lead and will not be the first to disclose that we are together for therapy or identify you as a client. We can pause, move to another area, change the subject, continue as we were, or adjust in whatever way feels most comfortable to you.
We'll talk through privacy, location, weather, safety, and informed consent before beginning nature- or community-based work so you know what to expect and can decide what feels right for you.
What Can We Work On in Nature-Based Therapy?
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Almost anything you might bring into a traditional therapy session. Your goals don't have to be about nature for therapy to happen outdoors. Nature, movement, recreation, and the environment can simply become part of how we approach the work.
Nature-based sessions can support work around things like:
Trauma, PTSD, and difficult life experiences
Anxiety, depression, stress, and overwhelm
ADHD, neurodivergence, and emotional regulation
Grief, loss, and major life transitions
Identity, values, self-esteem, and self-understanding
Burnout, rest, and reconnecting with yourself
Coping skills, grounding, and distress tolerance
Executive functioning and getting unstuck
Reconnecting with interests, play, movement, and leisure
Building confidence, independence, and quality of life
Finding meaning, purpose, connection, or joy
Sometimes the environment itself becomes useful to the work—giving us opportunities to practice skills in real time, use movement or sensory experiences, explore through metaphor or reflection, or step outside familiar routines. Other times, we're simply having the conversation you needed to have while sitting under a tree instead of staring at each other through a screen.
What we work on is guided by your needs and goals. Nature-based therapy changes the setting and expands the tools available to us; it doesn't limit what you're allowed to bring into the space.