NBT with Children, Youth, and Families

NEW COURSE DATES!

April 24-27, 2025

Our early bird pricing has been EXTENDED to January 30, 2025!

Join us for an experiential immersion into the possibilities that Nature-based therapy can provide in your therapeutic work with children, youth and families.  We will play, practice, and grow our capacity to support children, youth, and families within a relational connection to self, family, and Earth.  Be prepared to build a community with like-minded NBT practitioners while engaging in self-reflection, role-plays, practice interventions, and exploring your own personal relationship to the non-human Natural World. 

This course is designed to build upon your core skills in Nature-Based Therapy, and add in-depth exploration of framing, invitations, and therapeutic processing to support children, youth and families in moving toward healing and growth.  The goal of this training is for participants to leave feeling confident in their ability to draw from a breadth of tools when turning to nature as co-therapist in supporting family systems change.  Our approach draws on our background in experiential education models, nature-based practice, and the theoretical approach of Emotion Focused Family Therapy. The facilitator team will bring a collective experience of over 40 years in family therapy practice to draw upon. 

The setting and host for this course will be at the beautiful home of Power To Be, on Prospect Lake in Victoria, BC, and on the unceded territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations.  This site holds a special connection to our work and history, as Power To Be was our first community partner, and with whom we founded the Family Roots Adventure Therapy Program – a powerful multi-family adventure therapy program which is still running on the site to this day, 16 years later.  With this shared history of supporting families to re-story their lives through play, adventure and belonging, we are thrilled to come together to offer this training.  We will spend one day of the training learning from Power To Be staff about their model for creating inclusive therapeutic adventure opportunities, including some time paddling on the lake in their Big Canoes. 

Theory that will be applied and practiced includes: 

• Creating safe space in NBT 
• Inspiring Nature awareness with kids and youth
• Family assessment and navigating multiple ecological identities
• Introducing the Zones of Development with children, youth, and families
• Developing a toolbox of creative check-ins
• Working with mirroring and metaphor relative to different developmental levels
• The role of play in establishing and supporting new family narratives
• Risky play, experiential learning, and adventure 
• Re-structuring family bonds
• The connection – Rupture – Repair Cycle
• Stages of NBT practice applied to Children, youth and families (regulation, re-structuring, consolidation)
• Experiential approaches to identifying and shifting family patterns 
• How to scaffold, frame and debrief games and initiatives 
• Working from a family systems lens in NBT
• NBT as an engagement approach for varying treatment goals between parents and children
• NBT as a relational approach to working with ambivalence
• Exploring interventions for addressing family conflict, attachment injuries, communication barriers, and dysfunctional family patterns
• Multi-family NBT – the BALANCE model of family change
• Inclusive and adaptive approaches to working in the outdoors
• Family rituals, ceremony, integration, and closing

Bring your full authentic self as we come together to explore the beauty and potential of Nature-based Therapy with Children, Youth, and Families. 

 We hope you can join us!

Location: Power To Be at Prospect Lake, Victoria, BC

Dates: April 24-27, 2025 

Times: Day 1: 9:30am-4pm; Day 2: 9am-4pm; Day 3: 9am-4pm; Day 4: 9am- 3:30pm

Fees: $850, $750 for early bird registration up to January 30 , 2025

Student rate: $700 

Bursaries: We have a set number of bursaries available upon request for Indigenous and racialized participants, students, and for other equity deserving groups. They are available on a first come, first served basis.  Please complete this short form to request a bursary:  

Accommodation: Camping is available at the Power To Be site for $25/night.  Please see info below.  Requests for or Questions regarding camping can be directed to [email protected] 

Meals: Not included. However, we do provide a variety of healthy snacks, tea and coffee each day.

* This course will be held at Power To Be at Prospect Lake in Victoria, BC.  Power To Be respectfully affirms that they are located on the unceded lands of the W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations.  They honour the responsibility of caring for these lands and respecting the Indigenous peoples who carry a deep-rooted connection with the land. We are grateful to be able to invite you to learn about and practice Nature-Based Therapy with this beautiful land.

** Prerequisite: completion of:

• Intro to Nature to Nature-based therapy, online (or equivalent from Somatic Nature Therapy Institute) 
• NBT in Practice Course, in person (or equivalent from Somatic Nature Therapy Institute)

If you have missed our NBT in Practice course this spring but are still hoping to attend our NBT with Children, Youth, and Families Course, please email [email protected] to find out if your other prior experience/training applies. 

Camping At Power To Be 

For those looking for camping accommodation during the course we welcome you to consider staying at the Power To Be Campus. Please note that we have multiple users on the site and the camping location also hosts a nature school. We likely will not be able to accommodate arrivals the evening prior to the course.

Camping Dates Available: April 24, 25, 26

Cost: $25/night

Amenities: Camp Stove/propane, Potable Water, Tent pads, Porta-pottie style Toilets, secure food storage, dish washing and hand washing station. Food Prep Area. A cooler can be provided if needed. Fridge, Flush toilets and Shower access available during business hours (typically 8:30am – 5:00pm ). Garbage, recycling and compost receptacles. Kitchen utensils and dinnerware are available upon request.

** Quiet hours: 10am – 7:00am

No Fires

No dogs or other domestic animals.

No Smoking, Vaping, Drugs or Alcohol consumption on site.

To book: contact Sylvia Storry at [email protected] 

For more details, click here.  

Cancellation & Payment Policy:

Your workshop spot is reserved just for you. A late cancellation or unattended session leaves a hole in the course that could have been filled by another participant. 

Payment is due in full upon registration. If you require a payment plan, please reach out to Emlyn at [email protected]. 

Cancellations made 30 days prior to the start of the first session will be charged a $75 administration fee.

For cancellations made between 30 days and up to 7 days before the start of the first session, 50% will be refunded.

Cancellations made later than 7 days before the start of the session will not be refunded.

In cases of cancellation less than 7 days before the course due to illness, you will receive a credit towards a future course minus $150 (unrecoverable program costs)

To cancel, please email [email protected]