Advanced course · In person

EMDR, Nature & Lavender

Six gentle, hands-on hours outdoors in North Carolina. Learn to use the natural world as a steady, always-available resource for your clients, and for yourself. Small group, six EMDRIA credits, and everyone goes home smelling like lavender.

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6 hoursOne day, mostly outdoors
6 EMDRIA creditsAdvanced EMDR training
In personChapel Hill, North Carolina
Small groupExperiential and creative

The idea

Nature heals. Nature is everywhere. Nature is for everyone.

The natural world offers a limitless supply of adaptive memory networks: regulation, grounding, awe. This course teaches you to reach for them on purpose.

Nature heals

Time outside settles the nervous system. Clients’ experiences in nature, both comforting and frightening, can inform your case conceptualization and your resourcing.

Nature is everywhere

A window. A potted plant. The walk from the car. Nature is a constant and reliable resource because it is here, and it is everywhere, for you and for the clients who never leave the city.

Nature is for everyone

You don’t need to be outdoorsy. The day is gentle, the ground is level, and the only stretching is a wee bit past your comfort zone. Everyday nature, so it feels accessible.

Who this is for

EMDR-trained therapists who want more than another screen.

This is an advanced course. It assumes you know the protocols and are using them. The day goes to what’s new, and to taking care of you.

You’ll be at home here if:

You’ve completed a full EMDRIA-approved Basic Training and are using EMDR with clients.
Your clients get stuck in Phases 1 and 2, and you want more ways to help them settle and feel resourced.
You’re a little worn out by trauma work and would like a training that fills you back up, too.
You’re curious, interested and willing. Outdoorsy is optional.

Spirituality is welcome here. For clients whose faith matters to them, you’ll learn how a felt sense of the sacred can emerge through nature-informed work, without imposing anything on anyone.

Light falling through trees onto a woodland path

What you’ll explore

Ecotherapy principles, woven into the AIP model.

How nature supports regulation, grounding, awe and adaptive memory networks
Gathering a history of your clients’ experiences in nature, both happy and scary, and how it shapes case conceptualization
Nature-based resourcing in Phase 2, through guided experiential exercises
The Core Self Strategy, an advanced AIP intervention, practiced with and without nature so you can feel the clinical difference
How spirituality and a felt sense of the sacred can emerge through nature-informed EMDR, for clients who hold it
Practical ways to bring more nature into your clinical work and your own life

Teaching is short and practice is long. You’ll work in the large group and in small groups, taking turns as therapist and client, with a debrief after every practice.

By the end, you will

Have a set of nature-based resourcing protocols you can use on Monday
Know how to take a nature history and fold it into treatment planning
Have practiced the Core Self Strategy both ways
Leave with specific intentions for bringing nature into your life and your office
Earn 6 EMDRIA credits, plus slides and handouts
Go home with a homemade lavender product from Kathleen’s garden

Hands holding a fresh bundle of lavender

How the day goes

A training with retreat energy.

The pace is unhurried on purpose. Here’s the shape of it; the details shift a little with the season and the group.

Arrive and settle
Coffee, tea, a look around the garden, and the first experiential exercise before a single slide.
Teach, then practice
The ecotherapy principles and where they land in the AIP model, then nature-based resourcing in pairs, outside.
Lunch together
A shared meal. The conversations at the table are half the point.
Core Self, two ways
The Core Self Strategy with and without nature, and time to notice what changed.
Bring it home
Make your plan for the office and for yourself, collect your lavender, and leave with a friend and a favorite tree.

Weather plan: there is always an indoor option. Wear comfortable shoes and clothes you don’t mind sitting on the grass in.

Next date

Dates & details

EMDR, Nature & Lavender

This course runs when a small group is ready. Leave your name and you’ll hear the moment a date is set.

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Your trainer

Taught in Kathleen’s own garden.

Kathleen Fitzgerald is an EMDRIA Approved Trainer and Approved Consultant, and a certified nature therapist. She grows the lavender herself, kills about as many plants as she saves, and believes nature is a trauma survivor and an attachment figure who is always here for us.

She’s often joined by Brittany Edie, an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, certified nature therapist and registered yoga teacher, whose vision of bringing the healing power of nature to people who suffer from trauma inspired this course.

Meet the team

Questions

Before you sign up

I’m not an outdoors person. Is this really for me?

Yes. The point of the course is that nature is for everyone, including people who don’t hike. The day is gentle, the ground is level, and nothing requires fitness or gear. If you have mobility or accessibility needs, tell Kathleen ahead of time and she’ll plan for them.

What if it rains?

There is always an indoor option, and the course works either way. Nature is everywhere, including through a window.

Where exactly is it held?

In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in Kathleen’s home and garden. The address and directions come with your registration confirmation.

Do I need to have finished Basic Training?

Yes. This is an advanced course, and participants must have completed a full EMDRIA-approved Basic Training and be using EMDR with clients. Knowledge of resourcing, Phase 1 history taking and case conceptualization is important.

Is faith part of the course?

Spirituality is one thread among several. You’ll learn how a felt sense of the sacred can emerge through nature-informed work for clients who hold a faith, and how to follow the client’s lead. Nothing is imposed on anyone.

What should I bring?

Comfortable shoes, layers, and a notebook. Everything else, including lunch, is provided. You’ll get a full list with your confirmation.

Come learn outside. Leave with a friend and a favorite tree.

Seats are limited so the group stays small. Ask Kathleen anything before you decide.

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The Lavender Letter

Be the first to hear about new trainings.

An occasional note from Kathleen with one EMDR teaching tip, upcoming training dates, and a little news from the garden. Seats are limited, and subscribers hear first.