A NATURE-INFORMED APPROACH TO HEALING GRIEF AND TRAUMA
Partnering with Nature to Heal
A one-day retreat offering participants a sanctuary to explore their emotional pain, process their loss, and cultivate resilience through guided experiences in the natural world.
Serviceberry Farm
9:30 - 4:00
11/14/2026
$195
"Allow nature’s peace to flow into you as sunshine flows into trees." - John Muir
THE RESTORATIVE POWER OF NATURE
Navigating Trauma and Grief
This one-day immersive retreat is designed for individuals who seek the restorative power of nature as a healing companion.
Throughout the day, we will engage in experiential exercises that harness the therapeutic elements of nature to support the grieving process. Participants will learn how to attune to the wisdom of the land, trees, water, and sky as they journey through their emotions. With gentle facilitation, this retreat provides a compassionate space for reflection, renewal, and deep connection with the healing presence of the natural world.
KNOW BEFORE YOU REGISTER
Is this Experience Right for You?
This retreat is open to anyone experiencing past trauma or grief who is looking for a newer and supportive, nature-centered approach to healing. No prior experience with nature-based practices is necessary, only a willingness to engage with the land and allow nature to be a companion in the journey toward healing.
Join us in this transformative experience where the wisdom of the natural world meets the deep needs of the human heart. Together, we will walk the path of grief with reverence, curiosity, and the gentle support of the earth beneath us.
MEET YOUR FACILITATORS
Led by trauma and addictions recovery therapist
Mary Sue McCarthy, LCPC, CCTP
Mary Sue McCarthy is a trauma and addictions recovery therapist, in private practice, in Hunt Valley, Maryland. As a licensed professional, and a certified nature-informed therapist, she provides participants with a unique opportunity to begin or continue their trauma-healing process.
Traditional therapies for trauma healing include Internal Family Systems, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and EMDR, eye-movement desensitization, and reprocessing. While Mary Sue supports these traditional therapies, she believes that joining with nature as our co-therapist provides a powerful somatically soothing modality that can be easily accessible outside the confines of traditional office based talk therapy.
Mary Sue is an experienced group facilitator, and trainer. She is also a Clinical Supervisor approved by the Maryland Board of Professional Counselors.
Sterling Lambert, M.S.
Sterling holds an M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Johns Hopkins and is a certified nature-based meditation instructor. He weaves Buddhist psychology and mindfulness into both daily life and clinical practice, with a deep commitment to nature, awe, and compassion.
Staying active, fostering community, making music, and exploring the world are all part of the same lifelong inquiry into the nature of mind, heart, and healing.
A BROADER VIEW OF TRAUMA
What is Trauma?
When most folks hear the word trauma they immediately envision devastating combat, horrific child abuse, or frightening and unexpected natural disasters. We look at this differently.
Trauma can be as subtle and as personal as living as the family scapegoat, being constantly compared to siblings, considered second-best, or never good enough. Living with bullying, narcissistic gaslighting, and toxic positivity is often not classified as traumatic, but research has shown that being on the receiving end of bullying, for example, can have a lasting and subtle impact on developmental growth and self-confidence.
The loss of a loved one, including a pet is a more obvious example. Religious persecution, the effects of systemic racism, and cultural cancellation can all be deemed traumatic. Witnessing climate change and destruction can have a disturbing impact, as well.
THE CHALLENGE OF TRAUMA
Examining Trauma Recovery
Trauma that happens to you is often accompanied by or manifested in feelings of powerlessness, desperation, and overwhelming fear that are rarely resolved by cognitive-based therapies. As Dr. Bessel van der Kolk states in his best-selling book, The Body Keeps the Score, "Trauma is stored in the body as memory, attached to strong and disturbing body sensations."
These feelings can be so intense that what is happening now in the present actually feels the same as it did in the past. Triggers or memory flashbacks can take us back into the furthest reaches of our survival brain causing us to fight, flee, freeze, or feign death.
“Our nervous system is the foundation of our lived experience here on earth. To understand how the nervous system regulates itself towards safety and connection it is important to recognize that the nervous system has evolved in connection with nature, communities, and the universe at large. Disconnecting from nature and the natural elements and rhythms is dysregulating for our bodies." - awakenwithally
RETREAT OFFERINGS
Trauma Understandings
This simple understanding of our nervous system is the rationale behind the creation of a nature-informed trauma retreat. Our six-hour retreat is conducted both indoors and outside at one of Maryland‘s nature centers or serene parks.
The experience includes education on the little-known facts about trauma and grief and the many ways it can present in our lives. Mary Sue will explore different types of trauma including relational trauma and attachment injury to post-traumatic stress, along with the healing concepts of neuroplasticity.
Commenting on the nature of her practice, Mary Sue reflects that the most often asked question she receives from her clients is "Why can’t I stop thinking like this, I know the trauma experience is in the past, but it feels like it’s just happening again, all over again."
The Nature Connection
Nature offers us a sense of authentic belonging, a sense of being part of a larger whole. Nature does not pressure or judge, yet its sacred availability can be felt.
Holding this retreat in nature is an intentional choice to bring our pain, stress, or trauma to the natural world as a holding space. Nature Informed Therapists are trained to guide individuals into a closer relationship with nature which often results in significant mental health improvement for people and better stewardship for nature.
Nature Informed Therapy is a therapeutic approach that integrates the healing elements of nature into established, evidence-based treatment modalities.
2026 PARTNERING WITH NATURE TO HEAL
Reserve your place
Let the healing start for those who are experiencing traumatic injury including:
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Relational or Family Neglect and Abuse
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Sexual Trauma
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Life Threatening events resulting in Post-Traumatic Stress
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Loss of a loved one, a relationship, a life vision or career dream, physical capacity and wellness, a home, or companion animal
Starts Nov 14
195 US dollarsLoading availability...
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GUIDELINES FOR PRIVACY
Mary Sue has one stipulation and that is that participants clearly understand that there is NO invitation or expectation to share, reveal or discuss personal and grief trauma history. We understand and support our participants' rights to privacy and confidentiality. If at any time attendees feel uncomfortable or possibly triggered, one of our facilitators will support the attendee in resolving the discomfort.