STOP- Secondary Trauma Of Providers Nature Therapy Gathering- November

About this event

Free Monthly Nature Therapy Group

Unplug. Process. Restore.

Are you a healthcare worker, therapist, social worker, first responder, educator or professional caregiver? The heavy emotional weight of helping others can lead to Secondary Traumatic Stress and compassion fatigue.

Take a breath and step away from the clinical setting. Join fellow service providers for a gentle, restorative monthly gathering outside in the quiet beauty of the natural land. Together, we will practice nature-based somatic grounding, sensory awareness, and peer solidarity to regulate our nervous systems and build lasting resilience.

Every 4th Wednesday of the month, with some rotating dates.

November's offering includes an evening stroll through the woods, bring headlamp or flashlight (some will be offered if you don't have one), walking shoes for the season and bundle up!

Walking into the woods after dark shifts the night from an unknown presence into a space of exploration, mirroring how we can learn to tend and befriend our own inner shadows. This practice is intended to support us in accepting and walking through difficult feelings like anger or fatigue instead of suppressing them, as caregivers often find themselves doing. Being together in this evening woods wander allows us to collectively honor the shadow parts of ourselves and the work we do.

What We Will Do

• Somatic & Sensory Grounding: Guided forest bathing, earth grounding, eco-art, somatic anchoring, mindful trail walking and more among native Iowa woodlands to reduce activation and offer stabilization.

• Nervous System Regulation: Group reflection and meditation focused on autonomic regulation in a variety of earth based locations.

• Confidential Peer Solidarity: Safe, non-clinical spaces for local providers to share resources and alleviate professional isolation

How to Prepare

• Dress comfortably: Wear layers and supportive walking shoes for uneven dirt trails.

• Bring a water bottle: Stay hydrated while moving through the preserve.

• An open mind: No previous outdoor or meditation experience is required.

• Optional- blankets, chairs, journals, sketch pads, writing utensils, anything else to make you comfortable or support you throughout the experience.

This grounded, nervous system-focused nature therapy group is a space for professional support and regulation, not group therapy or processing. We gather to connect with the outdoors and each other to restore our baseline, rather than to clinically unpack or discuss traumatic events.

To remove financial barriers to critical mental wellness resources, this is a mutual aid community care endeavor, no capital is exchanged.

Educator Bio:

Anne Ventullo, LISW is a clinical psychotherapist, researcher and death doula. She applies a social justice and holistic lens to her work. Her practices borrow from a variety of resources including ecopsychology, nature wellness, resilience theory, and empowerment perspectives to aid communities and their individual members in creating lifestyles that are ecologically sustainable and psychologically healthy.