Born to be Wild:
Nature-Based Play for Your Inner Child

with Janet Courtney and Cyndera Quackenbush

Workshop
Saturday, January 14, 2023
12 pm - 1:30 pm EST (Eastern Time, USA), on Zoom
Please convert to your Time Zone
This Program Will Be Recorded.
The recording link will be sent to you within 72 hours after the live program.
Program Cost: $25

register to attend

“The realms of flower, stone, sky, and creatures invite a metaphorical storied re-connection with Self.”

Ready for a wild nature adventure? Join author and psychotherapist Janet Courtney, PhD, and Author/Storyteller Cyndera Quackenbush, MA, as they present on how the metaphorical and symbolic elements of nature lead to healing encounters.

This workshop welcomes you into the heart of the nature-based play and expressive therapies inspired by the archetypal and metaphorical foundations of Carl Jung and Milton Erickson.

There is growing research that contact with nature is emotionally, cognitively, and physically restorative. The realms of flower, stone, sky, and creatures will be freshly illuminated, inviting a metaphorical storied re-connection.

The presenters draw upon their recent chapter in the book titled, Nature-Based Play and Expressive Therapies: Interventions for Working with Children, Teens, and Families.

This workshop highlights stories of Jung's own connection to nature as a child and adult.

Come prepared with a nature object to share for a brief group experiential activity.

Who Is It For

Anyone interested in how to reconnect with nature in a playful way.
Those interesting in exploring the healing potential of nature.
Therapists, educators, storytellers, nature lovers, jungians.
Anyone interested in earth-related topics

Your Instructors

Janet A. Courtney, Ph.D.

For over 25 years, Dr. Courtney, Ph.D., LCSW, RPT-S, has worked with children to heal emotional wounds and families in enhancing the parent-child relationship, utilizing a variety of creative experiential modalities including Developmental Play Therapy; Artistic Mediums, Family Play Therapy; Gestalt Therapy; Visualization/Imagery; and metaphorically through the incorporation of Earth Sciences.

Janet Courtney is the founder of FirstPlay Therapy and author of Healing Child and Family Trauma Through Expressive and Play Therapies, Infant Play Therapy, and Touch in Child Counseling and Play Therapy, and Nature-Based Play and Expressive Therapies.

Cyndera Quackenbush

Cyndera Quackenbush, MA, is the creator of the Story Through Stone cards and practice. As a talented, Intuitive Storyteller, Cyndera facilitates workshops in California and internationally on the topics of Therapeutic Use of Card Imagery and Archetypes and also on Awakening the Animistic Imagination. She is a Depth Psychology alumna of Pacifica Graduate Institute whose mission remains “tending the soul of and in the world."

As a writer, educator, and social-emotional mentor for children and adults in the Bay Area, Cyndera has found her bliss in helping others to uncover their purpose and path with imaginative play. She is also a certified Card Reader through Biddy Tarot and has been the host of the Archetypal Tarot Podcast for almost ten years, with over 100,000 followers. Cyndera has a chapter published in a collection of Nature Play Therapy by Routledge in 2022.

*"This book is a nourishing banquet of play and healing. It offers great resources for those who connect children, families, and communities to the natural world."*

— Richard Louv | author of Last Child in the Woods, Vitamin N, and Our Wild Calling

What You Will Learn

Profound nature-based experiences in Jung’s early life that shaped his methodology
How Metaphor is at the heart of nature-based therapies.
How Trauma is processed by the right-brain hemisphere (in which nature imagery prevails).
The relationship between archetypes, symbols, and metaphor in nature therapies.
How viewing and connecting imagery from nature into story sparks healing responses in the psyche.

“Highly recommended!”

“Brilliant! Blending the powers of play and expressive therapies with the robust healing of the natural world is a groundbreaking contribution! Highly recommended!”
— David A. Crenshaw, PhD, AB

“an amazing way to connect the dreamscape with my current life…”

“This method is an amazing way to connect the dreamscape with my current life both metaphorically and literally. The things I found really helpful: having my story reflected back to me, taking the time to visualize important aspects of the story, and exploring all symbols before analyzing for meaning.”

— T.S. | Workshop Participant