Naropa's Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy concentration integrates clinical and theoretical
course work in counseling psychology with contemplative practice.
Transform yourself and experience the healing power of nature with a master’s degree
in Clinical Mental Health Counseling—Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy concentration.
Naropa University’s Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy program is an interdisciplinary,
multicultural program that prepares you to practice as a psychotherapist in a myriad
of settings, both outdoors and within clinical mental health agencies.
In addition to the study of mindfulness and transpersonal psychology, this intensely
experiential degree program gives you ten weeks’ direct experience in the wilderness,
acquiring outdoor skills along with mental health interventions that incorporate the
natural world into the therapeutic relationship.
Naropa’s Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy alumni are making their presence felt in
a wide-range of settings with diverse populations. As many as one-third of our students
receive job offers from their internship placements. Our Transpersonal Wilderness
Therapy graduates are working as school counselors, therapists in equine therapy programs,
faculty members, addictions counselors, directors of outdoor therapy programs, and
individual psychotherapists.
Naropa Community Counseling Center
Provide counseling to community members in your third year of graduate study as an
intern at the Naropa Community Counseling Center. The center offers contemplative
and mindfulness healing services to community residents on a sliding-fee scale.
Credits Required
60
The master’s degree program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a Transpersonal
Wilderness Therapy concentration is a three-year, 60-credit program that offers theoretical
grounding in transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology along with wilderness immersion
and 700 hours of a supervised internship.
Family Systems Interventions I: Equine-Assisted Settings
Special Populations Interventions: Wilderness Therapy Settings
Psychology of Meditation I: Mindfulness Training
Outdoor Skills I
Ecopsychology in Context
Program Learning Outcomes
Students demonstrate knowledge of core counseling curriculum.
Students demonstrate proficiency in clinical counseling skills.
Students demonstrate professional competence in counseling.
Students demonstrate the ability to effectively incorporate nature-based approaches
into counseling.
Students demonstrate an understanding of how culture and social structures influences
the human-nature relationship.
Student Spotlight
“Naropa is a guide, a friend, a parent, a teacher, a passion, a love interest. Naropa
stretches me intellectually while also providing the safest space I have ever known
to be authentically myself. There is nothing more important for my future than a solid
foundation. Naropa gives me that.”
“I like to describe our program as the conscious incorporation of the natural world
into the therapeutic process. We are really looking at: What are the benefits of bringing
nature into the counseling or therapeutic process? And how do you do it? I think that
is one of the unique things that we offer.”