Clinical Mental Health Counseling MA

Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling Concentration

Embark on a transformative journey through experiential classroom learning, nature-based practices, contemplation, and nature retreats. You will integrate theory with practice as you deepen your connection to the natural world.

Over the course of this three-year master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, you’ll join a cohort of graduate students with whom you will share life experiences, create community spirit, and build personal and professional relationships in a bold and authentic learning environment.

About this Concentration

The focus of this concentration is a belief in the healing power of nature. Building on the skills and dispositions learned throughout the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, graduates can enact their desire to be of service to others. This concentration values experiential learning within a community.

Join us and become a leader in the field of healing, where you will learn to weave together nature, mindfulness, and compassionate care to make a difference in the world.

The Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling concentration focuses on four core areas:

Coursework that covers the Clinical Mental Health Counseling and theoretical knowledge needed for licensing in most states.
Training in therapeutic techniques that can be employed in and out of the traditional counseling room.
Incorporation of meditation and body awareness practices throughout the program.
A hands-on 9- to 12-month internship to gain practical experience.

Learn in Community

Students in the Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling Concentration move through their studies as a cohort. Through rich interpersonal exchanges, students gain increased awareness of their patterns and the ways they impact and are impacted by others. Students learn to consider other perspectives and develop tools for acknowledging and addressing power differentials, co-creating spaces of mutual bravery and vulnerability.

Unmatched Training Experience

The uniqueness of this concentration offers students learning activities (e.g., lectures) outside in Boulder Valley, the front range, the Rocky Mountains, and the Utah Canyons. Students engage in an approximately one-week-long camping trip per semester.

These trips, along with day trips, enhance students’ skills through immersive experiences in nature. Trained faculty will support you to safely experience a range of nature-based activities and interventions, including camping, backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, animal-assisted therapies, and horticulture. On day trips to urban and rural parks, gardens, and farms, you will practice mindfulness in nature, learn about local land history and ecology, engage in reciprocal caretaking of the land, and practice facilitation skills.

Students are introduced to advocacy, i.e., the logistical, financial, and cultural constraints that may prevent people from accessing land. We explore approaches to address this. You will also be guided to explore the impacts of the climate crisis and environmental injustices while gaining skills to address the growing disconnect between humans and nature.

Hybrid Internships

During your third and final year, you’ll complete a clinical internship and provide invaluable practical training and experience. Students are responsible for securing their internship sites and may partner with a vast array of traditional and non-traditional sites along the front range of Colorado and across the United States. Past interns have gained clinical experience interning at schools, equine-assisted therapy centers, residential treatment facilities, wilderness therapy programs, community mental health centers, and other counseling organizations.

To grant you the flexibility to find an internship that best matches your interests, some of your courses will be online beginning in the summer of your second year. During the Internship, you will visit campus a minimum of one time per semester.

Introspective Approach

A Transitions and Rites of Passage course in your second year is intended to help you learn about the significance of recognizing and marking life transitions. It culminates in a 3-night solo held in community with your instructors and fellow cohort members. This deeply moving ceremony draws from seasonal wisdom, myth and storytelling, personal symbolism, ancestral roots, and counseling principles. It centers the human experience of change and loss, while fostering a sense of belonging and an acknowledgement of our shared responsibility to the human and more than human world. The process will help prepare you to transition into the role of professional counselor, while giving you direct experience in creating group rituals in nature.

Quick Facts

On-campus degree for first 2 years; hybrid for Internship year.
6 week-long camping trips plus field days to learn how to work creatively in a range of settings.
Hands-on experience with nature-based modalities like equine-assisted therapy, horticulture, rock climbing, canoeing, and hiking.
Opportunities to experience and practice nature-based techniques that can be used with diverse populations in clinical, office-based settings and beyond.
A personal rite of passage prepares students for the transition into more professional roles.

Program Format

The MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program focusing on Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling is a three-year program blending clinical and theoretical coursework in clinical mental health counseling, contemplative practice, and nature-based counseling.

Supported by Buddhist, transpersonal, and earth-based thought and practice, the program is grounded in the belief that we inherently belong and are interconnected with all life.

Course Spotlight

Psychology of Meditation: Foundations of Mindfulness

Topics presented through lectures and readings deepen the understanding of essential principles of meditative awareness. The specific focus of the course is the way meditation can support the counseling relationship.

Degree
Requirements

The Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling concentration is a 66-credit, three-year, experiential, interdisciplinary, and culturally diverse program that offers graduate students a comprehensive blend of counseling and nature-informed therapeutic expertise. At the crossroads of counseling, ecopsychology, and mindfulness, this master’s degree is a transformative journey of self-discovery, skill development, and service.

Counseling Experiential Requirement:

Each student must participate in a counseling/therapy relationship with a qualified psychotherapist of their choice. A minimum of fifteen 50-minute face-to-face sessions (via telehealth or in person) within the first two years of the program is required. (The term “psychotherapist” is used to be inclusive of licensed providers from a variety of professional mental health backgrounds. The Student Guidebook outlines specific parameters of a qualified psychotherapist.)

Course Schedule

Fall Year 1 (12 credits)

CNSN 610, Nature Based Counseling I: Foundations (1)
CMHC 600, Foundations and Orientation of Clinical Mental Health Counseling (3)
CMHC 602, Human Growth and Development (3)
CMHC 606, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Counseling (3)
CNST 622, Psychology of Meditation (2)

Credits: 12

Spring Year 1 (13 credits)

CNSN 612, Nature Based Counseling II: Theory in Practice (2)
CMHC 603, Counseling and Helping Relationships I (3)
CMHC 601, Social/Multicultural Foundations (3)
CMHC 605, Group Counseling (3)
CNST 721, Cultivating Mindful Presence (2)

Credits: 13

Fall Year 2 (11 credits)

CMHC 604, Counseling and Helping Relationships II (3)
CMHC 608, Assessment (3)
CNSN 621, Person/Plants/Land: Horticulture in Counseling (1)
CNSN 620, Nature Based Counseling III: Connection & Disconnection (1)
CNSN 622, Family Systems (3)

Credits: 11

Spring Year 2 (10 credits)

CMHC 620, Counseling Practicum (3)
CMHC 607, Diagnosis & Treatment Planning (3)
CNSN 630, Nature-Based Facilitation (2)
CNSN 626, Transitions Through the Lifespan (2)

Credits: 10

Summer Year 2 (6 credits)

CMHC 610, Career Development (3)
CMHC 621, Initial Internship (2)
CNSN 631, Contemplative Perspectives & Practice (1)

Credits: 6

Fall Year 3 (7 credits)

CMHC 622, Internship I (3)
CMHC 615, Capstone I (1)
CNSN 632, Crisis, Trauma & Disaster Counseling (3)

Credits: 7

Winter Intersession Year 3 (0 credits)

CMHC 623, Winter Intercession Internship (0)

Spring Year 3 (7 credits)

CMHC 624, Internship II (3)
CMHC 616, Capstone II (1)
CMHC 609, Research & Program Evaluation (3)

Credits: 7

Why Choose Naropa?

Learn in Relationship with Others and the Natural World

Over the course of three years, students are supported to develop relationships with fellow cohort members, while also engaging in reciprocal relationships with the more-than-human world.

Contemplative Education

We augment the traditional counseling curriculum with additional teachings and experiences, including Earth-based practices that support individual and collective wellbeing.

Career Readiness

Our students learn how to work creatively with the tools and resources at hand and to make use of the natural metaphors that we as humans intuitively understand.

How this Program Prepares You

Internship Outcomes

In the final year of your graduate degree program, you will serve as a supervised intern in a community agency, gaining crucial experience in a specialty area such as addiction counseling or crisis intervention. Throughout the internship, you’ll be supported by on-site supervision, faculty mentorship, and career development counseling.

Diverse Fields of Learning

Naropa’s master’s in Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling degree is one-of-a-kind. Integrating classroom learning, hands-on experience, and contemplative practice, students will gain knowledge in a wide array of fields, from ecopsychology to outdoor therapy and leadership.

Introspective System

A foundational belief of this experiential program is that understanding and working with others begins with an ability to understand and work with oneself. Moving through the cohorted program, students learn to be mindful of their own reactions as well as their impact on others. They are supported to approach challenges in a compassionate way that reduces the tendency to pathologize the self and others. Finally, they are encouraged to reflect upon and, where appropriate, share their own experiences in the world, thus learning how to create and maintain spaces of mutual bravery and vulnerability.

Learning Outcomes

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.

Career Opportunitites for Nature-Based Transpersonal Counselors

The master’s degree in nature-based counseling combines elements of psychology and spirituality. At its core, it offers an intensely experiential, interdisciplinary, and multicultural approach, equipping graduate students with diverse counseling and nature-informed experiences.

From agency to private practice to wilderness therapy programs, our Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling concentration unlocks diverse career paths in mental health, education, and beyond. Our graduates bring their unique perspective to their work in agency, non-profit, and private practice settings, as well as in groundbreaking programs in horticulture, animal therapy, and outdoor experiences.