Exploring Ecotherapy as a Pathway to Healing and Restoration

Description

This course is a live, interactive webinar held on November 6, 2026, from 11am-6pm Eastern Standard Time.

Registration closes at midnight (EST) the day before the event

Our relationship with nature is not incidental—it is ancestral, spiritual, and deeply woven into who we are. Yet for many people, that relationship has been disrupted by colonization, urbanization, environmental racism, and the demands of survival. Ecotherapy is the intentional practice of reclaiming it. Grounded in both empirical research and multicultural wisdom traditions, ecotherapy positions nature not as a backdrop or a tool, but as a relational presence—one that holds memory, offers refuge, and supports healing, identity, and belonging.

This course is designed for a wide range of participants: licensed clinicians, social workers, counselors, nurses, educators, community health workers, coaches, and practitioners across helping disciplines who are curious about weaving nature-based approaches into their work. It is equally relevant for lifelong learners who are drawn to ecotherapy for their own healing, restoration, and personal growth. Whether you work with individuals, groups, or communities—or are simply on your own journey of reconnection—this course offers culturally grounded, evidence-informed tools and frameworks you can use right away.

Your instructor, Dr. Tiffany A. Wright, DSW, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker, ecotherapist, and scholar-practitioner whose work sits at the intersection of ecopsychology, eco-social work, African-centered practice, and community-based healing. Her doctoral research at Morgan State University examined how Black millennial women in urban environments experience identity, belonging, and healing through relationships with nature—centering ancestral wisdom, intergenerational knowledge, and culturally grounded ecological practices. Dr. Wright brings both academic rigor and lived expertise to this course, drawing on ecowomanist and African-centered social work frameworks alongside Western ecopsychological theory to offer a genuinely integrative learning experience.

This course does not treat ecotherapy as something new to be introduced. Instead, it invites participants to recognize, name, and deepen ecological relationships that may already exist—embedded in everyday practices, family traditions, spiritual rituals, and cultural memory. The teaching approach centers storytelling, reflection, and experiential learning alongside theory and research, honoring the understanding that healing emerges not only from exposure to nature, but from meaning-making, cultural framing, and relational awareness.

Topics covered in this course include: the historical and cultural origins of ecotherapy across Western and non-Western traditions, including African, Asian, Mestizo, and Indigenous frameworks; the theoretical foundations of ecopsychology and eco-social work; the biophilia hypothesis and empirical evidence for nature-based interventions; the concepts of ecomemory, ecotrauma, ecogrief, and ecospirituality; the intersections of environmental racism, urban ecology, and mental health equity; forms of ecotherapy including gardening, animal-assisted therapy, nature walks, botany, mindfulness, meditation, journaling, sound baths, and sensory-based practices; and approaches for individual, group, community, in-person, and virtual implementation.

Key Takeaways:

• Ecotherapy as reclamation: Participants will understand ecotherapy not as a novel clinical technique, but as a culturally grounded process of reclaiming ancestral relationships with the natural world—one that already lives within communities, practices, and memory.
• Evidence-based and justice-informed: Participants will be able to assess the empirical research on nature-based interventions alongside frameworks that address environmental racism, urban ecology, and healing equity—applying both to their practice or personal journey.
• Skill-ready and immediately applicable: Participants will leave with six facilitated ecotherapy activities and a broadened definition of nature-based practice they can implement right away - across individual, group, community, in-person, and virtual contexts.

Why This Course?

• Relevant across roles, disciplines, and lived experience: Whether you are a licensed practitioner, a community helper, an educator, or someone on your own healing journey, ecotherapy offers accessible, culturally responsive tools that honor who you are and the communities you serve.
• Scholarship rooted in lived experience and original research: Dr. Wright's expertise is grounded in doctoral-level original research centering Black women's voices and urban communities, as well as years of clinical and community-based ecotherapy practice—bringing authenticity, rigor, and cultural depth to every learning objective.
• Delivered by a trusted provider: The Telehealth Certification Institute is committed to offering high-quality, accessible continuing education that expands competency and supports ethical, evidence-informed practice across disciplines.

Learning Objectives

• Define ecotherapy—including its scope, core concepts, and related modalities - and distinguish it from related terms such as nature-based interventions, ecopsychology, and eco-social work.
• Explain the dual origins of ecotherapy as both an ancestral, cross-cultural healing practice rooted in African, Indigenous, Asian, and Mestizo traditions and a formalized Western therapeutic framework.
• Discuss how ecotherapy is commonly experienced in everyday life - through practices such as plant care, cooking, water rituals, gardening, and sensory engagement with the natural world - without being named or contextualized as such.
• Assess the empirical evidence supporting nature-based interventions, including the biophilia hypothesis, and apply relevant findings to inform practice decisions across formal and informal helping contexts.
• Demonstrate at least six ecotherapy activities that can be facilitated indoors or outdoors, adapting each for individual, group, community, in-person, and virtual settings.
• Design a culturally responsive inquiry process for exploring a person’s or community’s existing relationships with nature—including personal, familial, spiritual, and ancestral connections - as a foundation for ecotherapy engagement.

Nature has always been a site of healing, memory, and return—and this course is an invitation to come back to it. Whether you are deepening your professional practice, expanding your toolkit, or simply following a personal calling toward restoration, ecotherapy offers something that belongs to all of us. Register today and take the first step toward reclaiming, naming, and sharing the healing power of the natural world.

Format and Access

This course is a live, interactive webinar.

Course Details

Schedule: (listed in Eastern Daylight Time)

• 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Lecture
• 12:00 pm - 12:05 pm Q&A
• 12:05 pm - 12:15 pm Break
• 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm Lecture
• 1:15 pm - 1:20 pm Q&A
• 1:20 pm - 1:50 pm Lunch
• 1:50 pm - 2:55 pm Lecture
• 2:55 pm - 3:05 pm Q&A
• 3:05 pm - 3:15 pm Break
• 3:15 pm - 4:20 pm Lecture
• 4:20 pm - 4:30 pm Q&A
• 4:30 pm - 4:40 pm Break
• 4:40 pm - 5:50 pm Lecture
• 5:50 pm - 6:00 pm Q&A

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a live, interactive webinar. Enrollment includes access to live event(s) but does not include recordings of the presentations.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructors

About Tiffany Wright, DSW, LCSW

DTiffany A. Wright, DSW, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, psychotherapist, author, speaker, and wellness consultant whose personal mission is to break cycles of disease, dysfunction, and communal struggle through offering opportunities for inner healing and enlightenment. She has built her clinical and community work on centering ancestral and culturally intuitive approaches to healing and liberation - emphasizing interventions and modalities that were centering approaches to well-being pre-colonization, including nature-based, somatic, and spiritual practices. Dr. Wright is trained and well-versed in Ecotherapy and Brainspotting, and as a mindfulness and somatic-focused practitioner, she brings intuitive movement, meditation, gratitude reflection, intention ritual, sound healing, artistic expression, storytelling, and ancestral veneration to healing and learning spaces.

Her doctoral research at Morgan State University explored how Black millennial women in urban environments experience identity, belonging, and healing through relationships with nature - centering ancestral wisdom, ecowomanist frameworks, and African-centered social work. She is the author of several books, including The 5 Commandments of Self-Love (2019), and the co-founder and Executive Director of Coco Coalition Inc., a nonprofit developing mental health, education, and women’s health programming for Black women and girls across North America and Africa. Outside of her purpose-driven work, Dr. Wright is an outdoor enthusiast and avid traveler who loves visiting National Parks, hiking, journaling, painting, and engaging in any intentional joy-cultivating or spirit-restoring activity - a living expression of the ecotherapy she teaches.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

Credit Hours:

This course consists of 6 continuing education hours of credit.

Counselors:

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No, 6693.  Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.  Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Mental Health Counselors. #MHC-0048.

Marriage and Family Therapists:

Many MFT licensing boards accept our courses or one of the approvals which we have from professional associations.  You can check with your board to determine if your licensing board would accept this course.

Social Workers:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, #1609, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 05/02/2024 – 05/02/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 6 clinical continuing education credits.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers #SW-0435.

Addiction Professionals:
 

This course has been approved by Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #193104, Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

Psychologists:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0128.

Art Therapists:

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Creative Arts Therapists #CAT-0093.

Other Professionals:

This course qualifies for 360 minutes of instructional content as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and professional organizations.  Retain your certificate of completion and contact your board or organization for specific filing requirements.

This course is an-interactive, live online webinar.

Participants may request a printed version of their certificate of completion to be delivered by mail. A shipping/handling fee of $6.95 will be charged per request. Shipping internationally may require an additional charge.

Agreement

By registering for this event you are agreeing to the following:

• 24 hour notice is required if you are not able to make it to a live event. Recordings are not provided to webinar registrants.
• To update and test using Zoom.us/test before the event to ensure you are ready for the event.
• Since this is a live interactive event it means that your interaction during the event is expected.  Your name and image will be visible to other participants during the live event. You will NOT be included in any recording made.
• An evaluation must be completed within one week of the event. Continuing Education credit(s) cannot be issued unless you attend the event and the evaluation is submitted.  (Evaluation is not mandatory for APA hours)
• Partial CE credits are not possible; therefore you are required to be present throughout the event in order to receive CE credits.
• Respect all other participants during the event as though you would if you were sitting with the other attendees at a conference table:
  • Dress appropriately
  • Be in a private location void of distractions
  • Do not multitask
  • Do not drive during an event
  • Remain on mute unless you are sharing with the group

Accommodations and Policies

Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations.

You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
• Cancellation Policy
• Grievance Policy
• Support Options
• Disclosure Statement