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Venturous Counselling offers nature-based therapy, walk and talk therapy, and forest therapy in Vancouver, Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Burnaby for youth, adults, and relationships. Nature based healing at Venturous integrates outdoor therapeutic work with clinical counselling, led by registered clinical counsellors trained in nature-based modalities, art therapy, somatic therapy, EMDR, and narrative practice. This guide explores how nature engages the nervous system differently than office-based therapy, who nature-based therapy supports, what to expect in outdoor sessions, and how Venturous approaches this work through an anti-oppressive, justice-oriented lens. Venturous supports people navigating anxiety, burnout, grief, trauma, chronic stress, chronic pain, identity exploration, and nervous system overwhelm.
In This Guide
- Why Nature Based Healing?
- How the Body Responds to Nature (and Why That Matters for Therapy)
- What Nature-Based Therapy Looks Like at Venturous
- Walk and Talk Therapy: When Movement Is the Way In
- Forest Therapy: When the Trees Hold What the Room Can’t
- Who Nature-Based Therapy Supports
- Access, Land, and the Questions We Carry Into the Work
- What to Expect in Your First Outdoor Session
- Next Steps: Finding Your Fit at Venturous
There’s a moment in therapy, sometimes weeks in, sometimes months, where something shifts. The words are coming, the insights are landing, the relationship with your counsellor feels real. And still. The body hasn’t quite caught up. Still bracing. Still holding. Still organized around a version of safety that looks like sitting very still in a very controlled room.
For some people, that’s exactly the right container. For others, the container is the thing that needs to change.
Nature based healing starts from a simple premise: the body doesn’t process everything the same way in every environment. Some things loosen when you walk. Some things surface when the ceiling is the sky. Some truths come easier when you’re looking at a tree instead of across a room at someone waiting for you to speak.
At Venturous Counselling in Vancouver and Port Moody, nature-based therapy is a core part of how we work with youth, adults, and relationships navigating anxiety, burnout, grief, trauma, chronic stress and fatigue, identity exploration, and nervous system overwhelm. Our registered clinical counsellors offer walk and talk therapy, forest therapy, and outdoor sessions across Vancouver, Burnaby, and Coquitlam.
This is the guide to all of it. What nature based healing is, what the body does differently outside, what to expect in an outdoor session, and what it means to practice nature-based therapy on stolen land with care and accountability.
Why Nature Based Healing?
There’s something the therapy room offers that most spaces in your life don’t. A place where the pace of everything outside slows to the pace of your own breath. A place where someone is paying attention, with unconditional care, to the things you’ve been carrying alone. That matters. It’s often the first time someone’s body learns it can be witnessed without being evaluated.
And there’s also something worth noticing about what the therapy room asks of the body.
Sit. Face someone. Stay still. Make eye contact. Speak from your most vulnerable places while your nervous system registers all the signals of a small, enclosed space: the hum of the air system, the sameness of the light, the door that closes behind you.
For many people, this is fine. For some, it’s more than fine; the containment is part of what makes it safe.
But for others, the body doesn’t settle in that configuration. It braces. It performs calm. It offers the words it knows are expected while the nervous system stays on alert, scanning the room the same way it scans everywhere else.
Nature based healing asks: what if we changed the room?
Not because there’s something wrong with offices. But because the body has more than one way of arriving at truth, and some of those ways need ground beneath them, sky above them, and space to move.
How the Body Responds to Nature (and Why That Matters for Therapy)
The human nervous system evolved outdoors. For the vast majority of our species’ history, “inside” meant a temporary shelter, not a permanent environment. The body’s regulatory systems, the ones that govern stress, rest, attention, and safety, were shaped by natural stimuli: shifting light, ambient sound, uneven terrain, the presence of other living organisms.
When you step outside, those systems wake up in a particular way.
The parasympathetic nervous system, the branch responsible for rest and repair, responds to natural environments with a down-regulation that’s difficult to achieve in built spaces. Cortisol drops. Heart rate variability improves. The visual system relaxes as it takes in the fractal patterns of leaves, bark, and water, patterns the brain processes more efficiently than the straight lines and flat surfaces of constructed rooms.
The default mode network, the brain system associated with rumination, “overthinking,” and self-referential worry, becomes less dominant during movement in natural settings. Thought still happens. But it shifts register. It becomes less circular, less defended, more willing to wander toward the thing you’ve been avoiding.
And there’s something subtler happening too, something that research is beginning to name but that the body already knows. In nature, you’re surrounded by other living systems. Trees exchanging gases. Mycorrhizal networks beneath your feet. Birds calling warnings and invitations. The body registers this as a different kind of aloneness than what an empty room offers. You’re alone with your counsellor, but you’re inside a web of living things. For people whose nervous systems have learned to equate enclosed spaces with danger, or stillness with being trapped, that web of aliveness can become the thing that finally lets the body exhale.
This is the foundation of nature based healing: the recognition that the environment isn’t separate from the therapeutic process. It’s part of it. And when the environment changes, the process changes too.
What Nature-Based Therapy Looks Like at Venturous
At Venturous, nature-based therapy includes walk and talk therapy, forest therapy, and outdoor sessions that blend movement, sitting, and conversation in natural settings across Vancouver, Burnaby, and Coquitlam.
All of our nature-based sessions are led by registered clinical counsellors with specialized training in outdoor therapeutic modalities. The depth of the work, the relational attention, the ethical commitments, all of it carries from the office to the outdoors. What changes is the container. And sometimes, the container is the thing that’s been in the way.
Nature-based therapy at Venturous can be a standalone practice or combined with office-based sessions, art therapy, somatic therapy, or EMDR. Many clients find a rhythm that alternates between indoor and outdoor sessions based on what their body needs, what’s surfacing in the work, and what kind of space feels right on any given day.
The pace, the location, and the structure of each session are collaborative. Your counsellor works with you to choose spaces that match your mobility, your comfort, and your access. Some sessions are walking. Some are sitting. Some are both. The modality bends to meet the body you’re actually in.
Walk and Talk Therapy: When Movement Is the Way In
Walk and talk therapy is therapeutic conversation held while walking outdoors, side by side, with a registered clinical counsellor. The side-by-side orientation shifts the dynamic, softening the intensity of face-to-face contact while matching the rhythm of conversation to the rhythm of the body. Bilateral movement activates both hemispheres of the brain, supporting emotional processing in ways similar to EMDR.
Walk and talk therapy tends to fit people who think better in motion, who feel constricted in office settings, who struggle with sustained eye contact, or who don’t have a private space for virtual sessions.
For a deeper look at how it works, what happens in a session, and who it’s best suited for: Combining Nature and Therapy: What Walk and Talk Sessions Actually Do →
Forest Therapy: When the Trees Hold What the Room Can’t
Forest therapy takes the work into the forest itself, using the ecosystem, the canopy, the light, the soil, the sounds, as an active part of the therapeutic environment. Phytoncides released by trees reduce cortisol and support immune function. The ambient soundscape activates the parasympathetic system. And the forest holds particular paradoxes well: everything dying and growing at the same time, the fallen tree becoming the nurse log, rest as a season rather than a failure.
Forest therapy at Venturous is especially resonant for people navigating grief, burnout, and the kind of exhaustion that doesn’t respond to rest alone.
For more about how it differs from forest bathing and what sessions look like locally: Forest Therapy in Vancouver and Burnaby: More Than Just a Nice Walk →
For the deeper story of where forest therapy comes from, who gets access, and what honest practice looks like: What Is Forest Therapy? Reconnecting with Nature Beyond Wellness Trends →
Who Nature-Based Therapy Supports
Venturous Counselling supports adults, youth, and relationships seeking therapy for anxiety, burnout, grief, trauma, chronic stress, chronic pain or illness, self-worth and body image concerns, relationship difficulties, and nervous system overwhelm, with care that acknowledges social and systemic context.
Nature-based therapy specifically tends to reach people who:
Have done therapy before and want a different way in. The work has been useful, but something in the container has felt limiting. The body needs more room. The conversation needs more air.
Process better when they’re moving or outdoors. If you’ve always been someone who thinks while walking, clears their head in the garden, or makes sense of hard things while staring at water, nature-based therapy works with that impulse instead of asking you to override it.
Feel safer outside than inside. For people whose homes aren’t private enough for virtual sessions, or whose nervous systems associate enclosed spaces with institutional harm, outdoor therapy offers a different kind of safety.
Are navigating identity, belonging, or transition. The natural world doesn’t need you to be one thing. It holds multiplicity without flinching. For people exploring who they’re becoming, that permission can feel like the first deep breath in a long time.
Are new to therapy entirely. Some people who’ve never tried counselling find the idea of sitting in an office daunting. Walking through a park with someone, talking at your own pace, can feel like a more natural entry point. Because it is.
Access, Land, and the Questions We Carry Into the Work
Nature-based therapy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists on land. And in a city like Vancouver, that land is stolen.
Our sessions take place on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Qayqayt, and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) peoples. These nations have sophisticated, living relationships with the forests and waterways we walk through, relationships that predate every clinical framework we use and that continue despite centuries of colonial violence aimed at severing them.
At Venturous, all proceeds from nature-based therapy sessions are redistributed to Indigenous organizing efforts. We practice nature-based healing on stolen land, drawing from knowledge systems Indigenous peoples have been protecting for centuries. Redistribution is one way of staying accountable inside that truth, one gesture among many, offered without pretending it settles anything.
We also hold the access questions honestly. Green space isn’t equally available. Not everyone feels safe in wooded areas. Mobility, chronic pain, sensory processing, and transportation shape what outdoor therapy looks like for each person. Our counsellors discuss all of this before the first outdoor session and adapt the work to meet your body, your history, and your reality.
For a deeper exploration of these questions: What Is Forest Therapy? Reconnecting with Nature Beyond Wellness Trends →
What to Expect in Your First Outdoor Session
Your counsellor will talk with you before your first outdoor session about location, terrain, weather considerations, mobility, and anything else that shapes what feels right for your body.
On the day, you’ll meet at a predetermined location in Vancouver, Burnaby, or Coquitlam. Wear comfortable layers and shoes you can walk in. Bring water. That’s it.
The session begins with a check-in. Where are you today? What’s here? Then the conversation unfolds, sometimes while walking, sometimes while sitting, sometimes while standing still and watching the light move through the branches.
Your counsellor is paying attention to everything they’d pay attention to in an office: your nervous system, your patterns, your language, your body. The difference is that the environment is paying attention too. And your body is responding to both.
Sessions are the same length as office sessions. Rates are the same. Direct billing is available through most extended health plans.
If it rains, and it will, your counsellor has a plan. Light rain doesn’t cancel the work. Sometimes the weather becomes part of it.
Next Steps: Finding Your Fit at Venturous
If your body’s been telling you it needs something different, if you’ve been doing the work and still feel like the container hasn’t quite matched what you’re carrying, here are three ways to explore nature-based therapy at Venturous:
Take our 3-minute matching quiz to find the counsellor who fits your needs, your style, and your life. The quiz considers what you’re navigating, how you prefer to process, and what kind of therapeutic relationship you’re looking for.
Book a free 15-minute consultation with a counsellor directly. Ask about walk and talk therapy, forest therapy, or outdoor sessions. Ask what it looks like for someone with your body and your story.
Explore our nature-based therapy page for details on locations, rates, and the counsellors who offer this work in Vancouver, Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Burnaby.
Or go deeper:
- Combining Nature and Therapy: What Walk and Talk Sessions Actually Do
- Forest Therapy in Vancouver and Burnaby: More Than Just a Nice Walk
- What Is Forest Therapy? Reconnecting with Nature Beyond Wellness Trends
And if something in you already knows that the next session belongs outside, maybe the knowing is enough. Maybe you don’t have to explain it first.
Julianna Lei, MCP, RCC is a walk and talk, nature-based therapy practitioner and registered clinical counsellor at Venturous Counselling in Vancouver and Port Moody. Julianna works slowly and thoughtfully with people navigating complex inner worlds, identity tension, and experiences of harm. Her approach centres consent, pacing, and helping clients reconnect with parts of themselves that’ve been overridden or doubted. She draws on art therapy, narrative practice, and nature-based modalities, and she especially welcomes people who make sense of their lives through stories, patterns, and the kind of self-reflection that peels back one layer at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions About Nature-Based Therapy
What is nature based healing?
Nature-based therapy is clinical counselling that takes place in outdoor natural environments, led by registered clinical counsellors. At Venturous, it includes walk and talk therapy, forest therapy, and outdoor sessions in parks, trails, and green spaces across Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, and Port Moody.
How does nature based healing differ from regular therapy?
Nature-based therapy uses the same clinical skills, relational attention, and therapeutic frameworks as office-based therapy. The difference is the environment. Being outdoors engages the parasympathetic nervous system, reduces cortisol, and quiets the brain’s rumination centres. Movement activates bilateral brain stimulation similar to EMDR. For some people, these environmental shifts are what allow deeper processing.
What types of nature based healing does Venturous offer?
Walk and talk therapy (therapeutic conversation while walking outdoors), forest therapy (counselling held in forested environments), and outdoor seated sessions. These can be standalone or combined with office-based approaches like art therapy, somatic therapy, and EMDR.
What conditions does nature based healing help with?
Nature-based therapy supports people navigating anxiety, burnout, grief, trauma, chronic stress and fatigue, self-worth and body image concerns, identity exploration, relationship difficulties, and nervous system overwhelm.
Who is nature based therapy best suited for?
People who process better in motion, feel constricted in offices, struggle with sustained eye contact, don’t have a private space for virtual sessions, are navigating identity or transition, have done therapy before and want a different way in, or are new to therapy and find walking in a park less daunting than sitting in an office.
Where do sessions take place?
Parks, trails, waterfronts, and green spaces across Vancouver, Burnaby, and Coquitlam. Your counsellor works with you to choose a location that fits your body, mobility, comfort, and transportation access. Office sessions are available in Vancouver and Port Moody.
How much does nature-based healing cost?
Rates range from $160-$240 per session, the same as office-based sessions. Direct billing is available through Pacific Blue Cross, GreenShield, Canada Life, Sun Life, and others. Funded sessions through CVAP, ICBC, WorkBC, FNHA, and Autism Funding are also accepted.
Is nature-based therapy covered by insurance in BC?
Yes. Sessions are provided by registered clinical counsellors (RCCs), covered under most extended health plans that include counselling. Venturous offers direct billing and accepts multiple funding programs.
Can I do both indoor and outdoor sessions?
Yes. Many clients alternate between nature-based sessions and office-based approaches. Your counsellor helps you build a rhythm that fits, and that rhythm can change over time.
What should I expect in my first outdoor session?
Your counsellor talks with you beforehand about location, terrain, weather, and mobility. On the day, you meet at a predetermined spot, wear comfortable layers and shoes, and bring water. The session begins with a check-in, then unfolds as conversation while walking, sitting, or standing in nature.
Does Venturous honour Indigenous land-based healing practices?
All proceeds from nature-based therapy sessions are redistributed to Indigenous organizing efforts. We practice on stolen Indigenous land and acknowledge that land-based healing is a return to knowledge Indigenous peoples have been protecting for centuries.
Is nature-based therapy accessible for people with disabilities or chronic pain?
Yes. Sessions adapt to meet your body. Paved paths, seated sessions, flexible locations. Your counsellor discusses mobility, chronic pain, sensory processing, and any access needs before your first outdoor session.
How do I get started?
Take the 3-minute matching quiz, book a free 15-minute consultation, or visit the nature-based therapy page for details. Available in Vancouver, Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Burnaby.
