Outdoor
Companionship

Outdoor Companionship with SGTI is a
nature immersion program with elements of

- Forest bathing (shinrin yoku)

- Deep listening

- Contemplation and mindfulness

- Community-building

This might be a program
for you if you:

1. Love the natural world and want to deepen your connection and ecological identity.

2. Are interested in accompanying groups and individuals on slow, intentional, gentle experiences in nature.

3. Feel curious about building relationships and reciprocity with the more-than-human world.

4. Want to commit more deeply to climate/eco justice and healing and being healed by the natural world.

5. Live in an urban, suburban, or rural setting and want to elevate your self-care, community care, and creative practices.

Outdoor Companionship is a fully online training and provides what you will need to integrate the natural environment in your work, service, and play or guide groups on gentle walks for health and well-being, compassionate presence, and reciprocity. Our andragogy (adult learning model) emphasizes the inner development of the outdoor companion, intuitive and embodied awareness of every proximate and distant being, and our interconnection with all of life. With completion of requirements, you will receive a certificate in Outdoor Companionship.

The Outdoor Companionship training is designed for educators of all subjects and ages, therapists, social workers, health professionals, environmentally-focused professionals, spiritual directors/guides, writers and creatives, other caring-centered people, and anyone else who wants to deepen relationships with the natural environment and engage in justice to improve policies and practices of your area of residence. This program is open to all and especially designed for urban dwellers; you do not need to live near a forest to participate, you need only to be able to go outside near trees/flowers/grass.

Program Structure

Synchronous Zoom sessions occur from March to June and focus on both practical and theoretical knowledge.
In between online live classes, you will engage with readings, videos,
and of course,
the more-than-human world wherever you live.

Though not limited to urban environments, content on outdoor companionship in cities will be highlighted.

Topics of exploration

Relationships with plants & place and eco-identity

Reciprocity

Presence, observation, attention, and healing

Herbal medicine

Eco/environmental justice

Discernment in nature

Orientation to self, place, and time

Shinrin yoku (forest bathing)

Hard, soft, and contemplative science of being in nature

How to guide and build communities

Interrelationship between nature-contemplation and creativity

2024 Dates & Times

March 10 – June 2, 2024

Please note: Times are in Central Time
and we meet by Zoom

March 10 from 8:30 am- 3:30 pm (full day)

March 17 from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

March 24 from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

April 7 from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

April 14 or sometime between April 7 and 28 from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm (solo nature immersion)

April 28 from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

May 5 from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

May 19 from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm (full day)

June 2 from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

Community morning nature contemplations
(sit spots) are recommended and are on March 11, April 8, and May 6 at 6:30 am to 7:30 am CT.

2024 Rates

Supporter rate: $2,450

Regular rate: $2,150

Equity rate: $800

Supporter Rate: For those with institutional funding or historical access to wealth.
Pays for yourself and makes it possible for us to offer this work to those who may not otherwise be able to participate.

Regular Rate: Standard rate for the training, that makes our work possible.

Equity Rate: For those who would not be able to participate at the regular rate due to systemic inequity. Please contact us if you need a sliding scale within the equity rate.

Method of Payment
Venmo, PayPal (extra 3% charge,) or Personal Check accepted. For those in need of a payment plan, please inquire.

Please Note: 100% of tuition cost is due after acceptance to secure your spot. Contact us if you’d like to pay in 2 installments.

Meet the Faculty here.

Please contact us with application interest

Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.
- Robin Wall Kimmerer

To attend to the tree, to reflect on it, is to gain a sense for the unity of the world that is, so to speak, condensed in the tree.
- Dieter Kotte, Qing Li, Won Sop Shin

What’s good for the fish is good for the people. - Norm Harry, former chairperson of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe

Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.
- Joanna Macy in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass

Please contact us with application interest

Photos by Jeanette Banashak and Beth Brown