The Place Within Southern California

### Context Profile for The Place Within Southern California

#### 1. Organization Mission & Cause:
The Place Within Southern California is dedicated to providing education, training, and support in the field of mental health, particularly focusing on grief and loss. Their mission emphasizes the importance of creating safe spaces for individuals to explore and discuss topics related to death and dying. They aim to enhance the practice of Marriage and Family Therapy through professional development and community engagement, fostering integrity and sound practices within the mental health field.

#### 2. Type of Activities:
- **Workshops and Training**: The organization offers various workshops, such as the "Embracing the Beauty in Grief Series," which includes interactive sessions on grief group facilitation and continuing education for mental health professionals.
- **Community Programs**: Collaborations with organizations like Kintsugi Grief Center to provide grief support and education.
- **Retreats**: Annual events such as the Ecotherapy Retreat, focusing on healing through nature and community.
- **Continuing Education**: Programs that meet the qualifications for continuing education credits for licensed therapists.

#### 3. Tone of Voice:
The tone of voice used by The Place Within is professional yet approachable. It combines elements of warmth and support, aiming to inspire and educate its audience. The language is clear and informative, with a focus on creating a safe and welcoming atmosphere for discussions around sensitive topics like grief.

#### 4. Emoji Usage:
The organization does not prominently use emojis in their communications. The tone remains formal and professional, focusing on clear and respectful language, particularly given the sensitive nature of their work.

#### 5. Key Facts:
- **Founding Info**: Specific founding details are not mentioned, but the organization is actively involved in the mental health community in Southern California.
- **Scale**: The organization has a total of 19 forms and has conducted 51 email campaigns, indicating a robust engagement with their audience.
- **Impact Metrics**: While specific metrics are not detailed on the website, the focus on continuing education and community workshops suggests a commitment to enhancing professional practice and community support.
- **Volunteer Info**: Information regarding volunteer opportunities is not explicitly stated on the website.

#### 6. Writing Guidelines:
- **Clarity and Professionalism**: Ensure that all communications are clear, professional, and sensitive to the topics being discussed.
- **Engaging and Supportive Language**: Use language that is inviting and supportive, encouraging participation and open discussion.
- **Educational Focus**: Highlight the educational aspects of programs and workshops, emphasizing their relevance and benefits to mental health professionals.
- **Call to Action**: Include clear calls to action in communications, encouraging registration for events and workshops.

This context profile should serve as a foundational guide for creating personalized and effective content for The Place Within Southern California, aligning with their mission and communication style.

LXCL:This ticket type provides 2 hours of CE Credit

Early Bird Licensed MFT/LPCC/LCSW/LEP

Early Bird Pre-Licensed

Licensed MFT/LPCC/LCSW/LEP

Pre-Licensed

This two-hour continuing education workshop is designed for licensed clinicians&nbsp;(MFT, LCSW, Psychologists, LPCC) and offers a clear distinction between mindfulness and nature therapy as two related but distinct clinical skills. Both modalities begin with sensory contact, yet they produce different outcomes. Mindfulness trains attention; nature therapy opens relational contact with the more-than-human world. The workshop briefly locates mindfulness as familiar clinical ground, then moves participants into nature therapy as a distinct skill and presents the conceptual case for nature-informed practice as a foundation for mental health rather than an adjunct technique. Through brief lecture, two short experiential practices, and structured discussion, clinicians will leave able to distinguish the two skills and identify when each is appropriate to clinical aims. Instructor InformationJulie Brams, MA, LMFT is an Earth-centered psychotherapist in private practice for over 30 years, a certified Forest Therapy guide, meditation teacher, and the author of The Nature Embedded Mind (Changemakers Books, 2025), winner of the NYC Big Book Award and IPA Distinguished Favorite. She is the founder of Elemental (experienceelemental.com), which offers nature-informed field Labos, somatic practices, and professional training for clinicians integrating relational nature practice into clinical work. Educational GoalsThis course supports the following broad educational outcomes for participating clinicians:1. Greater clinical sophistication in differentiating attentional interventions from relational interventions, and in selecting the appropriate intervention for the clinical moment.2. Expanded professional capacity to integrate nature-informed therapeutic practice into existing clinical work in ethical, evidence-informed, and culturally aware ways.3. Improved skill in conceptualizing client presentations &mdash; particularly those involving disconnection, loneliness, eco-distress, and grief within a framework that includes the client&rsquo;s relationship with the more-than-human world.4.&nbsp;Strengthened professional foundation for offering nature-informed clinical practice as a primary therapeutic foundation rather than an adjunct technique. Measurable Learning ObjectivesAt the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:a.&nbsp;Distinguish mindfulness as an attentional skill from nature therapy as a relational skill, and identify at least three differences in clinical outcome that arise from the same sensory doorway.b.&nbsp;Identify four clinical aims served by training attention through mindfulness, and four clinical aims served by opening relational contact through nature therapy.c. Define nature therapy as a clinical foundation and list three key principles that distinguish it from mindfulness-based interventions.d.&nbsp;Apply one introductory nature-informed practice that supports a client in entering relational contact with the more-than-human world.e. Identify three considerations of scope of practice, cultural humility, and lineage attribution relevant to integrating nature-informed practice into clinical work. Outline with Main PointsTopic A:&nbsp;Locating Mindfulness as an Attentional Skill (25 minutes)Welcome, arrival practice, and framing of the central distinction.Working definition of mindfulness as the trained capacity to direct attention, observe internal experience, and return.Mechanism: sensory contact as anchor for attentionClinical outcomes mindfulness reliably produces: stability, observability, capacity to return, decoupling from automatic reactivity.Brief embedded mindfulness practice using a natural object as anchor of attention.Closing distinction: the object as object of attention, the mind as subject. Topic B:&nbsp;Nature Therapy as a Relational Skill (25 minutes)Working definition of nature therapy as relational contact with the more-than-human worldCore distinction: sensory contact as opening of relationship rather than anchor for attentionClinical outcomes nature therapy reliably produces: porousness, reciprocity, the experience of being met, relational rerootingThree reframes for clinical practice: observer to participant, inside to between, individual stabilization to relational rerootingDistinguishing nature therapy from embodied mindfulnessBrief reflective dyad on the experience of being met by the more-than-human world Break (10 minutes)Participants encouraged to step outside Topic C:&nbsp;Experiential Practice in Relational Contact (30 minutes)Settling in the body that will be doing the relatingRe-encountering the natural object as a being with a history, not as object of attentionThreshold crossing practice (indoor to doorway, window, or courtyard) in silenceStructured debrief: comparing the felt experience of mindfulness practice with the felt experience of relational practiceIdentifying clinical applications surfaced by participants&rsquo; own experience in the practice Topic D: Nature Therapy as a Foundation for Mental Health&nbsp;(20 minutes)The conceptual case: nature therapy as foundational reorientation rather than adjunctClinical implications of the embedded mind framework for case conceptualizationSide-by-side mapping of clinical aims: attentional skill versus relational skillPresentations particularly well served by relational nature practice: loneliness, eco-distress, climate grief, threshold experiences, life transitionsRecognizing which skill a clinical moment is asking for Topic E: Ethics, Closing, and Evaluations&nbsp;(10 minutes)Scope of practice for clinicians offering nature-informed practice within psychotherapyCultural humility and lineage attribution; refraining from appropriation of Indigenous and land-based traditionsInformed consent considerations for outdoor and threshold practicesThe clinician&rsquo;s own embodied practice as ethical foundationClosing circle, Q&amp;A, and distribution of evaluation forms Selected ReferencesBrams, J. (2025). The Nature Embedded Mind. Changemakers Books.Abram, D. (1996). The Spell of the Sensuous. Pantheon.Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full Catastrophe Living (Revised edition). Bantam.Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions.Macy, J., &amp; Brown, M. Y. (2014). Coming Back to Life. New Society Publishers.Plotkin, B. (2008). Nature and the Human Soul. New World Library.Roszak, T., Gomes, M. E., &amp; Kanner, A. D. (Eds.). (1995). Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. Sierra Club Books.

Thank you for choosing to join our workshop! We look forward to seeing you July 12th, 9am to join our Mindfulness and Nature Therapy Workshop.&nbsp;We will be meeting at the Monrovia Library Community Room, the address is 321 S Myrtle Ave, Monrovia, CA 91016, USA The Place Within- Southern California211 S. Primrose Ave.&nbsp;Monrovia, California 91016

This two-hour continuing education workshop is designed for licensed clinicians (MFT, LCSW, Psychologists, LPCC) and offers a clear distinction between mindfulness and nature therapy as two related but distinct clinical skills. Both modalities begin with sensory contact, yet they produce different outcomes. Mindfulness trains attention; nature therapy opens relational contact with the more-than-human world. The workshop briefly locates mindfulness as familiar clinical ground, then moves participants into nature therapy as a distinct skill and presents the conceptual case for nature-informed practice as a foundation for mental health rather than an adjunct technique. Through brief lecture, two short experiential practices, and structured discussion, clinicians will leave able to distinguish the two skills and identify when each is appropriate to clinical aims. Instructor InformationJulie Brams, MA, LMFT is an Earth-centered psychotherapist in private practice for over 30 years, a certified Forest Therapy guide, meditation teacher, and the author of The Nature Embedded Mind (Changemakers Books, 2025), winner of the NYC Big Book Award and IPA Distinguished Favorite. She is the founder of Elemental (experienceelemental.com), which offers nature-informed field Labos, somatic practices, and professional training for clinicians integrating relational nature practice into clinical work. Educational GoalsThis course supports the following broad educational outcomes for participating clinicians:1. Greater clinical sophistication in differentiating attentional interventions from relational interventions, and in selecting the appropriate intervention for the clinical moment.2. Expanded professional capacity to integrate nature-informed therapeutic practice into existing clinical work in ethical, evidence-informed, and culturally aware ways.3. Improved skill in conceptualizing client presentations — particularly those involving disconnection, loneliness, eco-distress, and grief within a framework that includes the client’s relationship with the more-than-human world.4. Strengthened professional foundation for offering nature-informed clinical practice as a primary therapeutic foundation rather than an adjunct technique. Measurable Learning ObjectivesAt the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:a. Distinguish mindfulness as an attentional skill from nature therapy as a relational skill, and identify at least three differences in clinical outcome that arise from the same sensory doorway.b. Identify four clinical aims served by training attention through mindfulness, and four clinical aims served by opening relational contact through nature therapy.c. Define nature therapy as a clinical foundation and list three key principles that distinguish it from mindfulness-based interventions.d. Apply one introductory nature-informed practice that supports a client in entering relational contact with the more-than-human world.e. Identify three considerations of scope of practice, cultural humility, and lineage attribution relevant to integrating nature-informed practice into clinical work. Outline with Main PointsTopic A: Locating Mindfulness as an Attentional Skill (25 minutes)Welcome, arrival practice, and framing of the central distinction.Working definition of mindfulness as the trained capacity to direct attention, observe internal experience, and return.Mechanism: sensory contact as anchor for attentionClinical outcomes mindfulness reliably produces: stability, observability, capacity to return, decoupling from automatic reactivity.Brief embedded mindfulness practice using a natural object as anchor of attention.Closing distinction: the object as object of attention, the mind as subject. Topic B: Nature Therapy as a Relational Skill (25 minutes)Working definition of nature therapy as relational contact with the more-than-human worldCore distinction: sensory contact as opening of relationship rather than anchor for attentionClinical outcomes nature therapy reliably produces: porousness, reciprocity, the experience of being met, relational rerootingThree reframes for clinical practice: observer to participant, inside to between, individual stabilization to relational rerootingDistinguishing nature therapy from embodied mindfulnessBrief reflective dyad on the experience of being met by the more-than-human world Break (10 minutes)Participants encouraged to step outside Topic C: Experiential Practice in Relational Contact (30 minutes)Settling in the body that will be doing the relatingRe-encountering the natural object as a being with a history, not as object of attentionThreshold crossing practice (indoor to doorway, window, or courtyard) in silenceStructured debrief: comparing the felt experience of mindfulness practice with the felt experience of relational practiceIdentifying clinical applications surfaced by participants’ own experience in the practice Topic D: Nature Therapy as a Foundation for Mental Health (20 minutes)The conceptual case: nature therapy as foundational reorientation rather than adjunctClinical implications of the embedded mind framework for case conceptualizationSide-by-side mapping of clinical aims: attentional skill versus relational skillPresentations particularly well served by relational nature practice: loneliness, eco-distress, climate grief, threshold experiences, life transitionsRecognizing which skill a clinical moment is asking for Topic E: Ethics, Closing, and Evaluations (10 minutes)Scope of practice for clinicians offering nature-informed practice within psychotherapyCultural humility and lineage attribution; refraining from appropriation of Indigenous and land-based traditionsInformed consent considerations for outdoor and threshold practicesThe clinician’s own embodied practice as ethical foundationClosing circle, Q&amp;A, and distribution of evaluation forms Selected ReferencesBrams, J. (2025). The Nature Embedded Mind. Changemakers Books.Abram, D. (1996). The Spell of the Sensuous. Pantheon.Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full Catastrophe Living (Revised edition). Bantam.Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions.Macy, J., &amp; Brown, M. Y. (2014). Coming Back to Life. New Society Publishers.Plotkin, B. (2008). Nature and the Human Soul. New World Library.Roszak, T., Gomes, M. E., &amp; Kanner, A. D. (Eds.). (1995). Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. Sierra Club Books.

The Place Within Southern California

Mindfulness and Nature Therapy

321 S Myrtle Ave

Early Bird Licensed MFT/LPCC/LCSW/LEP

$100

Early Bird Pre-Licensed

$80

Licensed MFT/LPCC/LCSW/LEP

$150

Pre-Licensed

$130

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