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Katie Asmus – Somatic Wilderness Therapy Institute<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n By Ren\u00e9e Tillotson<\/b><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n From her first engaging gaze and warm, inviting smile, you know that Katie Asmus is a people person who cares. Her dedication to serving others radiates through every pore. And that same support continues to emanate from her the longer you spend time with Katie. A psychotherapist and educator, Katie provides a broad range of offerings under one virtual \u2018roof\u2019 called Somatic Wilderness Therapy Institute. Meanwhile, her soul and her services prefer to live under the broad open skies of Nature!<\/span><\/p>\n The remarkable thing to me about Katie is that while she is very scientific, and always up-to-date with the newest psychology and brain-body research, she still manages to make enormous space in her practice for the sacred, and even for the spiritual – whatever that might mean to her clients and students. This approach means that she recognizes and honors the divine in everyone – that <\/span>namaste<\/span><\/i> light in each person\u2019s eyes. I can say for myself that being received in this manner by Katie allows and encourages me to live into my biggest, highest self. I would say \u2018Self\u2019. And for that, I am very grateful.<\/span><\/p>\n When I attended her Honoring Change training, my intention was to ritually enter my \u201celder\u201d, \u201cwise woman\u201d phase of life. I came in as an experienced and accomplished professional, the owner and president of three businesses, two of which are educational establishments. Katie embraced me in all the bigness of my questions, original thinking, and suggestions, never intimated, always encouraging me. I felt so seen and recognized. And I watched Katie offer this same support to every other participant and intern.<\/span><\/p>\n Katie has been living at the forefront of the wilderness therapy frontier for her entire career, both within and outside (literally) academia. She practices it as a therapist, teaches it to others, and trains them to become teachers in their own right. Her interweaving of ceremony – hearkening to indigenous and religious practices from ancient times forward – is another groundbreaking element of Katie\u2019s approach.<\/span><\/p>\n Please allow me to tell you about the 4 interwoven threads of Katie\u2019s work, and then I\u2019ll unfold a glimmering of her life story, including the love of her life, Brandon.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Four Threads of Katie\u2019s Work:<\/span><\/p>\n Three of the four threads of her work are represented by her company\u2019s name:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The fourth thread arises from her deep understanding of human nature and her sense of the sacred, the intentional:<\/span><\/p>\n Katie says she has always loved and been curious about people and has been working with them since childhood. Born into a Catholic family, she was recruited to assist with the 3 to 4-year-old class when she was only 10 years old herself, and she\u2019s never stopped teaching and assisting others in their growth process since that time.<\/span><\/p>\n She became the 3 to 4-year-olds\u2019 class teacher in 8th grade, as well as assisting with youth sports activities and her little sister\u2019s Brownie troop. Her work as a teenager herself in an outdoor program for disabled teens foreshadowed some of the core work she\u2019s done as an adult in wilderness therapy.<\/span><\/p>\n Although she has since broadened her embrace of all manner of spiritual traditions, Katie deeply appreciates her Catholic background. It provided the container, she explains, for her to develop her identity as a spiritual being connecting with something greater than herself. As part of the church\u2019s youth retreat teams, Katie got to create personally meaningful ceremonies around different topics, connecting with community and finding deeper meaning in life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of her ongoing quests is how to make ceremonies, rituals and rites of passage available to people of all faiths, or with no apparent spiritual tradition. The nearly universal appreciation for nature seems to be a key way that Katie connects with both \u201cbelievers” and \u201cnon-believers\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Never affluent, her family nevertheless lived with a strong service ethic. It was never about making tons of money. She didn\u2019t even own a car until she was 30 years old. Not just working one-on-one with clients (which she LOVES to do), Katie extends herself by collaborating with, supervising, and supporting other therapists, teachers and trainers in the work that she is spearheading. In this manner she broadens the impact of the service she is providing, I see in her work a soul-dedication to service that will sustain itself beyond her lifetime. That legacy service work takes a deep heart, hard work, and a broad vision. This form of service demands selflessness, recognizing that it doesn\u2019t always have to be YOU who is providing the service!<\/span><\/p>\n That work is of course self-reinforcing, in that it provides the person doing it with a deep and abiding sense of soul-satisfaction.<\/span><\/p>\n I would love to go into Katie\u2019s deep and important work with trauma in the nervous system, which Katie started training other therapists in 22 years ago, long before trauma therapy became mainstream. Instead, I\u2019ll let you read more about Katie\u2019s life and career on this helpful webpage: <\/span>https:\/\/www.wildernesstherapyinstitute.com\/katie-asmus\/<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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Ceremony, ritual, & rites of passage as tools for transformation.<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n