WORKSHOPS

Earth-Spoken: A Nature-Based Exploration of Word, Voice & Ritual

This 3-part workshop series invites you into a slow and spacious process of deepening your relationship with yourself and the natural world. Rooted in the tools Vanya has gathered and tended in her own personal journey—poetry, song, and self-created ceremony—we’ll explore how these practices can support inner connection, healing, and expression.

Each day will stand on its own as a full experience, while also building upon the others for those who choose to attend the full series. In each session, we will gather as a small group for shared learning, reflection, and gentle experiential practice. There will be space for quiet, for expression, and for connection—with nature, self, and others.

Workshop 1: The Poetry of Belonging
📅 July 3rd: 10:30- 3 pm

Through readings and land-based writing, we’ll use poetry as a doorway into feeling, presence, and place. You’ll be guided to engage with words—your own and others’—as a form of witnessing, meaning-making, and self-compassion. No writing experience needed.

Workshop 2: Finding Your Voice with the Land
📅 August 6th: 10:30 – 3 pm

Together, we’ll explore the innate power of song to connect, soothe, and animate the soul. Through simple practices we’ll tune into the wisdom that lives in vibration and sound. You might even catch a new song! This is a gentle, non-performative space where all voices are welcome.

Workshop 3: Creating Ceremony for the Self
📅 September 10th

This final session will support you in designing personal, nature-based ceremonies that reflect your inner rhythms, thresholds, and intentions. We’ll draw on elemental wisdom and intuitive creativity to co-create meaningful rituals that can be carried into your life.

Details
📍 Location: Beaver Lake (720 Beaver Lake Road)
⏰ Time: 10:30 to 3 pm
💰 Cost: $75 each or $200 for all 3.

*RCC counselling receipts available if helpful for health insurance benefits.

🌿 Group Size: Small and intimate – limited spots available.

Whether you’re looking to reconnect with your creativity, deepen your nature-based practice, or simply take time to listen inward, you’re warmly invited to come just as you are.

To register or learn more, contact: vanya.laporte(at)gmail.com

Tending the Hearth: A Nature-based Program for Caregivers

Tending the Hearth: A Nature-based Program for Caregivers, Leaders and Stewards

Are you someone who takes care of others in your work and/or life? Perhaps you hold spaces for others, work with kids/youth, are a parent or guardian, a helping professional, a teacher/mentor or leader? We have designed these sessions to tend to the ones who tend to others!

Join other space holders in this program series facilitated by counsellors Vanya Laporte, RCC and Zoë Eakle, RTC.

There is often an overwhelming amount of pressure and information about what it means to care for others. In these unique, therapeutic programs our counsellors, Vanya and Zoë will offer folks a community space to be held with compassion and inspiration.
Their aim is to empower participants to trust in themselves as well as the natural world, with a focus on bonding and belonging. Participants will be invited to engage in core practices that have been supportive to Vanya and Zoë’s own healing paths as space holders.

This group program could be for you if you are longing to deepen your connection to the natural world within a supportive group and to learn and practise more meaningful, life-sustaining ways of being one who cares and tends to others.

In these 1-day programs we will explore the following themes and practises:
-Therapeutic Games, Activities and Crafting
-Somatic Attunement & Regulation
-Ritual and Ceremony
-Plant Wisdom
-Seasonal Awareness
-Belonging and Reciprocity
-Cultural Contexts
-The Art of Questioning
-Sharing and Listening in Circle

You can sign up for 1 or multiple group sessions (October 2025 – April 2026 *10% discount if you sign-up for all 5).

Each workshop we will invite fun games, somatic practices, nature based activities, time around the fire to share our stories, and an opportunity to get in touch with plant allies, to find what is emerging both inside and outside ourselves! Seasonal teas & treats will be provided each session.

This series is designed with a through-line & an experiential arc, as you journey through this potent time of the year. We will tap into our deep remembrance of the seasonal gifts that are inherent within our bodies and by extension our lives as caregivers and/or stewards.

If you choose to do just one session however, each session is a complete workshop within itself.

“Deeply grateful for this program. As an educator and parent, I’ve felt an enrichment of my soul and a playfulness emerge in my parenting style. This program has really supported me as I weather the highs and lows of parenting in these wild times. Staying a while to be grounded, to notice, to embrace other’s ways of being. To learn from each other has been a gift that I wouldn’t have received in any other way in my day-to-day existence. A profound and unique experience, to be inspired for all my days to come!! With deep gratitude to the most thoughtful leaders of this gathering.”
– Previous Tending the Heart Participant

Workshop Details:

Fee per session: $160 +gst *10% discount if you sign-up for all 5 sessions
*You may request a receipt to get reimbursed by health insurance for counselling with a Registered Clinical Counsellor

Dates: 10:30am – 4pm. October 19, 2025; November 16, 2025; February 8, 2026; March 15, 2026 and April 12, 2026.

Location: Cedar Song, 119 Ross Durrance Rd, Victoria BC V9E 2A3

Questions? contact vanya.laporte(at)gmail.com

The Grounding Grove: A Somatic Consult Group for Therapists

A 6-session experiential circle for therapists working with the wisdom of the body.

In this supportive group, we’ll come together as somatic practitioners to share our clinical
experiences, deepen our skills, and grow in community. Rooted in a spirit of curiosity and
collaboration, this space is designed for those who integrate body-based approaches into their work, and are seeking nourishment, reflection, and connection.

Throughout our six-month journey together, we will interweave somatic, nature-aligned, and transpersonal frameworks to support deep, embodied exploration. Many of our clients come with a longing to feel part of a larger ecology of mutual support, yet often struggle to know how to connect with that desire. Together, we will engage in practices that nurture embodied wisdom
and a felt sense of belonging within the greater web of life, honouring somatic inquiry as a living, emergent process—an ongoing journey of participation and discovery for both our clients and ourselves.

Each session will offer time to:
 -Explore embodied themes and processes together
 -Bring forward client cases or clinical questions
 -Receive thoughtful feedback and somatic reflections
 -Support each other’s growth in an open, engaged circle

This is not a training or a lecture series — it’s a space to practice being with, to listen deeply, and to let the wisdom of the body and the group unfold.

Whether you’re newer to somatic work or have years of experience, you’re welcome here!

6 sessions | 1xs a month October-March, 10:30 am- 12:30 pm on 1st Tuesday of the month.

Dates: October 7th , November 4th , December 2nd , January 6th , February 3rd and March 3rd .

Format: Experiential, process-based, peer consult style

Who it’s for: Therapists and counsellors with a foundation in somatic modalities

Cost: $500 or we can set up a payment plan for several payments.
*Receipts can be offered for health insurance benefits.

Co-facilitated by somatic therapists Sarah Nakatsuka, who is a Master Therapeutic Counsellor (MTC), Registered Counselling Supervisor (RCS) and a Certified EFT Therapist and by Vanya Laporte, who is a Registered Clinical Counsellor, Supervisor and a Hakomi
and Internal Family Systems Practitioner.

IFS and Nature-Based Therapy Unite!

IFS and Nature Based Therapy Unite!
A Consult Groups for Therapists

This has been a niche I have been exploring and co-creating with my clients over the past years. I love to sharing what I have learned with folks who are keen to discover the principles of IFS and learn how it promotes self-discovery and healing while working in combination with outdoor, nature based therapy concepts!

It will be useful for you to have a basic understanding of “parts works”, aka IFS, and Nature-based therapy. If IFS is completely new to you then please first read one or more of Richard Swartz books and/or take a basic training like the Stepping Stones course from IFSCA. And then join us the following year as I do offer this consult group a couple of times a year.

Over 6 sessions I will guide the group through the integration of IFS with nature-based counselling, highlighting the transformative impact of connecting with nature on the therapeutic process. We will have space to practise these concepts and time to explore specific cases and clients that you each have, to brainstorm ideas and interventions using the intersection of NBT with IFS practises.

Whether you’re a seasoned counsellor or curious about innovative approaches, these sessions offer valuable insights to enhance your practice. Don’t miss this opportunity to delve into the dynamic intersection of IFS and nature in counselling!

New dates coming soon for online and in person consult group options. Please reach out if you want to learn more about this consult group opportunity.

Vanya Laporte

RCC, Supervisor, and Somatic Therapist

Vanya brings mindfulness and somatic praactises to help her clients navigate their internal compass. She is an eclectic counsellor who works outside, in office, and online. She also is very passionate to support those who tend spaces for others- parents, caregivers, and other helping professionals.

Why Nature-based Counselling?

There is a growing body of research and literature that discusses the benefits of children and adults spending time outdoors deeply connected to the natural world with so many therapeurtic benefits:

Promotes healthy development in a stimulating learning environment (Louv, 2005; Selhub & Logan, 2012; Maynard, 2007).
Enhances opportunities for free play that inspires creativity (Gray, 2013; Hughes, 2009).
Encourages children to take appropriate risks to learn risk assessment and self-regulation (Gill, 2010).
Fosters social skills and peer-group relations (Knight, 2013; Porter, 2003).
Nurtures a connection to the natural world and an understanding of environmental stewardship (Chawla, 2007; O’Brien, 2009).

The particular activities that are woven into each counselling session are unique to each location, the clients’ needs and goals, and individual interests. However, there are a few common threads that help define what we do at nature-based counselling sessions:

We use therapeutic nature-based skills and naturalist skills to support our collective learning and healing.
It’s curiousity-led and includes spacious time for free exploration and play.
Sessions use songs, stories, games, and gratitude practices to both inspire and support learning about our connection to nature, others, and self.
We use somatic theory and creative methods to help support clients to remember and discover their gifts and resources.
We utilize mindfulness/awareness principles to promote a conscious awareness of our thoughts, actions, and feelings.

Book Online HERE

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