IFS Therapy and In Nature, AND in Colorado? How much better could it get?
How IFS Therapy and Nature Co-Exist
There’s something about standing among ponderosa pines that makes the parts of you quiet down. Not silent—just quieter. Like they’ve collectively agreed to take a deep breath and stop shouting over each other for a moment.
This isn’t accidental. And it isn’t just some “nature is nice” platitude.
This is about what happens when Internal Family Systems therapy meets the intelligence of the natural world. This is about finding your Self energy not just in a therapist’s office, but under an open Colorado sky.
The Problem Parts Work in the Office
There isn’t one really. IFS Work is amazing and fantastic when done well by a level one (or higher) trained therapist. Let’s be honest about something: trying to access your authentic Self while sitting in a beige office under fluorescent lights is like trying to hear a whisper at a metal concert. It’s possible, but fuck, it’s harder than it needs to be.
Your parts—especially those protective ones—are on high alert in conventional settings. They’re scanning for judgment, preparing their defenses, wondering if it’s safe to reveal themselves.
Meanwhile, you’re sitting there, surviving on succulents and watered-down iced coffee, trying to do the most vulnerable work of your life while your nervous system is still deciding if the environment itself is a threat.
When Parts Work Steps Outside
Take those same parts and walk them down a trail in Jefferson County’s open spaces, and something shifts.
Your Critic part that’s constantly narrating how you’re doing therapy wrong? It tends to quiet when faced with the humbling vastness of the Front Range.
Your Perfectionist part that needs to get IFS “right”? It relaxes when there’s no white noise machine, just the actual sound of wind through grass.
Your Pleaser part that performs even in therapy? It discovers there’s no audience in nature—just witnesses. The birds don’t care if you cry. The mountains don’t need you to have breakthroughs on schedule.
As one client told me while we sat on a rocky outcropping overlooking the plains: “Out here, I can feel the difference between what I think I should want and what I actually want. The gap is enormous.”
The Science Behind Nature-Based IFS
This isn’t just poetic license. I’ve gotten my certificaton and a Forest Therapy Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. Research consistently shows that natural environments:
- Reduce cortisol levels (that stress hormone your parts swim in)
- Increase parasympathetic nervous system activity (the “rest and digest” state where healing happens)
- Improve attention and reduce rumination (making it easier to notice parts without being consumed by them)
When your nervous system down regulates in nature, you create the physiological conditions that make accessing Self energy more possible. Your parts don’t have to shout because there’s less internal noise to compete with.
How We Use Nature in IFS Work
The Landscape as Parts Map
The natural world offers endless metaphors for your internal system. That fallen log covered in new growth? That might represent an exile carrying old wounds but also tremendous potential for regeneration. The river that’s both powerful and yielding? That could be how your Self energy moves when it’s not obstructed.
We use these natural elements not just as pretty metaphors but as tangible anchors for parts work. When a client can physically touch the smooth river stone that represents their calm center, that state becomes more accessible even after our session ends.
Embodied Parts Dialogue
There’s something about moving your body that makes parts work more intuitive. Instead of just talking about your Caretaker part, you might physically step into a sunny patch to embody that energy, then move to the shade to speak from your Exhausted part.
This literal movement between parts creates a visceral understanding that’s often missed in purely cognitive work. Your body knows things your thinking mind doesn’t, and nature helps us access that wisdom.
Holding Environment for Exiles
Some wounded parts are too frightened to emerge in conventional settings. But in the holding environment of a quiet forest, with the steady presence of ancient trees that have weathered countless storms, these exiles often feel safe enough to be witnessed.
One client discovered a young exile while watching aspen leaves tremble in the wind. “They shake but don’t break,” she said. “I think part of me needs to know that’s possible.”
IFS Nature Therapy for Aurora and Denver
While everyone can benefit from this approach, I’ve found it particularly powerful for:
- People pleasers who struggle to hear their own voice amid the noise of others’ expectations
- The neurospicy folks whose sensory processing differences make conventional therapy settings overwhelming
- Those with trauma who need the regulatory support of nature to safely access wounded parts
- Chronic overthinkers who benefit from the way nature gently pulls them out of rumination and into present experience
And I do this sorta-thing – I take my IFS Client out for forest bathing groups at least once a month in my Nature Based Therapy for Aurora and Denver area clients.
What a forest bathing session looks like from an IFS Lens
Let me paint the picture: We meet at a trailhead in Jefferson County, a small group of 6 or so humans. The morning is overcast—perfect forest therapy weather. After we orient to the land, we begin with a brief grounding practice, then start walking.
The first fifteen minutes are just about settling in, saying hello to the earth and the life it supports. Your parts are adjusting, the mental chatter gradually quieting. I might invite you to notice what parts came along for the hike today.
As we walk, you mention feeling anxious about an upcoming decision. Instead of just talking about it, I invite you to “Wander out and notice how your inner landscapes react to this landscape here. I’m curious what Parts might show up.”
You point to a twisted juniper, growing sideways out of a rock face. That tree, you say to yourself. Working so hard just to exist.
We get back into the group and I invite you to share: “What are you noticing?” What emerges isn’t just anxiety—it’s a young part that learned to contort itself to survive in harsh conditions. A part that doesn’t know the soil can be softer elsewhere. Except here in the forest.
By the end of our session, you’ve not only identified this part but begun to build a relationship with it. And because this work happened in the presence of actual twisted junipers and actual solid rock, the insights have a staying power that transcends what typically happens in an office.
The Liminal Path
Nature-based IFS therapy isn’t about abandoning the core principles of the modality. It’s about enhancing them, creating conditions where your system can more easily access the healing qualities of Self: curiosity, compassion, clarity, courage, creativity, confidence, connection, and calm.
The path through your internal woods doesn’t have to be walked entirely indoors. Sometimes, the most direct route to your authentic self runs along an actual trail, under an open sky, with the ground solid beneath your feet.
Begin your IFS Nature
If you’re tired of trying to connect with your parts while disconnected from the natural world, it might be time for a different approach. I offer to combine the transformative framework of IFS with the healing power of Colorado’s natural landscapes by walking on the Liminal Path within therapy, available for in person here in Colorado and Virutually for everyone outside of the denver region in social work compact states.
And for those days when you can’t make it to the trails, my IFS Journaling Prompts can help you continue your parts work from your favorite coffee shop corner, bringing elements of the natural world into your daily practice.
The journey toward wholeness doesn’t have to happen exclusively on a therapist’s couch. Sometimes, the most profound healing happens on a path through the actual woods—not just the metaphorical ones.