Inspiring Conversations with Marissa Brun of WildSense Therapy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marissa Brun.

Hi Marissa , it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My counseling practice, WildSense Therapy, is dedicated to helping people reconnect with nature and with themselves by bringing therapy outdoors. Nature has always been a place of deep healing for me and has been where I feel most myself. My love for wild places has shaped me as a human, a therapist, and an apprentice of the land. Growing up in Northern California, I remember as a child that my greatest listeners were the trees I often escaped to. I have always held a belief that we live in a relationship not just with other people but with the landscape that surrounds our lives.

I knew I wanted to be a therapist since I was 15 years old. I have always had a fascination with learning other’s stories and found myself deeply curious about what makes us all so beautifully human and what shapes our sense of identity. As I navigated my own journey through trauma and depression in my early teens, I experienced the innate resilience we all have to heal when we feel heard and seen. The catalyst for my healing was when I attended a wilderness therapy program that changed my life. Following the transformation I experienced there, I knew I was called to give back and help others learn their own strengths through the unique challenges of this human experience.

My own journey toward mental wellness led me to study and receive a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at San Francisco State University and guided my work within the diverse communities of the Bay Area for many years. In my experience serving in crisis centers, community mental health, foster care systems, and military services, I have seen first-hand that we can heal from the most difficult of circumstances. After getting licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist, I pursued a certification in ecotherapy to deepen my connection with the land and be able to better facilitate nature connection as a healing guide with my clients. I’ve been blessed to continue my life’s work in assisting others to find their path through connection and relationship in my private psychotherapy practice. Today I am an ecotherapist, trauma specialist, and the founder of WildSense Therapy, which is a nature-based and trauma-informed psychotherapy practice I began here in Boulder, CO.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting my own business was the most rewarding yet challenging project I have taken on. After many years serving as a therapist in agency settings, I moved to Boulder in March 2020 and launched WildSense Therapy at the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic. Being in a new city and not being able to meet with people in person (both clients and colleagues) was a challenge I never saw coming. Suddenly my nature-based practice moved to telehealth and I got very comfortable sitting in front of a screen. Missing the energetic connection of being face to face with others was difficult and training my non-tech-friendly brain to navigate the virtual world left me feeling a little lost at times. However, despite all the odds, WildSense came into reality and I have been so thankful to my clients for trusting me to walk with them on their journey through this wild year. I still have moments of insecurity come up as I navigate business ownership and the twists and turns of a pandemic year, yet I feel grateful that somewhere within me, I followed the intuition to make WildSense happen.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about WildSense Therapy?
I am a therapist that believes we are all searching for connection and are wired toward vitality and resilience. I also believe that healing is found through safe and connected relationships that invite the freedom to feel whatever is present in the moment. My approach is genuine, relational, and experiential as I invite my clients to deepen the conversation with themselves to understand what happened to them as we find a path forward together. I use nature in my work as a way to help resource and ground my clients as well as help them to reconnect with the wild and authentic self within.

In my practice, I specialize in collaborating with women and young adults in knowing their worth, healing their past, and deepening their connection with nature and themselves. I use trauma-informed interventions, including EMDR and Lifespan Integration to assist clients in finding lasting healing from difficult past experiences and building a sense of trust in themselves. I have a deep belief that our bodies hold so much wisdom for healing. Our bodies store our traumas and also hold the resilience we need to find fulfillment and self-acceptance. I work somatically by prioritizing the mind-body connection and tuning into this wisdom within. As someone who has always seen the goodness in others, I strive to assist my clients to build awareness and trust in their inner knowing while empowering them to know their worth.

My goal with bringing WildSense to life is that I believe the process of healing is a holistic practice where space is created to explore thoughts, emotions, relationships, aspirations, spirituality, and the connection to the world around us. Therapy should be transformative. I strive to bring my whole self to meet my clients where they are and walk alongside them with whatever struggle they are working through.

I am licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in both Colorado and California and I serve clients via telehealth in both states. I also offer nature-based therapy in the parks and trails of Boulder, CO.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
When my clients first come to see me, they often feel lost or stuck in their experiences. I find many people beginning therapy are seeking connection and are in need of feeling seen and accepted as they are. I view success within a therapeutic relationship as the ability to create an environment of safety where the client can bring all of themselves into the room. I view success as a collaboration toward a mutual goal toward healing and find that when someone feels truly seen and validated in their experience, healing starts to happen. Success varies within therapy and is defined by the client’s experience and the goals they have in place for what healing will look like for them. My overall goal in life and in my work is to take steps everyday toward creating more love, openness, and unity and less fear and division. Each step in this direction is a step closer to what I define as success.

Pricing:

• $155/session

Contact Info:

• Email: marissa@wildsensetherapy.com
• Website: www.wildsensetherapy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildsensetherapy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildsensetherapy

Image Credits
Image credit to Kyle Baudour