Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Baack.
Hi Amber, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My whole life, I have been someone who needed to explore and to try to understand and connect deeply to the places and people that surrounded me. Often, this has meant I have needed to find my own unique path in work, relationships, and in navigating systems that are not always the most sustainable or connecting. I also have always been someone who is drawn to nature and grew up living in a diverse set of landscapes between the deserts and forests of the Southwest and the mountains and plains of Colorado. Throughout my life, I have both witnessed people navigate great hardships and have had to navigate some of my own and continued to return to nature and the outdoors as a solace through all of it.
In college and graduate school, I pursued an education and career in social work. This led me to work in a wide variety of settings where I witnessed others have a similar experience of healing when they connected to plants, animals, or other people while exploring outside. I was struck that this healing did not only exist for people of certain demographics or age groups, or for those who were navigating a certain set of challenges. Rather, it was a thread that traveled through refugee resettlement spaces, youth programs, backcountry guiding, and mental health programs that I worked within. This thread has led me to where I am today as a clinician in private practice focused on nature-based, mind-body, and person-centered therapy to provide a space for continued healing for people and the Earth in connection with one another.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I do not believe that any of us have smooth roads in our lives or our work, especially when we are pursuing where we feel purposeful or meaningful in the world.
One of the greatest struggles I have faced was experiencing a traumatic brain injury at the age of 18. The injury changed the way I could connect and relate to my body and mind and impacted how my emotions, motor skills, and judgments functioned. It took many years to get to a place where I felt more like myself and could more easily navigate daily life. It is a lifetime of recovery to continue to re-discover myself and how my world works after the injury. This struggle re-defined how I could function in the world and used to cause me great frustration and pain. As I have continued to grow and heal, I have noticed the ways that it has also taught me resilience, empathy, and has let me better support others in the challenges they are navigating.
Professionally, I have faced many moments of confusion and disillusionment on my path. Honestly, I think that many days can be a struggle full of questions and recognized areas of growth or change where things do not yet feel aligned. But, I think the struggle is also a beautiful thing about being a human. While it can cause me to feel discouraged in some moments, it also is what allows me to seek new outlooks, connections, and to be able to grow in new ways than I could have imagined.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
When I was leaving my job in after-school programming to pursue nature-based therapy, one of my students told me “that is you in a job, you get to be outside and you love people!”. This has forever stuck with me as the truth for what I do.
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and therapist and currently own and operate a therapy practice focused on holistic therapeutic work. This means that the work includes connection to the whole self, the whole picture, and the natural world. I meet people where they are at, whether they are struggling with mental health challenges, life transitions, burnout, or discovering their identity, and work with them, both in an office and on trails outdoors, to connect back to themselves, others, and the Earth. Some people think my job is hiking, others have speculated that it is just talking, and I believe that the heart of the work is not only one thing. Sometimes it is walking outside with people quietly to let them find healing in breathing in fresh air, sitting on the grass, or moving on a trail. Sometimes, it is walking and talking through the difficulties they are facing. Other times, it is sitting in my office and being with emotions, thoughts, and sensations however we need to. The work that I do is not a one size fits all approach nor does it always entail being in one setting. Rather, it is a way of approaching therapy where the whole person and whole system is recognized and people can choose to be outdoors or indoors, moving or sitting, talking or quiet, as we seek ways to heal and connect in our time together.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I am also a musician & singer/song-writer and am forever a music nerd at heart.
Pricing:
- I accept insurance for individual clients
- I co-facilitate groups on hiking trails and on a farm that have sliding scale rates
- Private Pay Rate: $125 per hour
Contact Info:
- Website: www.inthealpenglowtherapy.com
- Instagram: inthealpenglowtherapy
Image Credits
@annelisesarah
