Shannon Gorres brings her Divine Nature Therapy clients to Hidden Valley Camp to explore their deepest questions and challenges.
Camp provides serene setting for nature therapy By Mindie Paget
Girl Scouts belting out songs on Flagpole Hill and squealing as they launch from zipline platforms. Volunteers chattering as they mulch trees, clean latrines and harvest native seeds.
Hidden Valley can be a bustling setting for fun, adventure and service.
But when volunteer days, camp, and other scouting and community activities are not in session, this urban wilderness quiets. And during those serene stretches — when sounds of stream flow, leaf crunch and bird song are more audible — Shannon Gorres brings her nature therapy clients here to explore their deepest questions and challenges.
“Hidden Valley is a wonderful ‘outdoor office’ because it offers connection with plants and animals, sun and shade, and a diversity of landscape,” Gorres said. “My clients feel safe because I can rent a private campsite, unlike at a public park where people might wander by. People need confidential space to dive into their deepest hurts and discover their even deeper truths and healing balms.”
Gorres opened her private counseling practice in 2015 and has been renting space to see clients at Hidden Valley Camp since 2020. Through Divine Nature Therapy, she integrates the healing power of nature in a variety of ways, putting clients in situations that naturally reduce stress and allow new insights to emerge about relationships, transitions, trauma and more.
“When I guide meditative attention to nature's gifts, it activates the parasympathetic nervous system,” Gorres explained, “so tightly wound thoughts also relax and new solutions to problematic patterns can arise.”
Gorres might also encourage clients to communicate directly with plants to externalize inner voices, sense messages by listening to the sounds of birds or wind, or engage plants as metaphors or symbols representing human experiences.
“I asked a man who was stressed out by his work but scared to start a new career to choose two trees — one to represent the current job and one to represent the new career,” Gorres recounted. “We stood by each while he shared how the tree’s shape, color and life stage represented aspects of the job, and he realized more about what was really at the crux for him. Then we walked between the trees very slowly so he could identify the fears and grief holding him back from making the transition.”
A growing body of peer-reviewed research shows that intentional time in nature reduces stress and anxiety, increases immunity, improves mood and motivation, and so much more. Gorres feels fortunate to have found 40 tranquil acres in the middle of Lawrence where she can help fellow humans tap into those benefits.
“I consistently feel giant gratitude in my heart for the labor of love that so many volunteers put into the land, including tending invasive species, keeping paths useable, and coordinating Girl Scouts,” Gorres said. “Being in nature truly helps people heal themselves and their relationship with the planet.”
Shannon Gorres' nature therapy clients connect with plants and animals, sun and shade, and diverse landscapes during sessions at Lawrence Hidden Valley Camp.