Wildcat Connect Webinar

Date: Thursday, November 2 | 2 p.m.

Presenter: Blake Ellis, ASW, Ecotherapy Program Manager, Chico State Enterprises

Moderator: Eli Goodsell

Register for the Webinar

Webinar Summary: 

• Blake will discuss her journey into the field of environmental social work and ecotherapy. 
• What is Nature and Forest Therapy?
• How the Chico State Ecotherapy Program has used Nature and Forest Therapy to serve individuals impacted by catastrophic wildfire and Chico State students, staff, and faculty
• The future of the Chico State Ecotherapy Program and how we hope to grow to continue to meet the overwhelming mental health needs in Butte County and on campus 

Blake Ellis is the program manager of the Chico State Ecotherapy Program with the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve. She graduated from Chico State with her Master’s in Social Work while serving as a Disaster Case Manager with individuals impacted by the 2018 Camp Fire. Her research on “solastalgia” led her to discover the practice of Forest Therapy, a hopeful intervention to support community healing and recovery. Blake is now a certified Forest Therapy Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and an Associate Clinical Social Worker.  Blake seeks to support her community through ecotherapy to process trauma, and grief, and help build healthy relationships with place, nature, ourselves, and each other.