Zae Palmer 

Meet Zae 

Integrating Ecotherapy into my work

Born in the hills of Western New York, I had a humble upbringing. Growing up, the woods were always a haven to me. I learned how to wander and, equally so, how to attune to the cardinal directions. 

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I became familiar with the creeks, trees, and hills surrounding my childhood home. I developed relationships with earth spots that I later learned acted as caregivers and attachment figures due to their ability to help me feel safe amongst challenging times. Ultimately, I found that the woods helped me integrate imagination, curiosity, and courage into my sense of self.

When I studied psychology in college, I worked as a Wilderness Adventures Facilitator. My team took teens, many under court order to evade juvenile detention, on backpacking trips to the Adirondacks. This experience helped shape my ambitions to become a therapist who uses nature and wildlife experiences as tools for healing.

Hiking a trail has always felt like such a great metaphor for therapy! If the trail is the thread of life, sometimes, when the trail is clear and direct, life may be challenging but still aimed in a purposeful direction. Accompanying someone on their life's trail helps alleviate the isolation that can come from facing challenges alone.  

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Sometimes we lose the trail and end up needing to wander the woods. As a therapist, I see this as a time of exploration into the parts of us that are scary and unfamiliar. However, this is also the time where incredible work happens. Integrating what is scary and unfamiliar into the process of finding your inner trail again is something that clients learn to navigate in Ecotherapy.  

The challenges of our times

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When clients come to me, they are often faced with a “poly-crisis”—a type of multifaceted crisis that consists of many crises happening all at the same time. This can cause a tremendous amount of overwhelm and uncertainty. The perspective I provide to aid in coping with such massive challenges in our lives, culture, and climate is that of rites of passage. 

Rites of passage describe what is done in ceremonies to promote transformation and move through change. In this same way, problems discussed in therapy, I view, are purposed to help move clients through transformation. ​In other words, problems signal that which needs to change in our lives. Working with the conflicts these signals or messengers allows us to engage in conflict more optimistically.

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It’s important to note that rites of passage is not just an individual process, but innately communal. For instance, the problems in our cultural and climate impact us all putting all of us all into a collective rite of passage.  

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My career as an act of social justice ​

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Now more than ever, people need options to access decolonized mental health. As a genderqueer, neurospicy, white, male-presenting person, I take it as my responsibility to attune to power dynamics inside and outside of the therapy room and strive towards contributing to a more just world.

When I studied Couple and Family Therapist in Chicago,  Adler University prepared me for incorporating the history of oppression and privilege into my clinical assessments. In particular, the relationships between racism, classism, and ecological destruction. 

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Clean air, clean water, fresh foods, accessibility to quiet and stillness, and a strong sense of belonging are baseline qualifications for mental health well-being. But throughout this country, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and low-income populations are ecologically violated through the building of data centers, pipelines, and other environmentally destructive pursuits. The role I aspire to play as an ecotherapist is a listener, educator, and advocate.

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Clinical Training

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My clinical grasp includes both the breadth and depth in the human experience.  

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Family Systems Theory

CFT Faculty

Adler University 

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Adlerian Psychotherapy

Maria Bluvshien

Adler Univeristy

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Adlerian Play Therapy
Terry Kottman, Ph.D., RPT-S, LMHC

Adler University

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Process Work & Depth Psychology

Cindy Trawinski, Psy. D

Lifeworks Psychotherapy

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Dance Movement Therapy Clinical Supervision

Kris Larsen, DMT 

Lifeworks Psychotherapy

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Sandtray Supervision
Ariel Gaines, Psy. D
Lifeworks Psychotherapy

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Advanced practices of Nature-Based Interventions  
Andrea "Snowy" Lajoie, LCSW-R, KMOG

Hudson Valley Professional Development

Nature-based Parts Work

Katie Asmus, MA, BMP, LPC

Somatic Nature Therapy Institute

Wildcraft Trainings​

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Introduction to Herbal Healing

Kat Mair, RH (RHG), Susanne Stone, RH

Sacred Plant Traditions

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Buckskin Revolution Online Gathering 

Woniya Thibeault

Ancestral Ways 

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Rewilding 101

Peter Micheal Bower

Rewild Portland

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Local Volunteering

Volunteer

Rivanna Conservation Alliance 
 

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