What level of certification/training is required?

The ELEVATE program welcomes licensed therapists, as well as those who are completing their supervised experience hours. In most cases, the hours spent working with the ELEVATE program should count as experience hours.

We also welcome certified wellness practitioners including yoga, breath work, Qi Gong, and other modalities. We have room in the program for creativity and diversity…please share your ideas for ways to use nature to improve wellbeing.

What is the therapist’s role in this program?

At the outset of the program, we envision one or two therapists joining the group each session and staying the full five hours. One to two hours will be “ON” time for the therapist, presenting activities, tools, and strategies for mental health. Depending on the therapist, this can be your own material or you can use Heart-J Center’s guided curriculum. When other facilitators are leading the group, the therapist is available to speak to individuals and simply to be available if needed. A key purpose of the ELEVATE program is to humanize therapists and encourage participants to reach out to a therapist when needed, so simply being present, friendly, interested, and welcoming is a large part of the role.

Following each session, we will gather feedback from participants and practitioners to ensure we are learning as we go. Over time the structure of the day may change based on this feedback.

What is the wellness practitioner’s role in this program?

Each session we will have at least 60 minutes of mindfulness activities. Depending on the size of the group, some sessions the practitioner will be asked to stay beyond their active teaching time to be a resource for the group. For smaller groups, the practitioner will teach and then will be free to go. You’ll know ahead of time if your session will be one hour or if it will be longer. You are free to suggest any mindfulness / wellness approach that has a nature-based connection or theme. Again, we welcome a diversity of approaches to make this program interesting and effective.

Is this paid work?

Yes! We have grant funding to pay therapists $125 per hour and wellness practitioners $100 per per hour. Note that you’ll be paid for the full time you are at the program, not just the time when you are “on stage.”

How many therapists and practitioners do we need?

We envision growing a network of mental health professionals in the range of 30-40 people so that we have enough people to cover 2-3 sessions a week, every week for the rest of 2025 and all of 2026, while giving you the flexibility to choose your level of involvement whether one session a month or one session a week. This will be a bit of an experiment as we see who is interested and the intersection of our program scheduling efforts and practitioner availability. On the survey below, please indicate which days of the week you have flexibility in your schedule to be able to join us outdoors for the ELEVATE program.

Why do you need my demographic information?

On the survey below, we include questions about your race, ethnicity, languages spoken, sexual orientation, gender, veteran status, age, disability, etc. Whenever possible, we would like to our practitioners’ backgrounds to reflect the backgrounds of the audience we are serving that day., particularly when we are serving the college-aged audience. The surveys will be used for planning purposes only by Heart-J Center’s senior staff and all answers will be held in strict confidence.

How do I get involved?

Please click the button below to fill out the Provider Survey. We will accept applications for the ELEVATE program on a rolling basis but those who respond by April 15th will have priority for our spring sessions. Thank you for your time and looking forward to meeting you!