I am a counselor, educator, and guide, living in the Hot Springs valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I am especially curious about nature connection, experiential philosophy, and somatic psychotherapy.
This website represents my counseling and ecotherapy practice. Reach out if you'd like to connect or work together.
~David
The therapeutic relationship provides a supportive and attuned space for careful exploration of lived experience. My approach integrates somatic psychotherapy, depth-oriented and narrative frameworks, nature-based interventions, and contemplative practices to support emotional regulation, meaning-making, and embodied awareness. Rather than focusing on symptom correction, this work emphasizes restoring connection—to the body, to one’s inner life, and to the broader living systems that influence psychological health.
Sessions may take place outdoors, at the llama farm, or online, tailored to meet your needs.
Areas of therapeutic focus include:
Anxiety, depression, and other challenging psychological states
Life transitions and existential crisis
Multigenerational trauma and relationship patterns
Spiritual emergence and emergency
Persistent interpersonal difficulties
Ecological and collective grief
Self-limiting beliefs and barriers to growth
Mind-body awareness and somatic manifestations
The journey of self-actualization
Meeting Locations:
In-person sessions are typically held outdoors in the Hot Springs area, at locations like the Rocky Bluff Campground, Lover's Leap Loop Trail, Laurel River Trail, Mill Ridge, Murray Branch River Park. I recommend dressing appropriately for outdoor activities—including footwear for trail-walking—and always packing a rain jacket, a bottle of water, and other outdoor comfort items (bug spray, walking stick, etc.) We can also hold sessions at the llama farm or my home office. Click any of the location links above for directions.
For telehealth meetings, it is helpful if you have a reliable internet connection, gentle lighting, and a set of headphones. You will need to enforce your own privacy in selecting a location and appointment time.
Session Lengths and Rates:
I provide sessions in a range of lengths to best support your healing journey:
Hour-long sessions ($100) are helpful for regular check-ins, sustaining progress, and addressing pressing concerns.
Ninety-minute sessions ($150) allow for deeper explorations and more overall space to engage with the therapeutic process. Intake/couples sessions benefit from a 90-minute minimum.
Two-hour sessions ($200) create adequate space for facilitating an effective introduction to healing practices, trauma processing, and immersive experiential therapies through canoeing, bushcraft, and fly-fishing.
For those seeking intensive healing, I also offer in-person half-day, full-day, and overnight wilderness experiences. These can be particularly beneficial for deeper transformation or for participants traveling from a distance. Examples include rites-of-passage ceremonies, wilderness therapies, and depth integration work. Contact for a quote.
Payment Methods (and Insurance):
I can accept cash, check, and all credit and debit cards. Payments are due at the beginning of session. Payments are auto-billed to a card on file on the day of each session.
I do not submit claims to insurance, and am not in-network with any insurance company. I am able to further adapt costs to your current economic situation if needed.
Cancellation/Reschedule Policy:
Cancellations made within 48 hours of our appointment, as well as no-shows, will incur a missed-session fee equivalent to our agreed-upon session rate. If you need to reschedule, I’m happy to accommodate at no charge, provided you give at least 48 hours' notice, there is availability, and the new session falls within two business days of the original appointment.
Unless we've made prior arrangements, I will not follow up to check in or send reminders. Instead, I will bill the missed-session fee and wait for you to follow up when you're ready to schedule again.
DSM and Diagnosis:
In my practice, I embrace a non-pathologizing approach to care, which means I view emotional and psychological challenges not as fixed disorders but as meaningful experiences; intelligent responses that arise from a person’s unique life context. While the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has been a cornerstone of mental health diagnosis, its history is fraught with controversy, including concerns about over-medicalization, cultural bias, and the risk of reducing complex human experiences to simplistic labels. I use the DSM as a lens—a tool to inform understanding and guide treatment—rather than as a definitive label. This approach allows me to honor the individuality of each client, focusing on their strengths, values, and potential for growth.
Privacy and Confidentiality:
Privacy and confidentiality are fundamental to my counseling practice, both in session and in the way I handle technology. Just as therapy provides a secure and protected space for personal exploration, I take intentional steps to safeguard digital and online privacy. In addition to meeting standard HIPAA/ACA requirements, I use end-to-end encrypted messaging and telehealth platforms, turn off my phone completely during sessions, and use pen-and-paper for notes and appointments. With an awareness of data breaches, digital surveillance, and the risks of electronic record-keeping, I integrate these privacy-conscious choices into my practice to ensure that your sensitive information remains secure and our therapeutic space remains truly confidential.
Please complete the following forms at least 24 hours before your first session.
If you feel that you would like to collaborate your session with another provider, complete and return the following form:
Intensive & Immersive Offerings
Some of the most significant healing happens through a day—or several days—spent deep in nature's rhythms, supported through healing practices and discussions, with abundant time and space to process and integrate.
Intensives are available as standalone experiences, or as a complement to ongoing therapy. They are particularly well-suited to people at a crossroads, those traveling from a distance, or anyone who feels the pull toward something expansive.
All intensives are offered by inquiry. Each is designed collaboratively, shaped to the person and the moment. Click "Information" below to learn more.
Meeting Locations
Intensives are held in the southern Appalachians — on trail, beside water, at camp. The Hot Springs area offers access to the Appalachian Trail, the French Broad and Laurel rivers, and more backcountry terrain within an hour of town. Depending on terrain, season, and what a person is carrying, the work may draw on forest bathing, bushcraft and primitive skills, tenkara fly-fishing, fire-making, plant and fungi identification, and land art. Specific locations are determined collaboratively during the planning process.
Ways In:
Walkabout Therapy — Single-day or multi-day hiking and counseling in southern Appalachia. We move together through landscape and let the elements work alongside the therapeutic process.
Base-Camp Retreats — Small groups held in place; at camp, in a cove, beside moving water. Structured enough to feel safe, open enough for something real to happen. Designed for couples, families, colleagues, or communities navigating shared ground.
Rites of Passage & Wilderness Solo — Facilitated threshold experiences for individuals at significant life crossings. Time alone in wild country, within a ceremonial container. Includes preparation, solo, and integration. Rooted in cross-cultural traditions of intentional solitude.
River & Water-Based Work — Tenkara, canoeing, and time beside or within moving water as the medium of encounter. Available as a standalone experience or woven into walkabout or base-camp offerings.
Payment & Logistics:
A deposit is required to hold your dates. Balance is due before the experience begins. I accept cash, check, and all major cards. Costs vary by format, duration, and group size—contact to discuss.
Cancellation Policy:
Because intensives require significant preparation and planning, cancellations made within two weeks of the start date will forfeit the deposit. I will do my best to reschedule if circumstances change.
A Note on Clinical Care:
Intensive experiences are not a substitute for ongoing therapy when ongoing therapy is what's needed. If you are in an acute mental health crisis, I will work with you to find appropriate support before we plan an intensive. For those who are stable and ready, these experiences can be profoundly integrative—a threshold you step through rather than a symptom you manage.
Coming soon...
My path to practicing therapy grew from the compost heap of ups-and-downs, a lifelong curiosity for wisdom, and a commitment to helping out.
As a psychotherapist, I am trained mostly in mindful somatic and eco-therapeutic traditions. My background in outdoor guiding and rites-of-passage work illuminates my approach, while an ongoing personal meditation practice grounds it.
In addition to counseling, I also teach outdoor therapy courses and lead llama-assisted treks. I love being in the canoe, garden, or forest—with friends and family—foraging, fishing, playing banjo, reading, and telling stories.
Deep gratitude to all those who have walked with me along the way—I am because we are.
Licenses, Degrees & Certifications:
NC Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor #15902
SC Licensed Professional Counselor #10465
M.S. Clinical Mental Health Counseling, WCU
B.A. English Language and Literature, ASU
B.S. Agroecology, ASU
Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapist, MEC
Shinrin Yoku Forest Therapy Guide, ANFT
Wilderness First Responder, SOLO
CPR/AED, American Red Cross
Professional Trainings and Conferences:
Clinical Supervision Training, 2026
Ecotherapy and the Hero's Journey, 2023
Natural Flow EMDR, 2022, 2023
Hakomi Mindful Somatic Therapy, 2021, 2024, 2025
Internal Family Systems, 2021
Climate Informed Clinician, 2020
Wilderness Therapy Symposium, 2016-2024
Professional Memberships:
Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides
International Community for Ecopsychology
Therapeutic Adventure Professional Group
American Counseling Association
Wilderness Educators Association
Publications:
Mathias, C., Schultz, C., Curtis, R., Wynn, D., & Schultz, J. (2025). Navigating Trauma in Wilderness Therapy: A Narrative Therapy Approach. Leisure Sciences, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2025.2479610
Curtis, R., Roberts, L., Graves, E., Rainey, H. T., Wynn, D., Krantz, D., & Wieloch, V. (2020). The role of psychedelics and counseling in mental health treatment. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 42(4), 323-338. https://doi.org/10.17744/mehc.42.4.03
Schultz, C. S., McKeown, J. K. L., & Wynn, D. (2020). Altmetrics: Measuring engagement with contemporary leisure scholarship. Leisure Sciences, 42(1), 123-131. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2019.1682727
Ecopsychology / Ecotherapy
