Ground Well Counseling is a practice devoted to facilitating every person’s healing and agency. Though most sessions are focused at an individual level, social justice, healing and environmental wellbeing are essential components of the practice.
Experiential and somatic counseling in the outdoors.
Currently accepting new individual and family clients. See below for more information.
“How does the seed grain feel when it is just beginning to be wheat?”
Sometimes this world can be an unfriendly, sometimes a devastating place. It can also be a place for uplifting and joyful and fun experiences.
When is the last time you really connected with nature? When is the last time you were able to slow down and just be? Often our bodies and minds hold the wisdom we are needing in the present moment. I find that moving and being in natural spaces inherently helps us tune into ourselves as individuals and ourselves as part of a web of life (and was gratified in school to show that research also supports this).
My office setting is a garden with some woods for rambling when more movement is needed. Together we work with plants, animals, and natural elements to explore your needs, goals, fears, desires, strengths, and skills and how best to weave them into the web of your life.
Counseling helps you explore where you are and where you want to go in life. Client-centered counseling is my strength, so your needs and goals provide the basis for every session. I have additional training in experiential and somatic counseling, and use a garden setting and nature-based activities to facilitate the counseling process.
I’m Ailish Kress, LCPC-C, and my passion is helping people come home to themselves by learning how to cultivate safety, agency, and fulfillment in the present moment.
What kind of counseling is this?
When people think of counseling, they tend to think of sitting on a couch in an office, facing the therapist and talking. Experiential counseling uses activities to help clients explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and somatic counseling invites clients to check in with the body as well as the brain. To learn more, read on…
Why the garden?
Gardening, for me, was a series of revelations that helped me deepen my connections both to the Earth and to myself. I came to gardening knowing nothing, and there really are no prerequisites for engaging with a garden besides curiosity and a willingness to get your hands dirty….
Services and Rates
I provide individual counseling sessions to diverse adult clients. I also offer a limited number of family counseling slots as well as psychoeducation and therapeutic skills groups. I do not currently take health insurance, however, I have a sliding scale and can provide a superbill for reimbursement if your out-of-network benefits allow.
In addition to providing counseling services, I also conduct weekly sound baths, and offer other workshops and events, many of which are free. Find out more on the Groups and Events page, or sign up for my weekly newsletter!
My Outdoor Office
This hoophouse functions as my office, and this is typically where we will meet at the beginning of each session. The hoophouse is useable year-round and in nearly all kinds of weather; it also allows for some fun gardening experiments and activities.