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Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors


Feb 29, 2020

Steve Swayer is Co-Founder/Chief Clinical Consultant of New Visions Wilderness. Steve's journey into the wilderness field began after he had spent many years practicing as a licensed psychotherapist and was a director of a large outpatient mental practice in Wisconsin. His focus was on trauma-informed care, and when a tragedy happened in his own life, he went to Alaska to spend time in the wilderness to heal. He was so inspired that he would go onto co-found New Visions Wilderness in Wisconsin and Oregon.

From the New Visions Website: Steve Sawyer is a licensed psychotherapist filled with passion and knowledge surrounding the intervention and change process. His experience comes from over a decade of intervention with tough-to-reach client populations in therapy settings ranging from residential, community-based, outpatient and wilderness therapy. Steve is trained in several unique therapeutic models including somatic trigger release, traumatic memory reprocessing, and HeartMath. He is also recognized internationally as a Brainspotting trainer and consultant who trains outpatient therapist and treatment programs. Through his experience he has authored two books, co-founded Wisconsin’s only wilderness therapy program, New Vision Wilderness, and works as a core therapeutic training development staff with the Institute of HeartMath. He was an author in the innovative and comprehensive HeartMath Interventions Establishing a New Baseline for Sustained Behavioral Change therapist training Module that revolutionizes modern therapy interventions through an emotional physiology approach. Steve’s largest project has been the development of NVW’s Trauma Informed Care model in the wilderness setting that has challenged the entire wilderness therapy industry on making healthier interventions with their clients. Steve’s trainings are recognized nationwide for cutting-edge therapeutic techniques and inspiration.