Become a Certified Nature-Based Pediatric Therapist™ with the ConTiGO Approach 

The ConTiGO Approach was authored and developed by pediatric occupational therapist Dr. Laura Park Figueroa, with input from the team at her private practice, Outdoor Kids OT. The approach is based on Laura's PhD studies, plus therapists' lived experience providing nature-based pediatric therapy services. Laura teaches all of the core modules in the course. Laura or experienced ConTiGO therapists host the mentoring calls.

Calls will take place on Thursdays in February, May, & October for one hour starting at 11am PST / 12pm MST / 1pm CST / 2pm EST. 

You are strongly encouraged to attend the mentoring calls as soon as possible after you enroll. Calls will help you process what you are learning and apply it in your work. You are welcome to attend any future mentoring calls as well to get ongoing support in your nature-based work.

If you can't attend live, you can submit questions to be covered on the call. Replays will be posted to the event space within 24 hours after the call inside the private ConTiGO discussion area.

For certification and CEUs, you must attend calls for all 4 core modules within 1 year after enrolling.

Licensed pediatric therapists or therapist assistants who enroll in ConTiGO are eligible to complete the certification requirements to become a Certified Nature-Based Pediatric Therapist™ or Therapist Assistant.

The certification process requires completing the core ConTiGO modules, attending mentoring calls for each module, completing various learning experiences and assignments, and passing a final exam.

Certification is FREE if you complete the requirements within 1 year of your initial enrollment date in ConTiGO. 

When you become certified, you'll get a certificate of completion for CEUs, plus a digital badge to put on your website, social media, and/or print marketing materials to demonstrate your training and competency. You'll also get access to be listed our worldwide directory of certified nature-based therapists. 

(If you took ConTiGO in the past or have been in ConTiGO over 1 year and want to be certified, please email support@therapyinthegreatoutdoors to inquire.)

While our approach was developed in nature-based occupational therapy sessions, the training materials are applicable to many therapeutic practitioners who work with children, including but not limited to:

• Occupational therapists and OT assistants
• Speech therapists and SLP assistants
• Physical therapists  and PT assistants
• Mental health practitioners
• Counselors
• Social workers
• Psychologists

There are 4 types of pediatric therapists who benefit most from this course:

1. You work as an employee and you want to step into leadership by incorporating nature-based therapy at your place of employment.
2. You work as an employee, but you want to start your own side-gig providing nature-based therapy camps or after-school services to impact more lives in your community.
3. You currently run your own private practice and want to add nature-based therapy programming to offer a unique and highly-valuable service that also provides an alternative revenue stream in your business.
4. You want to start your own nature-based therapy practice and want to be equipped from the start as an expert in this niche.

This course is intermediate-advanced level content for licensed pediatric professionals, as it involves research analysis and clinical reasoning for application to practice. Professionals using the ConTiGO Approach must understand basic age-appropriateness of different therapy activities and be able to modify activities as needed for the child's age or developmental needs. 

One thing to note: The ConTiGO Approach was developed for children with ADHD, autism, sensory processing challenges, and dyspraxia/developmental coordination disorder, so we will focus mainly on these populations during the training. The approach was not developed based on work with children who have more significant cognitive or motor challenges or severe language impairments, though some elements of the approach could still be applied. We HAVE had therapists who focus on working with these populations take the course, and they reported the course was still very helpful to their work.

Feel free to contact [email protected] if you’re unsure the training will be a good fit for your professional goals.

As of May 2023, we are an American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Approved Provider and ConTiGO is AOTA-approved for 30.0 hours (3.0 CEUs) for occupational therapists and therapy assistants in the United States. 

However, your profession's licensure process may not require a course to be taken from an "approved" provider. So, it is possible ConTiGO may qualify for your required Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for licensure renewal in your profession. It is your responsibility to know the requirements for your own profession and jurisdiction.

In order to receive a Certificate of Completion you must complete all of the certification requirements within a year after enrollment in ConTiGO. 

To receive CEUs and become a Certified Nature-Based Pediatric Therapist™ (or Therapist Assistant), you will watch the core module videos, attend mentoring calls, complete various learning experience assignments, and pass a final exam. 

FOR LIFE! As long as we offer it online- and we have no plans of stopping anytime soon! We've decided to give every enrollee lifetime access to the content, WITH updates, for the life of the online course.

Part of the ConTiGO Approach is based on the idea of the therapeutic benefits of “immersive” nature settings. Sessions using the approach usually take place in uncultivated natural areas where one can experience the feeling of being “away” in nature. That being said, there are elements of the approach that may be implemented in any outdoor space in work with children. 

At Outdoor Kids OT, we mainly serve 3-10 year old children with autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorders, mental health challenges, learning disabilities, and dyspraxia/developmental coordination disorder. The approach was developed with these children in mind. 

The approach was not developed based on work with children who have more significant cognitive or motor challenges or severe language impairments, though some elements of the approach could still be applied. We HAVE had therapists who focus on working with these populations take the course, and they reported the course was still very helpful to their work.

Feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have questions about if the training is right for the population you work with in your practice.

Yes, of course. But no one becomes an expert by themselves. Wise people invest mentoring and put themselves in community with other experts to grow their own expertise.

The ConTiGO Approach has been developed with input from a variety of experts and is informed by research and theories from multiple disciplines.

To the author’s knowledge (and she’s spent a TON of time in the literature for her PhD), it is the ONLY operationalized, systematized, evidence-based approach to nature-based therapy that was specifically designed to be applied in practice across different disciplines. It takes a long time, a lot of hard work, and research to develop a practice model and specific approach such as this.

Our experience is passed on to you in ConTiGO - saving you time, money, energy, and helping you avoid lots of mistakes as you start or grow your nature-based work with children.

ConTiGO provides a strong foundation for you to build your own nature-based practice. As we mentioned before, you can use as little or as much of the ConTiGO Approach as you want in your practice. You’ll have the videos, rubric, workbook, printable resources, AND access to our online community forever to support your nature-based therapy work.

The registration fee includes access for one person to attend Zoom calls, access course content, and complete the certification process to become a Certified Nature-Based Pediatric Therapist™ or Therapist Assistant in the ConTiGO Approach™.

If you are certified and own a nature-based practice, we offer a 75% discount on ConTiGO to allow your employees to enroll in ConTiGO and become certified. Email [email protected] to get more information on certifying other therapists on your team.

After you are certified, you may use the course materials to implement the ConTiGO Approach in your own business or practice setting. This includes using the rubric or other materials to train your own employees or staff. In fact, the rubric was specifically designed to give you and your employees or staff a “shared mental model” for consistent implementation of the approach.

However, you may NOT share the materials with other therapists outside of your practice or setting.

This includes allowing them to watch videos, giving them digital or paper copies of the workbook, rubric, or other resources for use in their own practices. In other words: if they do not work for your practice or in your program and didn’t take the course, they shouldn’t have the ConTiGO Approach resources. 

Please encourage interested therapists to take the course! That way they have access to all the ongoing support to help them implement what they have learned.

Under trademark law, you may not take the ConTiGO Approach content and begin training other people in a similar approach that you call your own. 

Feel free to talk with us if you have any questions about if the training is right for you due to the copyright and trademark laws protecting the content you will learn. Email [email protected]

There are MANY resources and LOTS of information inside ConTiGO. How long it will take depends on how deep you go into the resources provided.

To obtain a credential as a Certified Nature-Based Pediatric Therapist™ or Therapist Assistant, completing the requirements will take several months, in some cases up to a year.

You ARE allowed to enroll in ConTiGO and choose not to complete the certification requirements. Many people do this. However, Certificates of Completion will ONLY be given to those who complete all certification requirements.

The certification process is approved for 30 hours (3.0 CEUs) by the American Occupational Therapy Association.

Our Refund Policy: "Do the work. Get results. Guaranteed." means that prior to 90 days after purchase, all products are subject to a money-back guarantee, minus a 5% administrative fee. The purchaser must email [email protected] with the reason for the refund request and demonstrate proof that significant attempts were made to use the complete content in your practice. Refund requests will require you to give us specific feedback to help us make the content more helpful for others. NO RETURNS WILL BE ACCEPTED 90 DAYS AFTER PURCHASE.

We do not offer refunds for cancellation, since this is an online program with lifetime access. You may enroll at any time when you’re ready and complete the content at your own pace. However, certification requirements must be completed within 1 year after you enroll in the program.

We open enrollment 3 times yearly:

January (weekly mentoring calls in Februrary)

April (weekly calls in May)

& September (weekly calls in October).

If you're on the waitlist, you'll get notified via email. We will also promote open enrollment on social media, inside the free TGO Community, and on the TGO podcast.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learners will appraise research evidence and theories informing nature-based therapy practice.
2. Learners will apply inquiry-based learning to support children’s play during nature-based therapy sessions.
3. Learners will choose appropriate strategies for nature-based therapy treatment in alignment with current evidence.
4. Learners will assess qualities of outdoor environments for appropriateness for nature-based therapy practice.
5. Learners will design and implement an outdoor therapy session for a child or group of children.
6. Learners will conduct a nature-connection assessment with a child.

The course includes video trainings accompanied by workbook content to apply learning from videos, as well as supplemental reading materials and printable resources to support your nature-based therapy work with children. ConTiGO Mentoring Calls are hosted online for 4 consecutive weeks in February, May, and October for interaction & discussion with other nature-based therapists; replays of calls are recorded and uploaded to the platform for all to access. Therapists who choose to pursue certification as a Certified Nature-Based Pediatric Therapist™ will also complete a variety of experiential assignments, reflective exercises, and a final exam.

We ensure accessibility of learning content and the environment by: providing closed captioning on videos, providing audio, video and chat box text files of live calls content, and using a learning platform that is easy to navigate. Learners with special needs can make requests for accommodations by emailing [email protected].

Speakers are informed of these policies in writing within their contract before starting to serve in any role in the program. 

Disclosures for Laura Park Figueroa

FINANCIAL: 

Laura is the owner of Outdoor Kids OT (OKOT) and receives a salary. In OKOT programs, various supports and supplies for nature-based therapists are mentioned or recommended, including other programs offered by OKOT. Various supports for business owners may be mentioned or recommended. Laura/OKOT is an affiliate for Amazon and receives a small portion of proceeds (at no additional cost to buyer) if registrants choose to use affiliate links offered in the program materials. Affiliate links are always clearly marked as such in the program materials and are never mandatory for participation in the program.

NON-FINANCIAL: 

Laura has friends and colleagues who are nature-based business owners and therapists.

Disclosures for OKOT employees who serve as course instructors:

FINANCIAL: 

Course instructors are OKOT employees and are paid their hourly rate for time spent in the course. OKOT employees are also paid a small referral bonus for referring interested colleagues to OKOT courses.

NON-FINANCIAL: 

OKOT employees have friends and colleagues who are nature-based business owners and therapists. 

Disclosures for course instructors from outside of OKOT:

FINANCIAL: 

Course instructors from outside of OKOT are paid as independent contractors for their time spent contributing to the course. Course instructors from outside of OKOT run their own nature-based businesses and receive a salary from those businesses. 

NON-FINANCIAL: 

Course instructors from outside of OKOT have friends and colleagues who are nature-based business owners and therapists. 

Therapy in the Great Outdoors, LLC is an AOTA Approved Provider of professional development. Course approval ID# 10436. This blended/hybrid online course is offered at 3.0 CEUs, advanced educational level in occupational therapy service delivery. The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA or indicate AOTA approval of a certification or other professional recognition.