Educator Spotlight: Jen Johnson

Jen Johnson, a nature and mindfulness psychotherapist and coach, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification.

Jen’s practice focuses on stress, climate anxiety, grief, health and wellness. She is a Writing as Refuge™ workshop facilitator and a speaker and trainer on stress reduction, resilience, creativity, nature meditation and emotional resilience in the climate crisis. She includes nature-based education and nature connection practices in her workshops and presentations. She is also a writer and nature photographer.

Jen says her favorite part of the program was deepening her knowledge about climate change and birds. “I enjoyed the creative aspects of the community project such as collaborating with my community partner on project design and facilitation and curation of the exhibit. Mostly I loved connecting with so many amazing people who are committed to environmental education.”

When asked about a certification experience that stands out to her, she says there are so many that stand out! “A frog call identification workshop helped me to pay more attention to frog calls every season. After the frog calls workshop, I started paying more attention to their calls, and now I know that when the eye of a hurricane is overhead, there is silence, and the hurricane is over when the frogs begin calling again.”

Jen says another experience that stands out to her was Climate Interactive Mastering EnROADS Training. “It was an intensive training that offered so much information about climate change along with concrete ways to assess which actions will have the greatest positive effects on decreasing the impacts of climate change. I plan to sign up again for continuing education credits! The bird walks at Halyburton Park with Andy Fairbanks also stand out. He's an amazing facilitator, and I've learned so much more about birds from him. I could go on and on, as there are many more experiences that had a positive impact on me. I can't say enough about how wonderful this program is.”

For her community partnership project, Jen created a project called “Writing the Earth: A Climate Writing and Resilience Workshop.” Writing with the Earth project offered a space in which participants could learn about the causes and impacts of climate change, express climate emotions, and write about their climate emotions and as well as their hopes for the future. The project taught participants skills for being more emotionally resilient in the face of the climate crisis. The exhibit of the writing is scheduled to be hung in May at Halyburton Park Nature Center in Wilmington, NC. Our hope is that the exhibit will expand the community conversation and give others encouragement and permission to think about and express their concerns and feelings about climate change.”

Jen says the program changed the way she teaches others. “Participating in the EE Certification program has helped me to be more focused on engaging people's curiosity about the natural world and has expanded my perspective about the many ways that people can engage with nature.”

She also says the program changed the way she views environmental issues. “I believe deeply that people will try to save what they love. I’m more committed than ever to try and inspire people to connect with and fall in love with nature.”