Mapping the Mind in the Wilderness: Behavioral Health Symptoms and Conditions - Online Classroom

This Leadership Development Series seminar builds understanding around behavioral health conditions and how they appear in the field. Many outdoor professionals are familiar with physical injury or illness but have had limited exposure to understanding behavioral health conditions in the same way. This day focuses on developing that foundational understanding recognizing that knowing what depression, anxiety, trauma, or psychosis look like is similar to how one identifies a fracture or infection.

Participants explore:

• Anxiety, depression, trauma, and stress-related disorders
  
  
• Personality patterns and interpersonal dynamics
  
  
• Substance use, risk behavior, and emotional regulation
  
  
• Neurodivergence and cognitive differences
  
  
• Psychosis and acute mental health crises

The session emphasizes recognizing how these conditions manifest in wilderness contexts, differentiating distress, dysfunction, and danger in remote environments, and understanding group dynamics, collective regulation, and how cognitive load influences decision-making and emotional state in the context of our social context.

Presenter 

Kallie Kurtz is a Behavioral Health Clinician specializing in trauma, ADHD, and crisis response in emergency departments, individual therapy, and public health policy. An avid whitewater kayaker and mountain enthusiast, she has been exploring the outdoors for over 30 years. Bringing together her passions for the outdoors, wilderness medicine, and behavioral health, she has been working to ensure Backcountry Behavioral Health is fully incorporated into wilderness medicine and outdoor adventure fields. A Wilderness First Responder since 2009, she spent nearly a decade instructing and guiding outdoor expeditions, where she witnessed firsthand the profound connection between mental health, risk, and resilience in remote environments. With expertise in trauma, PTSD recovery, and resilience building, Kallie equips outdoor enthusiasts to understand behavioral health, navigate high-stress incidents and foster post-traumatic growth in wilderness settings.

7:00-8:30pm PST via Zoom Meeting
Meeting link will be sent to registered attendees the day of the session.