“Before I came to camp I felt broken and alone. After camp, I found hope that I can heal.” – C.T. 2016
Our Mission
The mission of the Center for Earth-Based Healing of AIWP is to provide trauma-informed ecotherapy programs that promote holistic healing — psychological, physical, emotional, and spiritual — for trauma survivors.
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is locally governed and operated but part of a larger national organization called The Association for the Integration of the Whole Person. AIWP, founded in 1979, is committed to supporting spiritual persons to serve their communities in ways that assure psychological and educational self-empowerment, leading to peace and goodwill.
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is locally governed and operated but part of a larger national organization called The Association for the Integration of the Whole Person. AIWP, founded in 1979, is committed to supporting spiritual persons to serve their communities in ways that assure psychological and educational self-empowerment, leading to peace and goodwill.
Our Staff
Daily operations, camps, and program development for the Center for Earth-Based Healing are currently administered by two year-round staff members, and for our camps, we bring in additional staff members with specific expertise that support our trauma-informed ecotherapy approach.
Michele Zehr
Executive Director
Email: michelezehr@earthbasedhealing.org
Office: 434-277-5001
MICHELE ZEHR, M.Ed., M.A., is the founder of the Center for Earth-Based Healing. She has worked with survivors of sexual and domestic violence in various capacities since 2009. As a Sexual Assault Response Team coordinator and advocate for survivors of sexual violence, she provided the full range of direct services for survivors at a local non-profit agency. As staff, she taught the cultural competency module at the Virginia Victim Assistance Academy, and served as Program Coordinator for the Community-Defined Solutions to Ending Violence Against Women grant at the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. In this role, she led a multi-disciplinary team of state-level stakeholders dedicated to creating systemic change by offering training conferences that brought law enforcement officers, Commonwealth’s Attorneys, and advocates together to learn how to better coordinate survivor services.
Michele has worked with ecotherapy modalities over the past decade, attending programs at the School of Lost Borders, Tracker School, and the Ecology of Awakening program, and is currently working on her certification as a Somatic Experiencing practitioner through Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. Her academic credentials include training in instructional design and two Master’s degrees in adult education and social justice education, focused on women’s and gender studies. She also completed business-related training at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, the Center for Non-Profit Excellence, and the Community Investment Collaborative in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Michele also founded We2: Women’s Experiential Empowerment LLC in 2013. She offers women’s self-defense classes, one-on-one empowerment coaching, custom-designed professional development trainings, and transformational talks (www.we2empower.com). She recently spoke by invitation at Quadruplicity: Charlottesville’s Professional Women’s Conference, UVA’s Women’s Midlife Health Symposium, and was interviewed on Speaking of Travel with radio host Marilyn Ball.
Michele is a former U.S. Marine, backpacked the entire Appalachian Trail (2,175 miles), and in her downtime, loves connecting with nature, reading, and composing and playing music on her piano, saxophone, and ukulele.
Executive Director
Email: michelezehr@earthbasedhealing.org
Office: 434-277-5001
MICHELE ZEHR, M.Ed., M.A., is the founder of the Center for Earth-Based Healing. She has worked with survivors of sexual and domestic violence in various capacities since 2009. As a Sexual Assault Response Team coordinator and advocate for survivors of sexual violence, she provided the full range of direct services for survivors at a local non-profit agency. As staff, she taught the cultural competency module at the Virginia Victim Assistance Academy, and served as Program Coordinator for the Community-Defined Solutions to Ending Violence Against Women grant at the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. In this role, she led a multi-disciplinary team of state-level stakeholders dedicated to creating systemic change by offering training conferences that brought law enforcement officers, Commonwealth’s Attorneys, and advocates together to learn how to better coordinate survivor services.
Michele has worked with ecotherapy modalities over the past decade, attending programs at the School of Lost Borders, Tracker School, and the Ecology of Awakening program, and is currently working on her certification as a Somatic Experiencing practitioner through Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. Her academic credentials include training in instructional design and two Master’s degrees in adult education and social justice education, focused on women’s and gender studies. She also completed business-related training at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, the Center for Non-Profit Excellence, and the Community Investment Collaborative in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Michele also founded We2: Women’s Experiential Empowerment LLC in 2013. She offers women’s self-defense classes, one-on-one empowerment coaching, custom-designed professional development trainings, and transformational talks (www.we2empower.com). She recently spoke by invitation at Quadruplicity: Charlottesville’s Professional Women’s Conference, UVA’s Women’s Midlife Health Symposium, and was interviewed on Speaking of Travel with radio host Marilyn Ball.
Michele is a former U.S. Marine, backpacked the entire Appalachian Trail (2,175 miles), and in her downtime, loves connecting with nature, reading, and composing and playing music on her piano, saxophone, and ukulele.
Karen Mulder
Logistics & Support Coordinator
KAREN MULDER, M.A.R, Ph.D., helps the Center for Earth-Based Healing’s programs run smoothly, and began providing photography, graphic design and behind-the-scenes support for Camp Mabon in 2014. She received training in crisis intervention and advocacy in sexual and domestic violence through the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance in Richmond, Va., and has experienced the benefits of various ecotherapy modalities since 2012. Karen has Wilderness First Aid and Leave No Trace training, and is a Certified Master Naturalist who serves on the Rivanna Chapter board of directors, as well as in the docent and education programs at Ivy Creek Natural Area in Charlottesville, Va.
Growing up in Venezuela, Karen became fluent in Spanish and subsequently had the privilege of traveling widely throughout Latin America, Europe, China, and northern Africa to learn about Mother Earth, and to share her enthusiasms about the power of the arts to move the soul. To this end, she became the Menil Scholar of Visual Arts at Yale University. She co-founded several non-profit artists networks and taught undergraduate and graduate-level art history, coordinating logistics for many conferences, including multidisciplinary summer institutes at Oxford and Cambridge that served 300 to 700 attendants. Karen has professional experience as a graphic designer, public speaker, art director, photographer, editor, and writer, publishing art and architectural criticism in many venues.
Recently, however, her interests migrated toward nature-based training, which led to her participation in programs at the School of Lost Borders and the Ecology of Awakening yearlong experience, as well as the Voices From the Land program. She finds the individual transformations that happen at camp inspiring and unequaled by anything she has witnessed in her many travels and experiences.
Karen enjoys writing creatively in poetry, song and prose, singing, playing guitar, and cartooning whenever a blank piece of paper calls her to it.
Logistics & Support Coordinator
KAREN MULDER, M.A.R, Ph.D., helps the Center for Earth-Based Healing’s programs run smoothly, and began providing photography, graphic design and behind-the-scenes support for Camp Mabon in 2014. She received training in crisis intervention and advocacy in sexual and domestic violence through the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance in Richmond, Va., and has experienced the benefits of various ecotherapy modalities since 2012. Karen has Wilderness First Aid and Leave No Trace training, and is a Certified Master Naturalist who serves on the Rivanna Chapter board of directors, as well as in the docent and education programs at Ivy Creek Natural Area in Charlottesville, Va.
Growing up in Venezuela, Karen became fluent in Spanish and subsequently had the privilege of traveling widely throughout Latin America, Europe, China, and northern Africa to learn about Mother Earth, and to share her enthusiasms about the power of the arts to move the soul. To this end, she became the Menil Scholar of Visual Arts at Yale University. She co-founded several non-profit artists networks and taught undergraduate and graduate-level art history, coordinating logistics for many conferences, including multidisciplinary summer institutes at Oxford and Cambridge that served 300 to 700 attendants. Karen has professional experience as a graphic designer, public speaker, art director, photographer, editor, and writer, publishing art and architectural criticism in many venues.
Recently, however, her interests migrated toward nature-based training, which led to her participation in programs at the School of Lost Borders and the Ecology of Awakening yearlong experience, as well as the Voices From the Land program. She finds the individual transformations that happen at camp inspiring and unequaled by anything she has witnessed in her many travels and experiences.
Karen enjoys writing creatively in poetry, song and prose, singing, playing guitar, and cartooning whenever a blank piece of paper calls her to it.
How You Can Support Survivors
The Center for Earth-Based Healing spends $900 per survivor per program, and we need your support to continue offering our healing camps. Survivors are never charged to attend because we believe a lack of financial resources should never be a barrier to healing. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, making your contribution tax-deductible. Please consider sponsoring a survivor at a level that suits your financial situation, or see our in-kind donation list on the DONATE page. Thank you for your generosity.
You will be taken to an external website to make your donation. Please list CEBH of AIWP in the Comments box.
Photo Credits: Karen L. Mulder & Jennifer Lee | Logo Design: Karen L. Mulder