BETC was created with one idea in mind:
to think about therapy differently.
Healing neither starts nor ends within the walls of a counseling office. The real work happens in nature, in community, and through embodied experiences that reconnect us to ourselves. Rooted in compassion, liberation, and social justice, BETC invites people to experience therapy not as a clinical appointment, but as a soulful journey toward wholeness.
BETC believes we are made of our experiences; everything about ourselves and our world changes in response to our lived experiences. Therefore, healing should be an experienced action in the here and now, rather than solely intellectualized and discussed. While intellectual processing and psychoeducation are necessary and important, BETC also promotes lived action and therapeutic practice to shift our factual "knowledge" to a soulful "knowing." At which point, one's healing process can truly become integrated into one's daily life.
it's in the experience
Click through the numbers to learn more about the BETC approach.
Your body carries stories, signals, and truths that words alone can’t always capture. Through sensation, it reveals what you need, what you’ve endured, and where healing is possible.
At BETC, you're to honor your body as a guide, worthy of respect, attention, and trust, as it helps you move through struggle and embrace joy. Healing begins when you learn to listen to what your body has been saying all along.
the body tells the truth
At BETC, it is believed that spiritual well-being is essential to human flourishing. It helps you feel a sense of belonging (being seen and known), becoming (growing into your truest self), and beyond (connecting with something larger than yourself).
In today’s world, many of us carry wounds from disconnection or even abuse to our spiritual lives—whether through religious trauma, cultural loss, or a lack of meaningful community and rituals. Healing often means grieving what was lost, and exploring new ways to connect with spirit, through nature, creativity, community, and practices that feel authentic to you.
tending to the soul
BETC services are rooted in social justice, decolonization, and liberation—because healing cannot be separated from the systems that shape our lives. Access to care, the amount of pain one is allowed to express, and the very definition of “wellness” have long been constrained by white supremacy, capitalism, and other oppressive structures.
Psychology’s history makes this clear: those outside the dominant ideal were pathologized and silenced. Healing today means facing those legacies, acknowledging ancestral wounds, and creating spaces where suffering is not minimized but met with dignity, justice, and care.
healing is political
ali: therapist, educator & guide.
Hello, Ali here.
BETC is the culmination of more than a decade spent weaving together my two lifelong passions: connection with the natural world and the work of human healing. As a helper, a recreationalist, and a community member, I’ve witnessed firsthand that people thrive when they feel safe to be themselves, connected to something greater, and fully alive in body, mind, and spirit.
Over the years, I’ve poured myself into the counseling field, and what I’ve learned through this work has been profound. However, I’ve also seen the limits of traditional mental health systems, and how they can leave people feeling pathologized, isolated, or unseen.
As a queer person working in Idaho, and as a woman navigating male-dominated fields like outdoor education and guiding, I also felt called to create something different that challenges norms and opens new possibilities for what healing could look like.
Boise Experiential Therapy Collective was born out of both hope and critique: hope for therapy that feels alive, embodied, and liberating, and critique of systems that too often separate us from nature, community, and our own inner wisdom.
Today, my work integrates advanced psychological training with experiential, soulful, and ancestral practices. Whether on the trail, at the crag, in a circle, or in the counseling office, my role is to walk alongside you as you pursue your truest self.
When many people think of therapy, they picture a quiet office, a couch, and lots of talking. While reflection and conversation are important, healing at BETC looks and feels different. Here, therapy is not limited to words, it is something you do, feel, and experience.
That might mean walking a trail and letting the rhythm of your steps guide the rhythm of your story. It might look like climbing at the crag and noticing how fear, trust, and resilience show up in your body. Sometimes it’s sitting in a circle, sharing stories, grief, and laughter in the presence of community. Other times, it’s pausing with eyes closed in guided imagery, navigating your inner world with the help of a guide.
This is what makes experiential therapy powerful: you’re not just talking about your life, you’re living new possibilities in real time. By engaging body, mind, spirit, and community together, the healing you practice here becomes integrated into your daily life…it becomes a lived reality.
so, what makes betc different?
Ali is curious, insightful, empathic, very knowledgeable (though still humble), and listens really well. It seems like every session she's got a new metaphor, paradigm, quote, or fact that's super relevant to my situation."
"I'm amazed at how helpful my sessions have been!"
individual experiential counseling client
