Heather Menzie
Clinical Intern

Heather has worked as a wilderness guide since the summer of 2001. She started her guiding career at Arkansas River Tours, where she led trips for families, youth groups, and organizations focused on team building and deepening communication skills. Now in her seventh season, Heather specializes in guiding alternative groups down the river. Heather also teaches yoga and leads trips for the Women’s Wilderness Institute, a non-profit company focused on strengthening the courage, leadership, and confidence qualities of girls and women through individual and community-based challenges. These trips focus on authentic expression of voice and body movement.

Heather grew up in Westford, Massachusetts, exploring the old and gentle mountains and shores of the east coast. In 2000, she graduated with a BA in English from the College of William and Mary and ventured out West to the rivers and peaks of Colorado. In many ways, she found that the rivers and mountains offered a reflection for her. This awareness initiated a dream for Heather to create a lifestyle where she could support individuals and families in finding inner wellness through wilderness experiences.

Heather spent three years working in the high school system in 1:1 and in small group settings with people with developmental disabilities, mood disorders, emotional and behavioral issues, traumas, and substance abuse and dependence. During this time, Heather integrated yoga, hiking, and "just sitting by the lake" to the daily school schedule. She has found the wilderness to be a resource for the students she has worked with.

In 2003, Heather became a field guide for Wilderness Quest, a wilderness therapy program in South East, Utah. She taught wilderness survival skills and facilitated therapeutic groups to help students achieve changes in substance use/abuse and personal responsibility. She found that time spent hiking within the swirling layers of Utah’s canyons and sitting beneath starry skies offered individuals space to awaken their passions. Inspired by walking alongside her students, Heather entered graduate school at Naropa University. She is in her third year of her master’s program in Transpersonal Psychology, emphasizing in Wilderness Therapy.

Heather has joined Open Sky for a clinical internship. She has found Open Sky to be congruent with her values in its holistic approach to develop wellness and strengthen relationships. Her heart is open to offering her experience, to learning from the healers at Open Sky, and to holding sacred and safe space for students to explore the wilderness within themselves. Heather is joined by her fabulous dog, Wilson.

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