WHO IS GROVE INSTITUTE?
Independently female owned and operated, learn more about our team below!
KALLIE KURTZ LICSW/LCSW
​​Born and raised in Alaska and now based in the Pacific Northwest, Kallie brings the same curiosity, resilience, and respect for the human experience that the wilderness taught her into every aspect of her professional practice. Her approach bridges the personal and the systemic, emphasizing that healing happens not only within individuals, but within the communities and environments that surround them.
CLINICAL SPECIALTIES
Kallie specializes in working with individuals navigating trauma, PTSD, ADHD, anxiety and other high-stress or high-demand environments, helping clients understand and regulate their nervous systems, rebuild safety, and cultivate resilience. Her approach is rooted in neuroscience and recognizes how experience, biology, and environment shape both behavior and healing.
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She integrates evidence-based modalities including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Attachment Theory, and Solution-Focused Therapy, along with bilateral stimulation techniques to support trauma processing, nervous system regulation, and integration. treatment is tailored to meet the client where they are, blending structure with flexibility to create sustainable, meaningful change.
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Her style is collaborative, practical, and deeply compassionate grounded in neuroscience, shaped by social context, informed by lived experience, and rooted in the belief that healing occurs when people feel safe, understood, and empowered.
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Kallie frequently works with:
First responders, healthcare professionals, and veterans
managing trauma, burnout,
and moral injury
Individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, or adjustment challenges
while navigating the challenges, demands, and inequities of our social context,
daily life, and major life transitions
Individuals with ADHD
focusing on psychoeducation,
emotional regulation, and executive functioning through a strengths based and compassionate lens
Outdoor professionals and adventurers
navigating risk, loss, and resilience in
high-risk environments
Survivors of complex trauma, abuse, and coercive control
seeking to rebuild autonomy, safety,
and self-trust
LGBTQ+ community members
seeking gender-affirming care , acceptance, and support
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COLLABORATION, CONSULTING,
SPEAKING, & TRAINING SPECIALTIES
Kallie provides consultation, training, and collaboration for organizations, agencies, and leaders seeking to strengthen their approach to behavioral health, trauma-informed care, and crisis response. With experience spanning clinical practice, emergency departments, community health, outdoor leadership and statewide behavioral health and public health policy, she bridges the worlds of systems design, direct service, and lived human experience.
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Her consulting and collaboration work focuses on:
Trauma-informed system design and workforce wellbeing
across healthcare, education, outdoor, & community programs
Understanding and responding to trauma-related behaviors
including aggression, violence, &
emotional dysregulation through a lens of safety, accountability, & care
Behavioral health considerations in policy and program development
ensuring that systems, laws, & protocols are informed by trauma science and grounded in compassion
Behavioral health integration
within both public & community
health systems
Crisis response and postvention planning
for organizations navigating suicide, overdose, violence, & other critical incidents
Cross-sector collaboration in wilderness medicine, high-stress work environments,
& community-based settings
to strengthen collective resilience, behavioral health knowledge,
& trauma response
As a speaker and educator, Kallie is known for her ability to make complex behavioral health and trauma concepts accessible, evidence-based, and deeply human.
She regularly presents at national and regional conferences in behavioral health, wilderness medicine, and community leadership, where she explores topics such as:
The neuroscience of stress, fear, and recovery
Behavioral health considerations in
violence prevention and crisis response
Behavioral health
in the backcountry
Trauma, grief, and loss across clinical, organizational, and outdoor settings
Leadership and accountability in trauma-exposed systems
Behavioral health in high-risk and high-stress environments
Building trauma-informed and culturally responsive systems of care
Her trainings and workshops weave together clinical insight, neuroscience, systems design, and collaborative practice, equipping participants to navigate behavioral health, trauma, resilience, and complexity with clarity and compassion. Whether facilitating policy reform, consulting on crisis protocols, or leading cross-sector trainings, Kallie’s work helps organizations and communities grow more responsive, understanding, grounded, and humane.
Kallie is always excited about collaborating! If you have an idea please don't hesitate to reach out using the form linked below, and she'll be happy to connect with you :
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The Neuroscience of Fear
Why your brain both
loves and hates risk
PTSD, Anxiety, and the Adrenaline Junkie
The fine line between
thrill and trauma
Trauma and the Outdoors
How nature heals -
and when it doesn't
Loss in the Outdoors
Processing deaths, accidents, and suicides in adventure culture
Crisis Response in the Backcountry
Mental health first aid for guides, leaders, and friends
The Power of the Outdoors as a Tool in Addressing Trauma and Behavioral Health
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My Story
As a behavioral health clinician and public health policy expert Kallie has built her career at the intersection of challenge and care, whether in an emergency department, a mountain pass, or a policy meeting. Her path through behavioral health has been shaped by witnessing people at their most human: in fear, grief, growth, and recovery.
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Kallie has worked across hospitals, schools, rural communities, and state-level behavioral health systems, guided by a deep belief that healing happens in relationship, with ourselves, each other, and the environments we move through. While her clinical work focuses on trauma, PTSD, ADHD and crisis response, her broader mission centers on connection and accountability, creating systems and spaces that make healing possible.
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The outdoors has been a teacher, a mirror, and a form of treatment throughout her life. Kallie has witnessed how wilderness experiences can calm the nervous system, build resilience, and foster healing but also how they can surface pain and unprocessed trauma. Her own recovery after being hit by a truck, grieving losses to suicide, witnessing trauma, and navigating abuse and baby loss has deepened her understanding that grit isn’t just endurance. It’s the courage to stay present with what hurts and to grow through community, care, and connection.
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Grove Institute was born from that same belief: that growth takes root when honesty, compassion, and science come together. Kallie’s work now bridges behavioral health, public health, and policy with lived experience, helping individuals, organizations, and systems cultivate resilience, healing, and meaningful change.
Topics Kallie can speak on:
The Neuroscience of Fear
Why your brain loves (& hates) risk
Trauma & the Outdoors
How nature heals -- and when it doesn't
Crisis Response in the Backcountry
Mental health first aid for guides, leaders, and friends
PTSD, Anxiety, & the Adrenaline Junkie
The fine line between thrill & trauma
Loss in the Outdoors
Processing deaths, accidents and suicides in adventure culture
Bouncing Back
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The Power of the Outdoors in Addressing Trauma & Behavioral Health
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... and more!
Kallie is always willing to collaborate on topics!