What is Nature-Based Integration Coaching (NBIC)?

Nature-Based Integration Coaching (NBIC) is a professional coaching specialization that prepares coaches, therapists, and facilitators to support clients before and after expanded-state experiences, using nature as the primary container and method for integration work. NBIC graduates hold an ICF Level 2 coaching credential with a psychedelic integration specialization, a combination built inside the pioneering school of nature-connected coaching, with two decades of ICF-accredited training behind it.

What integration coaching means

When someone completes a ketamine treatment series, a psilocybin session in a supervised clinical setting, or another expanded-state experience, the experience itself is not the work. The insights, disruptions, and shifts that surface need to land — to metabolize into lasting change in how someone moves through their daily life, relationships, and sense of purpose. That process is integration.

Integration is not therapy. A licensed therapist works within clinical scope: diagnosing, treating, and supporting mental health conditions. Integration coaching is different. It is a professional coaching relationship oriented toward meaning-making, behavioral change, and practical support as clients move through the integration arc — before treatment begins and long after it ends.

The demand for skilled integration support is growing faster than the supply of trained coaches. Oregon and Colorado have authorized supervised psilocybin programs. Ketamine is legal for medical use in all 50 states when prescribed by a licensed provider, and ketamine clinics have become widespread. In 2023, Australia became the first country to allow authorized psychiatrists to prescribe psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and MDMA for PTSD in supervised clinical settings. Practitioners inside these systems report the same gap: clients return from treatment experiences changed, but without adequate support to make that change last. Integration coaching is the missing piece.

Why nature is the method, not the setting

Most integration programs work indoors, with talk-based approaches derived from psychotherapy or counseling. Nature-Based Integration Coaching works differently.

EBI’s approach uses nature as an active container for integration work, not as a backdrop or a wellness add-on. Nature becomes the method itself: the regulator of the nervous system, the somatic anchor for processing, the non-verbal teacher that mirrors and extends what emerged in the expanded state.

Groundedness is often what clients most need in the integration phase — a felt sense of being held, re-embodied, and reconnected to something larger than the experience itself. Nature is particularly well suited to that work. Research across environmental psychology and neuroscience supports what practitioners already observe: time in natural environments co-regulates the stress response, reduces ruminative processing, and creates conditions for insights to settle rather than dissipate.

NBIC’s curriculum draws on somatic integration, ceremony and ritual as framing (not as facilitation), and the eight-unit structure of Earth-Based Institute’s core coach training. Integration coaching becomes a practice the coach has lived, not just a set of tools to apply.

What NBIC coaches do, and what they don’t

Scope matters in this field, and NBIC trains for it explicitly.

NBIC coaches support clients through pre-treatment preparation: helping them clarify intentions, build a support structure, and develop the practices that will carry them through the experience and the weeks that follow. After treatment, coaches support post-treatment integration — meaning-making, behavioral change, somatic grounding, and the practical navigation of what shifted.

NBIC coaches do not facilitate psychedelic experiences. They do not administer, prescribe, or recommend substances of any kind. They do not provide clinical services, make diagnoses, or work within a therapeutic scope. The work is pre- and post-treatment integration coaching.

This scope is not a limitation. In a forming field where scope confusion is widespread, it is a professional anchor. Clinics and licensed facilitators looking for credible referral partners want coaches who can articulate exactly what they do and do not do. NBIC’s clear legal posture is increasingly a competitive advantage.

Who studies NBIC

NBIC draws from three professional backgrounds.

Coaches who have completed the Nature-Connected Coaching (NCC) program — EBI’s core ICF Level 2 certification — and want to specialize in integration work. NCC builds the coaching foundation; NBIC adds the integration specialization. Together they produce an ICF Level 2 credentialed coach with a psychedelic integration credential, a combination no other program offers.

Licensed therapists, LCSWs, LMFTs, and psychologists who see clients returning from psychedelic or expanded-state experiences and want specialized training in integration support. For this group, NBIC is a professional development credential that complements (and does not replace) their clinical scope.

Trained facilitators and somatic practitioners working in adjacent fields — breathwork, trauma-informed movement, ceremonial practice — who want a professional coaching credential to formalize their integration support work.

The common thread: these are practitioners who take the credential seriously, expect rigorous training, and need language they can use confidently in clinical and referral conversations.

The credential

NBIC is an eight-unit, eight-month professional training with more than 60 live learning hours. It is offered by Earth-Based Institute, which has trained Nature-Connected Coaches since 2008 and is the pioneer and longest-running ICF Level 2 accredited program in the nature-connected coaching space.

NBIC is designed as a specialization credential built on a coaching foundation. For NCC graduates, it completes an ICF Level 2 coach with a psychedelic integration specialization. The combined credential is something no other integration coaching program offers.

What a session looks like

NBIC coaches work with clients across an arc.

Pre-treatment, a coach might spend several sessions helping a client clarify their intentions, identify the patterns they are bringing into the experience, and establish grounding practices that will carry them through the integration process. This preparation work often determines whether an experience integrates or simply fades.

Post-treatment, the coach supports the client in making sense of what emerged — not interpreting the experience for them, but holding the space for the client to find meaning on their own terms. Sessions may take place indoors or in nature. The coach draws on somatic inquiry, reflective questioning, and nature-based practices that help the body metabolize what the mind is still processing.

An NBIC coach working with a client six weeks after a ketamine series is doing fundamentally different work than a therapist processing that client’s trauma history. The two roles complement each other.

How NBIC is different from other integration training programs

The integration coaching market has grown quickly and varies widely. A 12-week certificate from Out of the Dark Academy is different from Being True To You’s 12-month program, which is different from Ignite Global’s ICF-accredited specialization. These programs serve different audiences and make different claims.

NBIC’s position: it is the only integration coaching program built inside an ICF Level 2-accredited coach training school with a 20-year track record in nature-connected work. It does not compete on volume of graduates or breadth of coaching frameworks. It competes on the depth of the credential, the specificity of the methodology, and the clarity of the scope.

For practitioners who take the professional credential seriously and want an ecological, embodied approach to integration — not a 12-week certificate and not a broad-modality program — NBIC is the program designed for that.

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Frequently asked questions

What does NBIC stand for?

NBIC stands for Nature-Based Integration Coaching. It is a professional coaching specialization in pre- and post-treatment psychedelic integration support, offered by Earth-Based Institute.

Is NBIC ICF accredited?

NBIC paired with the Nature-Connected Coaching (NCC) certification produces an ICF Level 2 credentialed coach with a psychedelic integration specialization. Earth-Based Institute is the pioneer and longest-running ICF Level 2 accredited program in the nature-connected coaching space.

Do NBIC coaches facilitate psychedelic experiences?

No. NBIC coaches do not facilitate, administer, prescribe, or recommend substances of any kind. The scope is pre- and post-treatment integration coaching.

How long is the NBIC program?

NBIC is an eight-unit, eight-month program with more than 60 live learning hours.

Who can apply to NBIC?

NBIC is designed for coaches, licensed therapists, and trained facilitators who want a professional credential in integration coaching. It is also the natural next step for NCC graduates seeking an integration specialization.

What is the difference between NBIC and NCC?

NCC (Nature-Connected Coaching) is EBI’s core ICF Level 2 coach training — where practitioners become coaches. NBIC is the advanced integration specialization built on top of that foundation. Together they produce an ICF Level 2 credentialed integration coach.

NBIC coaches do not facilitate, prescribe, or recommend substances. The work is pre- and post-treatment integration coaching.