Lavender, Ecotherapy, & Hilltending
Where the Inner Landscape Meets the Living Land
At Cloudscape Hill, the lavender fields are not merely a backdrop. They are a participant. The same process that transforms lavender blossoms into essential oil — distillation, heat, pressure, emergence — mirrors what happens in genuine psychological work. Something is brought in, something is released, and what remains is more concentrated, more essential, more true.
This is the spirit of Hilltending.
What is Hilltending?
Hilltending is a Jungian ecotherapy and depth psychology coaching framework developed by Jim through his doctoral research and dissertation in Depth Psychology. It draws on the understanding that the human psyche and the natural world are not separate — that tending to one is, in a profound sense, tending to the other.
The Hilltending process is fluid, circular, and deeply responsive. It begins with two foundational phases — Assessing the Terrain and Mapping the Topography — in which we get to know one another and listen carefully to what psyche is already saying. From there, the process unfolds uniquely for each person and each session, like a dance that follows the lead of the unconscious rather than forcing it into a predetermined shape.
Hilltending as Ecotherapy
In the ecotherapy modality, we work outside — often in and among the lavender rows, on the hillside, or along the field edges of Cloudscape Hill. The landscape becomes both metaphor and medicine. We might walk, tend, climb, or simply sit with the land as we work with the inner dimensions it reflects.
Hilltending ecotherapy helps you:
- Work with your ecological "shadow" and the emotions it carries
- Recognize and sustain a sense of awe and belonging within the Earth Community
- Find peace and strength in the face of ecogrief and ecological uncertainty
- Discover creative ways of living more lightly and contributing to the healing of the Earth
- Develop your personal econarrative — your alchemical story of relationship with the natural world
Practices may include contemplative nature walks, nature-based dreamwork from the perspective of the "World's Dream," ecosomatic practices, archetypal cosmology, and imagining into the personality types of landscape.
The Lavender Connection
Lavender has been used for millennia as a plant of healing, clarity, and transformation. At Cloudscape Hill, we grow nearly 3,000 lavender plants in Michigan's ideal sandy soil — and we distill their essence into the products we offer. That process of distillation — of drawing out what is most essential from what has been carefully cultivated — is itself a form of alchemy, and a fitting metaphor for the work we do together in the fields.
"I highly recommend Dr. James Liter for teaching professionals how to integrate depth psychological and ecotherapeutic concepts, and the themes they engender, with their clinical work."
— Paul Krauss, Health for Life Counseling
"Since working with James my life has changed in an epic fashion. It was so helpful to get the Hilltending perspective, and I am no longer the same person that I was before I began working with him. If you have the chance, I would do whatever you can do to make that investment in your well-being. You will remember it as a life changing decision."
— Mary S.
Begin Your Hilltending
Sessions are available one-on-one, in small groups, and as part of farm experience workshops. In-person sessions take place at Cloudscape Hill in Dowling, Michigan. Virtual sessions are also available.