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Ep. 21 ~ Nature-Based Therapy with Dr. Nora Dennis, MD, MSPH, DFAPA
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Nora Dennis, psychiatrist, addiction specialist, yogi, mother, and founder of Jubilee Healing Farm in North Carolina. Together we dive into the shortcomings and pitfalls of modern mental health care, where the focus on medication and crisis management often leaves out deeper issues: our crisis of values, culture, and collective disconnection from nature.
Dr. Nora shares the powerful work happening through Jubilee’s Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), a model that brings people back into relationship with land, community, and themselves. We explore how this approach not only benefits individuals and staff but also helps lift the burden from hospitals and overstretched providers by creating healing spaces outside of the medical-industrial complex.
And there’s so much more richness in this conversation, from the challenges faced by providers like Dr. Nora, who are committed to the art of healing and building new models of care, to the ways our current systems are structured to protect the corporate healthcare industry rather than the communities they claim to serve.
This conversation goes beyond mental health, it’s about reclaiming our roots and birthright to thrive, restoring balance, and remembering that wellness is deeply tied to the world around us.
Resources & Links
* Connect with Dr. Nora & Jubilee Healing Farm:Jubilee Healing Farm
Jubilee Clinic
* The Work That Reconnects - Joanna Macy
* Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche - Bill Plotkin
* Cultivating Self: Reclaiming Healthcare Fellowship
Dr. Nora’s Bio:
Dr. Nora Dennis is the founder and CEO of Jubilee Healing Farm in North Carolina. She weaves together psychiatry with practices that honor the whole person, integrating psychopharmacology, somatic work, psychotherapy, nutrition, mindfulness, and connection to nature. Since 2014, she has served on the faculty at Duke University School of Medicine, where she continues as an Adjunct Assistant Professor. Her clinical work spans psychotherapy, medication management, and brain stimulation for treatment-resistant illness.
Nora’s philosophy is simple but powerful: medication can be a bridge when used thoughtfully, starting low, moving slow, and always in conversation with the patient, so that people have the capacity to engage more deeply in therapy and wellness practices.
Her path to medicine began long before medical school, as a yoga teacher and lifelong student of the mind-body connection. She has completed training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and follows the growing field of psychedelic science with keen interest.
Outside of her professional life, Nora is a mother of three, and she finds joy in hiking, yoga, playing guitar, crafting, and reading.
Education
* Residency, Psychiatry, Duke University Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Chief Resident, Resident of the Year.
* MD, Duke University School of Medicine. Nanaline H. Duke Scholar, Dean’s Award Recipient.
* MSPH, Maternal and Child Health, UNC School of Public Health
* BA with Highest Honors, Anthropology and Environmental Studies, UNC Chapel Hill. Morehead Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, Morris K. Udall Scholar.
* Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dianacantureyna.substack.com
View all episodes
By by Diana Cantu-Reyna, RN, BSNIn this episode, I sit down with Dr. Nora Dennis, psychiatrist, addiction specialist, yogi, mother, and founder of Jubilee Healing Farm in North Carolina. Together we dive into the shortcomings and pitfalls of modern mental health care, where the focus on medication and crisis management often leaves out deeper issues: our crisis of values, culture, and collective disconnection from nature.
Dr. Nora shares the powerful work happening through Jubilee’s Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), a model that brings people back into relationship with land, community, and themselves. We explore how this approach not only benefits individuals and staff but also helps lift the burden from hospitals and overstretched providers by creating healing spaces outside of the medical-industrial complex.
And there’s so much more richness in this conversation, from the challenges faced by providers like Dr. Nora, who are committed to the art of healing and building new models of care, to the ways our current systems are structured to protect the corporate healthcare industry rather than the communities they claim to serve.
This conversation goes beyond mental health, it’s about reclaiming our roots and birthright to thrive, restoring balance, and remembering that wellness is deeply tied to the world around us.
Resources & Links
* Connect with Dr. Nora & Jubilee Healing Farm:Jubilee Healing Farm
Jubilee Clinic
* The Work That Reconnects - Joanna Macy
* Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche - Bill Plotkin
* Cultivating Self: Reclaiming Healthcare Fellowship
Dr. Nora’s Bio:
Dr. Nora Dennis is the founder and CEO of Jubilee Healing Farm in North Carolina. She weaves together psychiatry with practices that honor the whole person, integrating psychopharmacology, somatic work, psychotherapy, nutrition, mindfulness, and connection to nature. Since 2014, she has served on the faculty at Duke University School of Medicine, where she continues as an Adjunct Assistant Professor. Her clinical work spans psychotherapy, medication management, and brain stimulation for treatment-resistant illness.
Nora’s philosophy is simple but powerful: medication can be a bridge when used thoughtfully, starting low, moving slow, and always in conversation with the patient, so that people have the capacity to engage more deeply in therapy and wellness practices.
Her path to medicine began long before medical school, as a yoga teacher and lifelong student of the mind-body connection. She has completed training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and follows the growing field of psychedelic science with keen interest.
Outside of her professional life, Nora is a mother of three, and she finds joy in hiking, yoga, playing guitar, crafting, and reading.
Education
* Residency, Psychiatry, Duke University Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Chief Resident, Resident of the Year.
* MD, Duke University School of Medicine. Nanaline H. Duke Scholar, Dean’s Award Recipient.
* MSPH, Maternal and Child Health, UNC School of Public Health
* BA with Highest Honors, Anthropology and Environmental Studies, UNC Chapel Hill. Morehead Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, Morris K. Udall Scholar.
* Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dianacantureyna.substack.com