Second Nature Blue Ridge Welcomes Greta Lutman

Second Nature Blue Ridge welcomes Greta Lutman, M.A. LCAS as the new Primary Therapist for adolescent females.

Prior to Second Nature, Greta worked in Inpatient adult, adolescent substance abuse, psychiatric, and eating disorder treatment centers. She was also Wilderness Therapist and Clinical Director of SUWS of the Carolinas and has extensive therapeutic boarding school experience, most notably at Carlbrook School as Assistant Clinical Director.

Greta works well with adolescents struggling with depression, anxiety, grief, trauma, addiction, identity problems, adoption issues, and individuation problems. Taking a trauma-informed approach, she understands that many problems in adolescence are caused or exacerbated by unresolved grief and trauma. Seeing the family as the "client," Greta enjoys helping parents become agents for change.

Her strengths center around her ability to know and understand the student and parents, helping each person feel safe and connected. Utilizing relationship to understand the system from the inside, she assists each family member in taking responsibility, re-conceptualizing the "problem," and adjusting beliefs, feelings, and responses accordingly.

Greta graduated from Wake Forest University with a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology in 1988, and a Masters from Appalachian State University in Agency Counseling in 1992 with specializations in Substance Abuse Counseling and Marriage and Family Counseling. She is a Licensed Addictions Specialist.

After several years of working in in-patient substance abuse and eating disorder units, Greta discovered wilderness therapy and believes it to be a most effective setting for adolescents and their families to begin the change process. She was fortunate to have worked for three years at Carlbrook School, where she enjoyed the relationships that a longer-term intervention afforded.

As a clinician, Greta attempts to focus all of her attention on understanding the person she is sitting with (no matter age, gender, role or what their struggles may be) and on her own experience of that person. Her goal is to understand the function of each person's behaviors and beliefs in a system, how all members relate, and how adjusting the structure of a system can bring relief, change, and growth.

Greta's strong emphasis on assisting clients in "re-envisioning" their difficulties by guiding them towards the awareness of their inner landscape through Gestalt work, guided imagery, timeline work, and other highly personal and metaphoric work. In this way, the client becomes his or her own best resource for healing.

Her interests include viewing, collecting and occasionally making art; mid-century modern furniture and decorative arts, experiencing exotic ethnic cuisines, jumping on her trampoline, spending time at galleries and studios with her husband David, and exploring Asheville, where she lives.

Please help us welcome Greta to the Second Nature team!

Second Nature Blue Ridge is a therapeutic wilderness program designed to provide a clinically sophisticated, therapist-driven wilderness program for boys and girls who experience a variety of behavioral, emotional, substance abuse and school or community adjustment problems.