One hundred feet down a suspended footbridge and 20 feet into the branches of a massive silver maple tree, you pass through a rustic wooden entryway to a one-story structure and end up feeling a world away from the everyday.
That’s a big part of why this tree house has a place at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township.
Being surrounded by nature, connecting with one’s inner child and being in an environment where one can see oneself differently are key ways that the tree house works together with the counseling experience, according to Blake Ringenberg, lead counselor and owner of Gethsemane.
Fully enclosed and covered in walnut shingles and rustic logs, this isn’t the typical backyard tree house that kids or their parents might put together over a summer. In fact, it took about a year and a half of work and $10,000 to $15,000 to build it, according to Blake Ringenberg.
In the tree house, you are in a space reminiscent of a fantasy cottage: a peaked ceiling, a wood-burning stove (accompanied by a space heater), walnut bark contrasting against white sections of wall, plenty of windows in a variety of sizes, a ladder stored horizontally on the ceiling for access to a small loft. Here and there are pieces of “The Lord of the Rings” decor: a light switch with the words “one ring to rule them all,” a small collection of J.R.R. Tolkien books, a music box that plays a theme from the Peter Jackson films.
Leave the main space, which is around 12 by 12 feet (the loft is around 8 by 9 feet), slide open a glass door, and you’ll be on a balcony with a white painted railing and a view of Little Chiques Creek. And if that isn’t enough, you can climb a ladder up to a second balcony, this one near the foliage of the tree.
Despite its use as a now-retired “The Lord of the Rings”-themed rental, a therapy space was the original vision for the tree house, licensed professional counselor Blake Ringenberg said. He completed the structure about six and a half years ago — with help from his father, his father-in-law, his brother, a friend and others — and got it permitted through Mount Joy Township, he said.
He had an engineer reverse engineer the tree house, and had to meet with the state for a variance hearing at which three engineers took a vote to approve the structure’s use as an office, he said. After that he began using it as his own office before turning it into an Airbnb.
But Blake Ringenberg said he isn’t sure where the idea to create the tree house came from.
“We wanted to have another office, and we wanted to do something different, we wanted to be out in nature, so those premises met the conclusion, we got the idea — from somewhere — we sat on it, it hatched,” Blake Ringenberg said.
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VIDEO: A tour of Gethsemane Counseling’s treehouse therapy space in Mount Joy
Named for a Biblical garden, Gethsemane is located on seven acres in Mount Joy Township, land that Blake Ringenberg bought from his in-laws seven years ago. In addition to the tree house, the practice has a weight room, a small backup office and four traditional offices connected to the house where Blake Ringenberg and his family live.
When Blake Ringenberg founded the practice around 10 years ago, he was living in East Chicago and didn’t have a physical office location. Since then, the practice has grown to include six other full- and part time clinicians, including his wife, licensed marriage and family therapist Gretchen Ringenberg, who began seeing clients about a year and a half ago. The practice sees around 150 clients a year, Blake Ringenberg said, with an additional 30 through Donegal School District.
Clients come into Gethsemane with concerns such as anxiety, depression, difficulty with focusing, relationship issues or a feeling that life is overwhelming, Blake Ringenberg said. Counselors there provide a range of different therapy types — “each clinician has their own that they feel is the best,” he said.
A go-to for Blake Ringenberg is narrative therapy, which he said aims to give clients a sense of objectivity by helping them realize that their struggles are separate from who they are. For a client, this might mean envisioning their mind as a set of neighborhoods they can drive through, or a divided government where they serve as president. And this connects with the tree house’s visual theme: “The Lord of the Rings” is a great narrative therapy story, he said.
“We think ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a story worth telling because it’s true within all of us. We all have a Ring of Power, and we all need a Sam and so forth,” Blake Ringenberg said.
The practice also offers faith-based counseling as an option for clients who are interested. But they don’t aim to proselytize and don’t discriminate against anyone, Blake Ringenberg said.
In addition to the office and tree house locations, counselors at Gethsemane offer mindfulness walks, or sometimes might sit with a client next to a campfire with a cup of tea — “we want the property to be its own therapist,” Blake Ringenberg said. With a gym on the property, Gethsemane can accommodate clients who want to lift weights with their therapist.
“We believe in the holistic approach: mind, body, spirit. Your body, how you take care of it’s important, how you take care of your spirit’s important, how you take care of your thoughts are important,” Blake Ringenberg said.
The tree house is a playful, lighthearted environment that can appeal to the inner child, he said.
“If you can be playful, if you can be goofy, (if) you can be lighthearted, if you can step into something new and see yourself differently, then you have a good chance of healing and growing,” Blake Ringenberg said.
Nature can calm the nervous system, he said. And clients view the tree house as a special space for the information they’ve shared in therapy.
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Blake Ringenberg looks out from the suspension bridge at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A path leads from a gravel road toward the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Blake Ringenberg, left, and his daughter Loxley, 7, stand on the suspension bridge that leads to the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A structure with a sink and a shower, stands in the middle of the the 104-foot-long suspension bridge that leads to the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Daylight illuminates the inside of the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Daylight illuminates the inside of the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A 104-foot-long suspension bridge leads to the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
The tree house stands at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A path leads between Pippin’s Paint Station, left, and Galadriel’s Well at Gethsemane Counseling and Coaching in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
The first section of the 104-foot-long suspension bridge at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township, connects to a structure that includes a sink and shower, and acts as a support to the bridge on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. From there, the bridge continues to the tree house.
The first section of the 104-foot-long suspension bridge at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township, connects to a structure that includes a sink and shower, and acts as a support to the bridge on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. From there, the bridge continues to the tree house.
An image of Treebeard, from “The Lord of the Rings”, is carved into an ash tree at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A104-foot-long suspension bridge leads from the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Blake Ringenberg looks out from the suspension bridge at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A path leads from a gravel road toward the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Blake Ringenberg, left, and his daughter Loxley, 7, stand on the suspension bridge that leads to the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A structure with a sink and a shower, stands in the middle of the the 104-foot-long suspension bridge that leads to the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Daylight illuminates the inside of the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Daylight illuminates the inside of the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A 104-foot-long suspension bridge leads to the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
The tree house stands at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A path leads between Pippin’s Paint Station, left, and Galadriel’s Well at Gethsemane Counseling and Coaching in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
The first section of the 104-foot-long suspension bridge at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township, connects to a structure that includes a sink and shower, and acts as a support to the bridge on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. From there, the bridge continues to the tree house.
The first section of the 104-foot-long suspension bridge at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township, connects to a structure that includes a sink and shower, and acts as a support to the bridge on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. From there, the bridge continues to the tree house.
An image of Treebeard, from “The Lord of the Rings”, is carved into an ash tree at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
A104-foot-long suspension bridge leads from the tree house at Gethsemane Counseling & Coaching Services in Mount Joy Township on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Benefits of nature
There’s a lot of evidence of the positive effects of time spent outside, said Elizabeth Dalton, a licensed clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychology at Elizabethtown College.
Time spent in nature is associated with cognitive benefits such as improved attention and working memory, as well as enhanced mood, mental health and emotional well-being, Dalton said.
“Research, some of which is experimental and some of which is correlational, finds that time in nature is associated with increased happiness, wellbeing, positive affect and even more positive social interactions,” Dalton said.
Even relatively brief periods of time spent outside may have benefits. As little as around 20 minutes at a time, or about two hours in total during the week, is associated with some improvements in wellbeing and life satisfaction, she said.
“Because of some of the benefits of being outdoors in terms of stress reduction and attention restoration, I could see those things certainly helping to facilitate engagement in a counseling or therapy session,” Dalton said.
Heather Girvin, an associate professor at Millersville University’s School of Social Work, is a founder and executive director at East Cocalico Township-based Lone Oak Animal-Assisted Therapeutic & Educational Services, a nonprofit that offers equine-assisted therapy as well as opportunities for community members to volunteer with horses.
Girvin said that traditional therapy sometimes works great, but it’s not the answer for everyone, all of the time. She has met a couple of people from Gethsemane, and was excited by the work they were doing, she said.
“Being able to sit in a tree, or … be in a tree house and look around, the awe inspires you, the sense of connection brings safety and security. You’re less defensive, you feel less studied, less objectified,” Girvin said. “All of those qualities make it easier to talk.”
While there is evidence that outdoor talk therapy can be beneficial, Girvin said that it isn’t clear exactly why this is the case. But there are guesses based on related research. The effect may be the result of a stronger alliance between the client and provider, the benefits of physical movement — which may help process trauma — or that sense of awe that can be felt in nature, Girvin said.
“It is true that there is growing, but still messy, research related to most of these alternative practices,” Girvin said.
Licensed professional counselor Josh Ramirez began seeing clients at Gethsemane in October, as a new father who had been seeking a more flexible work schedule. He now works part-time at Gethsemane, as well as at a telehealth practice. When he first visited the property, he was both impressed and taken aback by the nontraditional setting, with its chickens and pigs and the offices connected to a farm house, he said — and this was before he’d visited the tree house.
Ramirez, who sees clients in the tree house on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is currently the main clinician to use the space, said he fell in love with the location after his first session there. The Dauphin County resident feels like the space enables clients to get away from the world during their sessions.
“I think that there’s something … I’m not gonna say mystical, but definitely especially healing about being able to kind of separate from your outside cares,” Ramirez said. “And the tree house creates a very apt metaphor for that.”
The tree house office does have its downsides, though. Thunderstorms and winds at or above 25 miles per hour would both necessitate moving a tree house therapy session to a different location, according to Blake Ringenberg. But as for winter, the inside of the tree house stays warm, and Blake Ringenberg said he’d have the bridge shoveled if it snows. In the event of a big snowstorm, Ramirez said he’d be able to pivot his own sessions to telehealth.
Looking to the future, Gethsemane is planning on opening an outdoor petting zoo office with animals, Blake Ringenberg said, which is in the works now. And as for the tree house itself, it may someday see overnight guests again.
“We love ideas, so … maybe at some point it could be used as, like, a couple’s retreat, or something like that,” Blake Ringenberg said.
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