Chantelle Fehlandt
OTR/L, Founder, Branch Outdoors LLC
I'm a licensed occupational therapist with 12 years of experience in early intervention, working exclusively with children with disabilities and their families. I'm also a ConTiGO Certified Nature-Based Pediatric Therapist — trained in the only published, operationalized nature-based pediatric therapy framework of its kind.
For five years, I've run a nature-based playgroup at Patrick Eagan Park in Eagan, Minnesota. Every session, I watch what becomes possible when a trained practitioner is present: families who have felt excluded from outdoor spaces for years finally feel like they belong.
I built Branch Outdoors because that experience shouldn't require a clinical specialist. It should happen everywhere children go outside — in every park program, every forest school, and every nature preschool in Minnesota. It is with this belief that I hope to create positive change in these very spaces.
12 Years clinical experience in early intervention
Licensed occupational therapist in the state of Minnesota
ConTiGO-certified nature-based pediatric therapist
5 Years experience in nature programming for children with disabilities
Credentials
Why nature?
Nature has always been a special place for my family. We spend a lot of time outdoors together—on trails, in parks, camping, hiking, and everything in between—but it’s easy to take for granted how accessible those experiences are for us. That awareness has shaped how I see outdoor spaces: not just as places to visit, but as places that should be truly available and welcoming to every family.
Children with disabilities — especially those with autism, Down syndrome, ADHD, and sensory processing differences — often need nature more than anyone else. Time in natural environments is one of the most powerful tools available for sensory regulation, emotional development, and overall wellbeing.
Yet these are often the children with the least access to it — not because of the terrain, but because the adults in their lives haven't been equipped to support them outdoors. I created Branch Outdoors to close that gap. Not by building more accessible trails, but by building more capable people.