Shining Oak Wellness

About

Dr. Grant Pike is a scholar-practitioner who brings over 25 years of earth-centered, LGBTQ, and eco grassroots collective awareness to healing space. Having a love for the earth and the sacredness of life, Dr. Pike firmly believes in social justice that extends beyond humans. The understanding that, to be socially just and to honor the larger world around us, has led them to practice social work.

Dr. Pike has spent the past 15 years working in the behavioral health field, serving those in need across a multitude of settings, including uplifting the unhoused community, grassroots youth leadership, community health, and community mental health, medical, and outpatient care.

Dr. Pike has felt a calling to bring the values and ethics of earth-centered spirituality into clinical practice. He founded Shining Oak Wellness in 2022 to further this mission of bringing integrative, nature-centered clinical social work to serve the community. Founded on the principles of Earth’s wisdom,

Recent article on my work here:

Integrating Forest Spirituality into a Social Work Mindset

Dr. Pike has opened Shining Oak Wellness to better serve clients. Devoting time to clients is an essential part of the healing process, as psychotherapists act as guides, listening and observing moments of change and growth. We each hold great insight and understanding of who we are, and in sharing our lives, we gain great healing through this exploration.

They came to this through a lifelong love of nature and an upbringing that taught them the importance of serving others. This informed their social justice values, as they saw helping as a way to be authentic to who they are.

Dr. Pike also writes about earth-centered wisdom and ecophilosophy and is working on their first nonfiction book, Earth Centered Theory, due in March 2027.

Living on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, USA, Dr. Pike enjoys spending time with family, going on walks in the local forests and along the Atlantic Ocean, sipping great coffee, and reading with their cats.

Credentials

  • LICSW (Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker) Massachusetts #123398
  • Doctor of Social Work, Simmons University
  • Master of Social Work, Simmons University
  • Bachelor of Science, Clinical Psychology, UMASS Amherst
  • Ordained Clergy, SOPHIA Wisdom Tradition and Temple
  • Certified Forest Therapy Guide, ANFT

Publications

  • Queers Going Wild: Expressing Queerness Through Nature Options Magazine, 2023
  • Biden’s Respect for Marriage Act Huge Victory For The Rich And Already Married Options Magazine, 2023
  • Five Ways To Support Your Transgender Youth Options Magazine, 2022

Presentations

Teaching:

  • “Incorporating Nature-based Wisdom into Social Work Practice”, the University of Albany, School of Social Work, 2023 and 2024, Guest lecturer
  • “Managing Caregiver Stress” Greater New Bedford Community Health Center, 2019 -Panel Speaker
  • “LGBTQ sensitivity and awareness” PLFLAG Speakers Bureau, 2000 to 2006, 2015 to 2017 -education facilitator

Conferences:

  • “Earth Centered Theory: Challenging the Conceptualization of the Earth and the environment in Social Work”, DSW Conference, 2025
  • “Queering Nature: Use of Forest Therapy as a Radical Act of LGBTQ+ Existence” CSWE (Council on Social Work Education) Annual Program Meeting, 2023
  • “Supporting Unaccompanied Minors and Undocumented Children from South and Central America in Behavioral Health: What can we do?” Youth At Risk-Massachusetts, 2020
  • “Unaccompanied Minors Pathways of Care” TEAMUP Symposium-Special Populations Panel, 2019
  • “Transgender HIV Awareness” Translating Identities Conference, 2015
  • “Youth Town Hall Forum on Inclusion of Youth Voice and Choice in Wellness and Healthcare” Translating Identities Conference, 2014
  • “Gender Queer and Non-Labelled Youth: Reshaping the Topography of LGBTQQIA Youth” Translating Identities Conference, 2013

TRAININGs:

  • “Transgender/nonbinary youth in Community Health Center Pediatrics” TEAMUP for Children, 2022
  • “LGBTQQIA Awareness in the Medical Field” (CE/CEU training) Compass Medical, 2021
  • “Transgender Support and Awareness in Mental Health” (CE/CEU training) Family Continuity, 2018
  • “LGBT Sensitivity Training for Bachelor’s and Master’s Behavioral/Mental Health Providers” Family Continuity, 2018
  • “Conflict Resolution for Community Mental Health Support Staff” Family Continuity, 2018
  • “SpeakOut” LGBT Sensitivity Training conducted by Massachusetts PFLAG and CIGSYA, 2000-2004

Film/ Media:

  • Student Actor: “Evidence-Based Approaches in Social Work Practice” Simmons University 2SW (Online MSW Program) 2018