FAQs

All walks that I guide follow a standard sequence as developed by ANFT, but every walk is a little different since it’s in partnership with the natural world. After a brief welcome and overview, I offer a guided meditation to help people deepen into their senses, followed by a series of invitations to explore the natural world around us more deeply, with our senses; I facilitate opportunities to share what we are noticing throughout, and to practice deep listening while others share. Near the end of our walk, I offer tea and an opportunity for us to thank the forest or more-than-human-world, and share anything to help us make our experience feel complete. I allow some time at the end to transition back to our daily lives.

You can definitely do this practice on your own (and I encourage you to), but you may find that doing Forest Therapy with a trained Guide helps you to get more out of the experience, by helping you stay in your senses and body, instead of getting distracted by your thoughts or other distractions. There may also be benefits from practicing with others, both in a practical way of hearing some ways they are experiencing their senses in moments of sharing, and in a less tangible feeling we may get when having a shared, meaningful experience with strangers or loved ones. 

No, I don’t diagnose or treat anyone, and I’m not trying to fix anyone or anything. I’m a Guide, whose aim is to help you feel safe and comfortable as you connect to your senses in the natural world, and hold space for whatever arises, with non-judgment and acceptance. In my training, my teachers liked to say “The forest is the therapist; the guide opens the doors.”

Everything about this practice is invitational, which means that you are free to adapt any invitations to what feels good and right to you. Maybe you’ll roll your eyes or laugh if I invite you to talk to a ladybug, and/or maybe you will feel moved to hug a tree — either way is all good! Forest Therapy is truly not prescriptive, and as a guide, I won’t be judging how you experience the walk.

All experiences are welcome. Maybe in moments of quiet or stillness, you’ll experience joy, or grief, or insight, or playfulness or laughter. Maybe you’ll experience all or none of the above – and that’s OK! Sometimes people have a very meaningful experience, and sometimes it’s just a chance to be outside and experience subtle (or not-so-subtle) physiological benefits. I like to think that nature provides whatever experience you need at the time, if you’re able to be fully present. As a Guide, I am truly not trying to get you to have any certain type of feeling, emotion, or experience.

Forest Therapy is a secular practice; people who identify as agnostic, atheist, spiritual, or religious are all welcome. Some people find that slowing down and really tuning into their senses in nature allows for moments of feeling connected to whatever higher power they relate to, but as Guides we leave that up to each individual.