Understanding Forest Therapy
Now that your curiosity is piqued, let’s take a closer look.
Stress leads to dis-ease. Forest medicine has been proven to relieve accumulated stress, promote health and aid in the prevention of illness by re-balancing the parasympathetic nervous system (rest & digest).
A guide can partner with you and nature using a standard sequence to compassionately and safely assist in promoting relaxation, restoration, and remembering one’s connections to the ordinary and sacred.
Gently guided connections between the ordinary and sacred.
This short video describes what forest bathing/forest therapy is about, its benefits, and the advantages of having a guided experience.
“Inspired by the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing,” forest therapy is a guided outdoor healing practice. Unlike a hike or guided nature walk aimed at identifying trees or birds, forest therapy relies on trained guides, who set a deliberately slow pace and invite people to experience the pleasures of nature through all of their senses. It encourages people to be present in the body, enjoying the sensation of being alive and deriving profound benefits from the relationship between ourselves and the rest of the natural world.”
From “Your Guide to Forest Bathing” by M. Amos Clifford
Become Part of the Global Movement that is Helping Others Discover The Healing Power of Nature
Forest bathing is not the same thing as hiking or a simple walk in the woods. The destination in forest bathing is “here,” not “there.” The pace is slow, not fast. The focus is on connection and relationship. The heart opens.
Immerse your senses in that ambience of the forest. Walk slowly and notice things. Feel the touch of the breeze on your skin; notice the sounds of the brook and the birds and the movement of trees in the wind. Let what you notice find its home inside you; give it hospitality. You are home.
“Through Him all things were made...” John 1:3
Adapted from, and some direct text from, the ANFT Forest Therapy website
As Forest Therapy Guides, we believe that the forest — and nature in general — carries the wisdom and offers the healing that each person needs. We work in partnership with the forest and support people as they awaken their senses and slow down to become fully present in, and with, the forest.
“Guides are not therapists. Support for wellness, personal development, and perhaps healing comes to participants from their interaction with natural environments. The sole aim of guided activities is to create and sustain safe, meaningful, and relational contact between participants and nature.”
Relational Forest Therapy™
“There are two strands of forest therapy. One is founded in research oriented to public health. The other, pioneered by ANFT, is called “Relational Forest Therapy™.” We find ourselves in expanded webs of interbeing, in which the other-than-human beings we encounter in the forest become less like objects, and more like friends and family.
Relational Forest Therapy™ will help you remember who you are. You were born to take your place in the great work unfolding every day, everywhere. Training as a guide is a way to help you prepare to step up, accept your calling, and find your joy through skillfully bridging the human-built world and the wild world of nature.
Embedded in this expanded community, we experience greater degrees of freedom in how we explore the world, and in what we are able to learn about ourselves.
The reality is that most people don’t spend much time in nature; and when we do, we are often distracted and don’t interact meaningfully with the other inhabitants of the forest. We agree with Jacques Cousteau that “people protect what they love.” Love of nature arises naturally when we come into a heartfelt, embodied relationship with it, a kind of relationship that is not characterized as much by “knowing the facts” as it is of our fundamental and innate kinship with all beings.
We share our love of the more-than-human world and a passion to skillfully guide others toward remembering our deep relationship with all beings. We are energized by our shared commitment to establishing forest therapy as a high-quality, standards-based practice that is recognized throughout the world as an effective way to promote the well-being of people and the natural world
The standard sequence provides a strong framework that helps participants slow down, awaken their senses, and reconnect with the more than human world, and it is culturally adaptable so that it can be creatively adapted to working with an incredible diversity of populations. Our forest therapy practice operates within the paradigm of holistic healing; the medicine of the forest is a complex wellness experience, good for the body, the mind, and the spirit.
A Forest Therapy Guide works with the forest as a partner, to support the wellness and healing of people and nature alike. The guide is not a therapist; the forest is the therapist. Guides help others open the doors of their senses and heartfelt presence, so they can enter completely into a healing relationship with the forest and other places in the more-than-human world.”
Barbara Miron, Founder of Abundant Wellness, is a certified Forest Therapy Guide through ANFT (Association of Nature & Forest Therapy). She is also Wilderness First Aid and CPR Certified.
Learn more below about Barbara’s training and her philosophy on Forest Therapy.
Join me for a Forest Therapy experience. I offer individual, private group, and community group sessions.
The process is intentional, with invitations to engage all of your senses. Each Forest Therapy session is unique, influenced by the nature beings present and one’s needs that day. The framework is very adaptable and can be customized for the person or group knowing that nature meets you where you are.
