Creating time and space to feel, to be witnessed, to be loved, and fundamentally, to just be.
In the meeting of outer and inner nature, a relationship is born, nurtured, or reconciled. Forest therapy is this kind of relational experience.
What is forest therapy?
Forest therapy is the practice of gentle semi-structured walks in natural (or semi-natural) settings that encourage participants to slow down and engage in embodied experiences. Forest therapy is inspired by the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku (meaning forest bathing), which was developed in Japan in the 1980s as a response to the country’s health crisis.
The research that informed forest bathing was the discovery of phytoncides, the chemicals that trees release to protect themselves from threatening fungi or organisms. When humans inhale phytoncides in forested environments, our bodies, in turn, produce a special white blood cell called the natural killer cell (NK-cell) that looks for and destroys cancer in the body.
While Japanese and global researchers continue do scientific research on the positive impacts of forest bathing on human health, forest therapy in North America, as first adapted by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT), focuses on the relational aspects of the practice. What we heal through sensory experiences in nature is the relationships we have with ourselves, with other human beings, with the more-than-human world, and with our sense of time.
The benefits of a guided walk
While spending more quality time in nature alone can be beneficial, there are several reasons to participate in a guided walk with a group:
- Guided walks open up new perspectives. As ANFT’s motto states, “The forest is the therapist. The guide opens the door.” A guided walk offers participants opportunities to step into different gateways of being with nature through a series of experiential and sensory “invitations.”
- Guided walks are self-empowering. Participants are encouraged to listen to their bodies and adapt invitations in the way they feel most right for them. The guide does not share naturalistic knowledge, diagnose or predict the outcome of participants’ wellness goals. They simply assist the environment in creating a container for the walk experience.
- In group walks, participants share experiences as equal members of the community. With nature as the witness, these shared moments between human and more-than-human beings become part of an authentic relational experience—a kind of experience that is quite rare in our ordinary lives.
Want to host a group walk or hire me to guide a private walk?
Let me know through my contact form. Please include the approximate size of the group, where and when you’d like to meet, and what your intentions are for the walk. Forest therapy walks are typically around two-hours.
If you manage or have access to your own land, we can access its suitability for the event. Otherwise, I guide walks in transit accessible public parks in Toronto. I charge at a sliding scale depending on factors such as number of participants and the social context of the participant group.
My philosophy for forest therapy
Forest therapy, which encompasses both relational and health benefits, appeals to the ideals of the “nature-connection” movement and the popularity of the “ecotherapy” industry, both of which are trending developments in the fields of environmentalism and wellness.
Nature, however, is interpretative. So my understanding of nature influences how I hold space for forest therapy walks. Nature is the lens we use to relate to the world, encompassing the world around us (e.g., trees, rocks, water) and the qualities within us (e.g., human nature as personality). Therefore, within the idea of “nature-connection” is an element of cognitive dissonance.
To connect to nature would essentially be to re-create a human-nature binary in the attempt to connect two ideas (i.e., human and nature) that were not separate in the first place. With awareness and intention, forest therapy can teach us how to mend those binaries.
1. Nature is everywhere: nature hierarchy is an illusion
When we create mental limitations on what can be defined as nature (especially “pristine” nature), we create a narrative of inequitable worthiness: those who have access to nature for healing are more worthy to belong on Earth and become whole while those who don’t are fated to be unworthy, flawed, and spiritually rejected. This narrative is false! Returning to our nature, to become authentically human, is our spiritual purpose here on Earth!
Yet, recreation and wellness in natural environments has historically been, and is still in many places, an inequitable occurrence. Moreover, over half of the world’s population live in urban areas. Therefore, to heal humanity’s relationship with nature, we cannot insistently usher people into pristine forests, meadows, and beaches for therapeutic experiences.
Forest therapy, in its essence, can be practiced in cities. But in order to recognize the physical spaces available, we need the mental space to value natural spaces in cities as real nature and not just low-grade substitutes for suburban or rural conservation areas, provincial or national parks, countryside, or wilderness.
2. The destination is always our inner nature
Mental hierarchies of nature also shifts our focus from our inner world to our outer world. Instead of looking within, people may turn to worshipping nature (and culture) as a way to cope with difficult feelings of unworthiness and not belonging. But to love external nature and to take care of our planet, we need to know how to love ourselves.
The capacity to love ourselves in our own nature is reciprocal to the awareness of how much nature loves us. This love is unconditional. It is not an imbalanced kind of worshipping since we are no less sacred, worthy, and natural as the 100-year old tree in a forest.
The relational processes found in a forest is the same as the ones we have with family and friends. Relationships can be supportive, complicated, or even hostile. We usually feel more at peace in natural settings because other natural beings are not conditioned with judgmental narratives like our human counterparts. These environments more easily offer us a non-judgmental container to work through the stuff in our inner world.
3. Authentic equality is found in non-judgment
In a forest therapy walk where all living and non-living beings in an environment exist in reciprocity without hierarchy, we relate in authentic equality. While forest therapy is not usually described as activism, but to me, it is activism in its most honest form: without power struggles, without judgment, we invite change into our world, socially and environmentally.
Through humility, openness, and trust, change occurs in ourselves and in the world around us, because nature knows its course.
4. Our home in nature is a commitment of self-love
The harmony of collective humanity is contingent on the commitment to a non-judgmental belief for all human lives: nobody should feel that they don’t belong on the earth they stand on, the land they live on, and the nature they live in. We embody this belief by honouring our own belonging to life.
Our home in nature starts with our sense of self in our individual universes. This home is not built of trees, flowers, or stones, but rather the words we use to bring the magic of trees, flowers, and stones into each other’s lives. The lessons in forest therapy exists well beyond the forest when we endeavour to bring the magic of life to every little universe we encounter.
Interested in building a practice of mindfulness in nature on your own?
Check out my forest therapy inspired card deck, Invitations from Nature, which has 50 prompts for the simple ways you can be more present in nature.