“… I thought the earth
remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.”
- Mary Oliver, Sleeping in the Forest
What is Forest Bathing?
Forest Bathing (also known as Forest Therapy) is a trauma-sensitive and relational practice that supports the wellness of all beings - human and other-than-human.
As your Forest Bathing Guide, I offer a supportive, collaborative, and loving container for your experience.
In Forest Bathing, I offer invitations: opportunities to let the thinking mind quiet, attune to your senses, and connect with the land around you. You can think of invitations as simple somatic, mindful, or “bodyful”, practices.
We move very slowly in Forest Bathing. We don’t go very far - instead we have some time to slow down and really notice the living world around and within us. Forest Bathing is a way to care for yourself, and to nurture reciprocal relationships with land, soil, trees, plants, and other beings.
Ready to explore your guided Forest Bathing options? You can schedule here.
Frequently Asked Questions
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People come to Forest Bathing for:
Curiousity: Many people who come to Forest Bathing are just curious, and want to experience it for themselves.
Well-being support: Forest Bathing offers space to slow down, in a world that so often urges speed. It offers time to connect with ourselves, the forest, and other people in a kind and gentle container. Many years of research points to a number of potential health and wellness benefits during and after Forest Bathing.
Somatic support: to reconnect with and care for the precious bodies that are our lives
Seasons of grief: In seasons of loss and transition, Forest Bathing offers space to remember and deeply feel the support of the other-than-human world
Supporting the work for liberation, justice, and the world to come: Caring for the body and spirit can be essential while working to dismantle oppressive systems
Celebration: Coming together to celebrate birthdays, engagements, a beautiful life lived, children entering the family, and more
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People who struggle with silent meditation and other forms of mindfulness often find Forest Bathing a gentler, more accessible experience.
Time with the land can settle and soothe our hearts, minds, spirits, bodies, and nervous systems - or simply give us space to sit with what is. Forest Bathing is a space to be with the shifting shades and fabric of life.
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Guided Forest Bathing is a practice that creates space to be slow, and to drop into our bodies within a trauma sensitive container.
Forest Bathing offers many opportunities to sit, lay on the ground, and move slowly - in fact, the entire experience can be done sitting (or in whatever position(s) works best).
Most importantly, this practice is based in invitations. This means that each person decides what works for their body. Agency and autonomy, held within relationship with self and Other, are the roots from which Forest Bathing grows. Differing needs are expected and welcome, and accommodations joyfully offered.
All are welcomed and cherished.
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Yes, please email me at hello@rosecedarforesttherapy.com to arrange Forest Bathing for you and your group.
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Yes, one of the things I love most about Forest Bathing is that you don’t actually have to be in a forest to do it!
There are a lot of reasons someone might want to need to experience Forest Bathing, from their own home, backyard, patio, or a nearby park. I’m happy to set up a vitual session!
We are nature -
we are not separate from the
world around us.
Guided Forest Bathing helps us remember our home in ourselves, and in the wider world.
Forest Bathing offers us time to remember our bones, blood, skin, spirit, minds, hearts - and to remember that we’re made of everything around us.
The systems of domination that surround us benefit when we forget that we are nature - always, everywhere we go.
All that came before and that we live alongside continuously creates us.
Spending time with the other-than-human world allows us to weave and re-weave lifegiving relationships - with ourselves, with other humans, and with everyone else (everyone else being moss, bark, dirt, leaves, fungus, beetles, you know - Everyone).