Forest Therapy Nashville

At the risk of you thinking I’m a loon, I share a brief example of yesterday’s inner dialogue with my yard beings. Many of us need relational feedback, practice in vulnerability, or relationship shifts. Practicing with humans can be tricky. Especially with a history of relational wounding and triggers.

Enter… nature. ✨There’s a web of more-than-human* beings so intricate and massive , and you are a part of it. When you slow down and use your senses to connect with Earth beings, you can practice so many things: using your voice, inhabiting your body, following your intuition and desire, being heard, being responded to, requesting support, being supported, handling delight… the possibilities are as numerous as the human interactions in our lives.

Is this what nature connection sounds like in my head all the time? No. Sometimes it’s less this and more emotion, somatic sensation, or nonverbal understanding. Sometimes painful, sometimes silly. You get the idea.

🌲I invite you to your own practice. Walk into the field of connection and see how it feels. Join a forest therapy walk or schedule a private forest bathing session and I’ll do my best to invite you towards a slower, deeper relationship with the world around you.

*”more-than-human beings” is a term coined by the founder of , Amos Clifford. 🙌🏼

Nashville has komerebi today. In Japanese, this word is the essence of sunlight filtering through the trees, not only the dappled light but the feeling we get watching it. Aaaaahhhhh.
Notice it. Play with it? I spontaneously wanted to play hop scotch with the sunspots and had a little joy moment. We’re allowed to interact with the Earth. How can you experience komerebi?

Gratitude for the Japanese and Korean roots from where forest bathing came into consciousness as a practice.

Nature is a phenomenal guide. Urban living is a training ground for our senses to tune in at will. Can you only see the power lines in this vid? Play around with your focus. What else exists? Can you only hear the car? Does it annoy you? What else is making sound? What does it feel like to want purity? What’s it like to think purity is perfection? How does that work out for you, brothers and sisters? 😜

I’ve been pondering the barriers between us and joy/pleasure/wonder. Sometimes it’s a bit of a hike to get to the place where you can really feel it. That’s ok. Let’s put on our boots and roll!
For some it’s knowing the thing of wonder will go away. For some it’s a shame of feeling excitement or salivating joy. For some it’s been so long you wonder if you ever felt it at all and doubt you can. For some it’s a rigid yearning for zero contaminants of the perfect joy moment.

I have a few spots in my therapy practice if you’d like to explore psychotherapy with me. I also have a forest bathing walk June 20th in Nashville with spots open! Let’s walk in the realness toward your hopes and sun colors together!

💖🙏🏽🌲✨🏄

Remember you’re a human being on the Earth. You have a body and senses and surroundings.
Wherever you are, take a minute to tune in and notice what happens. Relate. To your body. To the room/your car/the parking lot. Most of us don’t live in the forest anymore, but we can still bathe in the air that was woven through it before finding its way to us. We can remember what it’s like to have a body in the world.
Humans are nature too. Room air is nature too. Look around. Feel around. Remember. 💖🌲✨
I yawned every time I reviewed this video. (And I just yawned again while typing that.)

Join me for two hours in liminal nature connection. Chill. Refresh. Come to your senses.
This research based practice invites a slow time in nature proven to reduce anxiety/depression, increase cognitive and immune function and even serotonin.
🌲June 20, 9am-11:30am, $40 (!), Nashville. Just bring yourself. 🌲
✨DM or sign up on website!
Last chance for a public forest bathing walk til September due to travel and the distracting level of TN August heat.

Wildness inside and out matters. 🙌🏼✨

Last call yall! Spots are waiting for you or for a mom you know! Restore, connect, chill and be supported.

What roles do you play in your life? In your work? Can you tell which of these is my least favorite? 😅🫣
The association trains candidates in a particular way… the “Way of the Guide.” We’re not teachers or therapists or coaches when we’re guiding forest bathing. The role is deep, requires surrender and clarity and practice. .clifford infuses ANFT training with this archetypal energy, making ANFT Forest Therapy Guides unique in their approach. The training was rad and transformative for me. Thank you for your vision, Amos! It’s been a role that nourishes me and has been a soft nest to settle into. Thankful also to my beautiful mentors , and who rock the Guide roll so fully.

I’m not a guide on Instagram. I’m a guide on the land. Come walk with me and feel what it’s like to be gently guided toward land connection, following your intuition and body. Or ask me for recs on other ANFT Guides in the area! Forest bathing with an ANFT Guide is a unique experience.