Since the beginning of (our) time we humans have known the value of nature in its capacity for improving our lives and wellbeing.  Nature provided everything for the First People including raw materials for all their day-to-day needs (building homes, clothing, containers for storing/cooking food, tools, implements…), as well as the rich lands and seas where they hunted and gathered their foods and medicines. Nature was highly respected and highly revered, managed closely, and considered sacred.

Today, many of us still recognize the value of nature, of eating organic and whole foods, using natural (body care/cleaning) products, spending time outside… Generally, there seems to be a consensus that ‘natural’ equates with ‘healthy’.  However, I think many of us have forgotten the extent to which we truly are connected with nature, and how enmeshed our wellbeing is with the health of the natural world we live in.  We seem to have forgotten that we evolved in nature, among the trees and in community with the ‘More-Than-Human-World’, and that we have an innate kinship with this natural world that our bodies and hearts remember, even if we consciously may not.  This weakened relationship has sadly, yes, led to the mismanagement and mistreatment of our natural world, BUT ALSO it has prevented us from recognizing an incredible opportunity… right in front of us, and all around us… That is: to harness the FULL benefits of spending time in nature. The physical benefits, and also those that come from remembering and rebuilding the reciprocal and loving relationship we once had with our natural world. Nature and Forest Therapy was conceived with these purposes in mind.