This is the first meeting of a 5 week course which offers an opportunity to slow down and explore why and how spending time in the natural world and particularly forests, enhances health and happiness while promoting a sense of peace and calm. Through guided walks and interactive classroom time, you will leave the course with new skills to go outside and nourish your personal well-being in the natural world.
The course begins with a Forest Therapy Walk at Oxbow Park with Irene Bailey, a certified guide with The Association for Nature and Forest Therapy. This will give you a first hand experience of what forest therapy looks and feels like.
Then, during our classroom time (weeks 2,3,4) you’ll learn the “how” behind your experience and understand the ways forest bathing and forest therapy support stress reduction and stress recovery through hands-on learning guided by Tia H. Ho, PhD. We'll read a forest-bathing guide book, reflect on the forest walk on the first day of class, and practice how to structure your own forest healing explorations. This combined learning concludes with a return to Oxbow Park for the final meeting day where you will be invited to co-guide this forest therapy walk with the support of your classmates, the course instructors and the forest.