WILLOW DEJESUS
ANFT CERTIFIED FOREST THERAPY GUIDE
Do you need an escape from the stresses of life, need to refuel your mind, body and spirit, or need time to heal? Spending time in Nature, especially forests, is considered a healing balm for the mind and body. Come explore an uplifting nature-based contemplative and wellness practice with me as your guide.
RX = Restore+Relax+Rejuvenate
My Forest Therapy RX
Forest Therapy is considered a research-based framework for supporting healing and wellness through immersion in forests and other natural environments. Research confirms how nature can profoundly strengthen the immune system and the cardiovascular system, increase attention capacity and creativity, lower blood pressure and stress hormones, and improve mood. *Side effects may include greater longevity, increased energy, and improved pain management among many other benefits.
As a health professional, and Forest Therapy Guide, I am joining a growing number of health practitioners around the world, formally recognizing nature’s powerful health benefits by promoting and prescribing time in nature. As Hippocrates said, “Nature itself is the best physician.”
With special attention to time in nature, a guide helps open the doors of a beneficial partnership with the land. The forest is the “therapist” and participants can gain an overall feeling of well-being, and also a contemplative and mindful practice for the spirit.
What does a Forest Therapy guided experience look like?
As your guides I offer a series of special crafted “invitations” with an intention to slow down, stop, awaken the senses, and individually cultivate a grateful presence and reciprocal partnership with the land. There is time for stillness, silence, and special interactions with nature. There is a sharing circle and tea sharing. These activities not only help in our deepening relationship with nature, but in the exchange of health benefits between humans and the more-than-human-world. Nature is like a conduit for staying in balance and when we cultivate a relationship with the earth, we return to our roots of healing. Perhaps, falling in love with the earth is a worthy endeavor, in itself, much needed for these times.
Come explore healthy and uplifting guided practices outdoors with a certified Forest Therapy Guide. I hope to open the door to nature’s offerings and let the “Forest be the Therapist”
Why a Guide?
Developing a meaningful relationship with nature takes time and can help us see ourselves as part of nature not separate. The health of the forest and our own health are intermingled. A guide offers the gift of time, space, specially crafted invitations to the participants, and permission to deepen one’s relationship with nature in ways that they would perhaps not do on their own.
A regular practice of forest therapy can be powerful, and like yoga, meditation, prayer, fitness, or other meaningful mind, body, and spirit endeavors, a guide/teacher can help us learn how to begin and find ways to deepen our “practice” and connection with nature and ourselves.
“Into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.”
John Muir
Offerings
Restorative Nature Practices" Class
- Through Forest Therapy guided sensory invitations and other practices such as nature writing, movement, art making, rituals, and more, we will discover our own inner and outer journeys for resilience and joy. Research on the connections between our health and nature will be explored. We journey together for 4-5 weekly sessions and explore contemplative and creative nature -based practices to restore and deepen our relationships of reciprocity with nature and restore our own emotional and physical health.
"Remembering Nature" a nature-based program
- for those in special care homes or senior living centers, 1-3 hours in length. As a certified guide and Occupational Therapist, I would love to reconnect this group with the benefits of nature indoors or outdoors.
Private and Group Offerings
- Contact me for special events, private walks, and your group"s needs.
Having or Needing a "Retreat"?
- Forest Bathing/Forest Therapy is a wonderful addition to retreats which focus on spirit, mental and physical wellness, mind-fullness, ecology, trees, plants, Rest and Restoration, Nature connections, and Creativity. Please contact me about Retreats.
**Contact me about these and special private, or group and gift ideas at myforesttherapyrx@gmail.com
About Me
I have enjoyed being immersed in nature since childhood, and still feel that childhood awe and wonder in natural settings. Forest Therapy is a way to share not only that magic, but also the physical, emotional, and ecological health and wellness offered by being with nature. It is a gift to one’s self and a practice that has called me again and again back to the source of all life. Besides being a trained and certified guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT), I am an Occupational Therapist focusing on improving mental and physical health. Related experiences include being a health educator and outdoor counselor.
