Forest therapy sessions online + in person

Enlivening the nature within

Forest bathing emerged from Japan’s public health strategy in the 1980s, and its efficacy has since been studied across cultures and populations. Psychologically, we know it supports reductions in rumination, cortisol levels, heart rate variability, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. But what interests me is not just what it does—it’s how it does it.

It invites the body first.

Not the mind. Not interpretation. The body. Sight, sound, breath, smell, and even the soft resistance of moss underfoot—all come online in a forest. When a client with PTSD begins to notice the scent of cedar or the pattern of light on leaves, we are witnessing not only sensory reengagement but neurophysiological safety being restored. In polyvagal terms, we are reestablishing the social engagement system from the ground up.

Forest bathing requires no performance, no outcomes. It is not exercise. It is not mindfulness in the formal sense. It is presence. And presence is where integration begins.

When we bring clients into forest environments—slowly, respectfully—we are not offering a technique. We are offering a container for self-regulation and reconnection that predates language.

Psychologists have long sought to help clients attune to their internal worlds. Forest bathing expands that attunement outward, into ecosystems that can mirror stability, impermanence, and growth without judgment.

I invite you not only to consider forest bathing as a modality, but to experience it for yourself. Let the woods speak first. The therapy will follow.