The Forest is the Therapist. The Guide opens the Doors.

When I stumbled across the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, founded by Amos Clifford in 2012, I knew I had found my people. (The headline is their tagline!)

This is how I could become the bridge between nature healing’s forces and the peace and regulation so many people seek today.

“The reality is that most people don’t spend much time in nature; and when we do, we are often distracted and don’t interact meaningfully with the other inhabitants of the forest. We agree with Jacques Cousteau that “people protect what they love.” Love of nature arises naturally when we come into a heartfelt, embodied relationship with it, a kind of relationship that is not characterized as much by “knowing the facts” as it is of our fundamental and innate kinship with all beings.” - ANFT website

And then I read the line that confirmed I was in the right place: Our heart-based “Relational Forest Therapy™” approach focuses on rebuilding relationships with the More-Than-Human World as a foundation for healing people and planet.

As part of the Komorebi cohort, I plan to be fully certified by March 2027.

Our first meet the trainers call with Youmin Yap and Bansi Shah set the stage for this next leg of the journey, guided by 4 training principles that also apply neatly to life:

ANFT Training Principles

• Follow your own curiosity and interests for your own exploration & discovery.

• There are many valid perspectives. If there is a statue on a table with everyone seated around looking at it, we all see different things.

• Practice before mastery. We are cultivating presence & awareness in ourselves. Our own regular practice is what allows us to be authentic. We can only offer the practice to others once it's developed in ourselves.

• Learning is a living process. Your understanding will continue to evolve.

Finally: Be gentle. Acknowledge. Flow with it.

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