Why I'm Heading into the Woods

Mushrooms on a forest floor

If you'd asked me a few years ago whether I'd be training as a Forest Therapy Practitioner, I'm not sure I'd have believed you.

Not because I didn't love being outdoors - I always have - but because my professional world has been built on evidence-based coaching, psychology and behaviour change. I like understanding why something works. I want to know the research before I recommend a practice to someone else.

Which is exactly why I'm so excited about beginning my Forest Therapy Practitioner training later this year.

Over the past few years, I've found myself becoming increasingly interested in a question that feels both simple and surprisingly complex:

What really helps us to flourish?

• We know that movement matters.

• We know that good sleep matters.

• We know that meaningful relationships matter.

• We know that chronic stress affects both our mental and physical health.

Increasingly, we also know that our relationship with the natural world matters too.

A growing body of research suggests that spending time immersed in natural environments can reduce stress, boost immunity, improve mood, support attention, and encourage a greater sense of connection - to ourselves, to others and to the world around us.

For me, this training is about stepping further in to the science behind health and wellbeing.

I'm bringing together two things that are too often presented as opposites: robust clinical evidence and practices that have supported human wellbeing for generations.

The longer I work with people, the less interested I become in quick fixes. I see health as a long-term concern that needs long-term solutions, or 'ways of being'. The kind that are built through everyday habits, supportive relationships, self-awareness, purposeful work, and moments that allow our nervous systems to settle rather than stay constantly switched on.

Sometimes those moments happen in a coaching conversation. Sometimes they happen on a woodland path.

I'm looking forward to learning from experienced Forest Therapy practitioners, deepening my understanding of the evidence, and discovering how this approach can complement the work I already do.

As always, I'll bring my curiosity, a healthy dose of critical thinking, and an open mind.

I'll share some of the journey here over the coming months, and I hope you'll come along with me.

Want to read some of the evidence?

Evidence

Or find out how I'm applying it?

It Takes a Village