Evolutions

Nature is the therapist. The Guide opens the doors.

You may be wondering why you would need a guide to take a walk in nature. As with many practices that are enhanced by a guided approach, such as yoga, meditation, prayer, and exercise, a nature therapy guide can enhance the wellness benefits of your nature experience in a number of ways.

Benefits of Having a Nature Therapy Guide

• Guidance. A nature therapy guide gently invites you to new levels of awareness and nature connection They can introduce you to ways of relating to the more-than-human world, that you can then apply in daily life. The guide follows a particular sequence on a walk, designed and refined to help participants shift from stress to relaxation; from habitual patterns to new possibilities; from living in their heads to being fully present in their bodies. Then, the guide knows how to step back and let Nature offer its medicine. They give you space for your own exploration and discovery. By the end of the walk, many people arrive at a state of deep calm and discover healing that goes beyond the physical level. Even lifelong outdoor enthusiasts discover new layers to their experience.

• ​Slowing down and tuning in. In our busy lives many of us are always moving at a hectice pace. We often move through the day so quickly that we don’t always notice what is around us or what is happening inside us. And, even when we do slow down physically, there is often a lot of distraction from without and within. Technology contributes to our fast-paced and distracted lives, and our culture values constant “doing”. A guided nature therapy walk offers an opportunity to unplug, slow down, and bring attention to the experience at hand. It offers an opportunity to slow down and “be” rather than “do” that we would seldom give ourselves.
• Experience nature in a different way. Whether you are at ease in the outdoors or not, a forest therapy walk offers a slow-paced sensory-oriented experience that heightens awareness of and connection to nature in ways that are likely to be different from what you have experienced before. Evolutions’s guide, certified through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, has received extensive training in techniques to enhance your sensory connection to nature. She is trained to work with what Nature presents on any particular day to provide the best possible experience.
• Sense of community. A forest therapy walk can be done one-on-one or in a group. We typically have 3 to 10 participants on our public walks. During a walk, you are invited to share your nature connection experience with others in ways that can enhance your experience and awaken a sense of being part of a bigger whole. In our technology-dependent society, and escpecially with the COVID-19 pandemic, a nature therapy walk offers a chance for in-person engagement. A guided nature therapy walk offers an opportunity to connect with not only the natural world but with the human world as well.
• Safety. Susan Weingartner, your Evolutions Nature Therapy Guide, is trained in Wilderness First Aid and has decades of experience on the trail and in the outdoors. She chooses a trail carefully, scouts it in advance of each walk, takes safety precautions, and adapts the walk to suit the participants’ needs and abilities.

“Slowing down is a gift I would have never given myself.”

Joanie W. – Nature Therapy Walk Participant