Nature and Forest Therapy Guides
ANFT Training Team at annual gathering, 2023
Photo: The ANFT International Training Team at annual trainers' summit, Playa Los Vivos, Costa Rica, ,February 2023

Who We  Are: The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy

The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) Guides and Programs is the most experienced global leader in Forest Therapy Guide Training, and promoting the development and practice of Forest Therapy. Our Forest Therapy Guide Training draws on the latest medical research, new developments in the field of nature connection, and ancient traditions.

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.

We are a mission-driven Limited Liability Company founded in 2012 as a response to global warming and other environmental catastrophes.
Our mission: Support planetary health by nurturing heart-centered relationships between all peoples and the More-Than-Human World of Nature.

Our strategy: We train guides, teaching the pedagogy and methods of The Way of the Guide, and how to apply these in the context of Forest and Nature Therapy.

Administrative and Operations Team

Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Amos Clifford

Founder | CEO

Amos' current focus is on building scalable systems to support ANFT's training, membership, and trail certification systems. Amos is also responsible for the strategic direction and vision of ANFT.
amos@anft.earth
Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Jackie Kuang

Business Director and Trainer

Jackie is the Business Director of ANFT.
jackie@anft.earth
Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Manuela Siegfried

Director of Training and Trainer

Manuela is responsible for the direction of all training activities for ANFT.
manuela@anft.earth
Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Mish Moore

Operations Manager

Mish started off as a part-time administrative assistant and now handles operations for ANFT.
admissions@anft.earth
Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Carin Cannell

Communication Manager

Carin manages Communication-related initiatives for ANFT
memberservices@anft.earth
Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Aaliyah Stilson

Administrative Assistant

Aaliyah fields phone calls and email inquiries and lends a hand wherever it's needed.
info@anft.earth
Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Geeta Stilwell

Extension Manager and Trainer

Geeta manages ANFT's trainee extension program
geeta@anft.earth
Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Youmin Yap

Social Media Coordinator & Trainer

Youmin manages ANFT's Social Media presence.
outreach@anft.earth
Jackie Kuang - General Manager & Trainer

Holly Jo Walters

Program Director for the Trails, Spaces & Places (TSP) Certification Program

Contact Holly Jo with any questions related to ANFT certified Forest Therapy trails, spaces, and places.
trails@anft.earth

Training Team

What Distinguishes ANFT: Our methods and scope of practice are based upon scientifically backed research in health science. We teach our forest therapy guides a standard sequence of techniques that assist participants in receiving the full health impacts of forest medicine. The standard sequence provides a strong framework that helps participants slow down, awaken their senses, and reconnect with the more than human world, and it is culturally adaptable so that it can be creatively adapted to working with an incredible diversity of populations. Our forest therapy practice operates within the paradigm of holistic healing; the medicine of the forest is a complex wellness experience, good for the body, the mind, and the spirit.

Our forest therapy guide training is more than a set of techniques, it is also a pathway to understand what it means to be back in relationship with the More-than-Human-World. A Forest Therapy Guide works with the forest as a partner, to support the wellness and healing of people and nature alike. The guide is not a therapist; the forest is the therapist. Guides help others open the doors of their senses and heartfelt presence, so they can enter completely into a healing relationship with the forest and other places in the more-than-human world.

ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Guides have gone on to found businesses in alternative health and eco-wellness tourism, work in the non-profit section for special populations, provide corporate wellness programs and retreats, incorporate our techniques in educational settings, and collaborate in wellness programs through botanical gardens, arboretums, and private and public land managers. What began as a dream from the Earth, to simply restore our relationship with the Forest, has become a global movement. We invite you to join us on this incredible path.
FIND A GUIDE NEAR YOU

We are an international community of Forest Therapy Guides who have been trained by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs. There are more than 2000 of us (growing each month), in over 60 countries on six continents, guiding in a dozen or more languages and in many cultures. We share our love of the more-than-human world and a passion to skillfully guide others toward remembering our deep relationship with all beings. We are energized by our shared commitment to establishing forest therapy as a high-quality, standards-based practice that is recognized throughout the world as an effective way to promote the well-being of people and the natural world.

The Association was founded
 by M. Amos Clifford in 2012. Amos was inspired by the Japanese practice of Shinrin-Yoku, literally translated as Forest Bathing. His four decades of experience in wilderness guiding, Zen meditation, psychotherapy, educational consulting, and nature connection supported him to create a framework for Forest Therapy that is now taught by many organizations.

The first training that ANFT provided for guides was held in California in 2014. By the end of 2022 we will have trained more than 100 cohorts. In September of 2018 a major milestone was providing our first guide training in a language other than English; we trained a cohort of guides in Spanish at a mountain retreat center in Spain. We are a truly global organization with a commitment to creating practices that are adaptable for every culture. Our training team consists of 15 trainers in 9 different countries and 4 continents.

What energizes our work is our love of nature; but also our sense of impending environmental catastrophe caused by  global warming and Western Culture's emphasis on unsustainable patterns of consumption. Our contribution to finding solutions to these problems is to help as many people as possible to develop meaningful relationships with nature.

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 plants and 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 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 kinship with all beings.

Training Opportunities for Forest Therapy Guides