In this training, you will learn:
When you begin your journey, you will take a core training course that lasts six months. Your cohort of up to 30 trainees will be people who live in the same or a nearby time zone.This geographic and time zone way of gathering as a group makes it convenient to connect with your trainers and each other via remote technologies like Zoom.
Once your cohort has had its online first meeting with your training team, you will return every two weeks for a live webinar. These meetings are lively learning experiences led by our expert trainers. There are 16 of these meetings in the course. They are recorded and made available privately for your cohort only.
If you wish, you will also be added to the Forest Therapy Facebook Group, a private group for ANFT trained guides from throughout the world. This group is a remarkable and very active resource for exchanging information and supporting ongoing learning. ANFT certified guides can now be found in 55 countries. These local guides are a resource for trainees to experience being guided. You can harvest a lot of practical wisdom from them. They love to help new trainees!
You will also have access to a growing library of ANFT training materials such as videos. To further support your learning, you will be invited to join a “pod” of three to five others in your cohort. Many pods develop interesting and fun ways to deepen their learning process. Often lifetime friendships grow.To the extent possible, we will try to organize pods based on your proximity to each other; this will maximize your ability to meet in person and explore forest trails and forest therapy methods together.
When you complete the core six-month training you will be an ANFT-Certified Forest Therapy Guide. This certification is valid for two years, or until you complete a four-day intensive. This must be completed sometime within two years after you complete the six month core training course. This will move your certification from provisional to permanent status. Intensives are organized by local trainers. Dates and locations will be set as the time for the intensive draws near. We’ll be looking at the weather and other factors when we choose dates. It is quite likely that you will meet trainees from other cohorts at your immersion. This will help to give you a sense of the community of guides that has grown and is active throughout the world.
This is an ASL video by Deaf certified ANFT guide, Summer Crider, explaining the details of this retreat, including some video clips of the Aspen Camp location.
The tuition for the six month core guide training program is $2845 USD. If you wish you can split this into six monthly payments of $475 USD. Our policy is that the full amount must be paid before you are certified.
The tuition for the four-day intensive is $389. Wait to pay until you are ready to complete the intensive. You will have two years from the completion of your core guide training to do the intensive.
Other costs include payment for Wilderness First Aid training, which is required for Certification, and is provided by third parties. Prices range from $100 to $300. Lodging or camping fees and food for the four-day intensive are the responsibility of the trainee.
Tuition figures are current as of most recent update on May 26 2020 and are subject to change.
Jackie is a trainer and business manager with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs. She’s a certified forest therapy guide trained in 2017 at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and has been guiding regularly in her communities ever since. She’s one of the first guides to pioneer guiding walks remotely via Zoom when the pandemic made guiding in-person unsafe for many months in 2020. Born and raised in China, Jackie came to the United States in 1990 to pursue her PhD in American Literature. She has had a diverse background in various fields such as teaching, translating, marketing, and practicing as a Certified Public Accountant. One of her greatest joys in guiding and training guides is witnessing the transformative impact on participants’ well-being on so many levels. She has co-led over 10 guide trainings worldwide as of 2022 and created a professional development course called Guiding Business Success for trained guides.
Caitlin C. Williams brings more than two decades of experience in nature mentoring, human development, wildlife tracking, wilderness survival, environmental science, and naturalist skills. She works in partnership with organizations offering deep nature experiences, skills for development of an ecological self and tools for ecological restoration. Caitlin is Adjunct Faculty at Weaving Earth: Center for Relational Education. She has been a mentor and guide with ANFT since the first training in 2014.
Ken Ouendag became the first certified Forest Therapy Guide in Vancouver, BC after training with ANFT in 2017. He currently lives in Calgary, AB and serves as the Praire Representative with the NFTC (National Forest Therapy of Canada). Ken works in the field of Recreation Therapy while studying for a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology. He has worked with adults and seniors in various health care settings and continues to advocate for people living in long-term care and hospital settings to have opportunities to go outside and interact with the natural world.
Summer , as a certified Nature and Forest Therapy guide, works in partnership with Nature to provide opportunities to help humans re-connect with the Earth and themselves. Born and raised in the cypress swamp of North Florida, Summer has navigated through various life experiences as a human being who happens to be deaf. After getting their degrees in Expressive Art Therapy and Deaf Cultural Studies, and certified in American Sign Language, Summer taught ASL, Spanish, and Deaf Culture in various high schools and colleges/universities for 15+ years. They also established a media consulting business, making educational films accessible to the sign language community.After they experienced some challenges with severe anxiety, Summer found Mother Nature calling them back home. Summer decided to study Nature and Forest Therapy through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and eventually found a new purpose- assisting humans from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and languages to rediscover their connection with the Natural world through the healing practice of forest bathing.
Summer , as a certified Nature and Forest Therapy guide, works in partnership with Nature to provide opportunities to help humans re-connect with the Earth and themselves. Born and raised in the cypress swamp of North Florida, Summer has navigated through various life experiences as a human being who happens to be deaf. After getting their degrees in Expressive Art Therapy and Deaf Cultural Studies, and certified in American Sign Language, Summer taught ASL, Spanish, and Deaf Culture in various high schools and colleges/universities for 15+ years. They also established a media consulting business, making educational films accessible to the sign language community.After they experienced some challenges with severe anxiety, Summer found Mother Nature calling them back home. Summer decided to study Nature and Forest Therapy through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and eventually found a new purpose- assisting humans from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and languages to rediscover their connection with the Natural world through the healing practice of forest bathing.
Summer , as a certified Nature and Forest Therapy guide, works in partnership with Nature to provide opportunities to help humans re-connect with the Earth and themselves. Born and raised in the cypress swamp of North Florida, Summer has navigated through various life experiences as a human being who happens to be deaf. After getting their degrees in Expressive Art Therapy and Deaf Cultural Studies, and certified in American Sign Language, Summer taught ASL, Spanish, and Deaf Culture in various high schools and colleges/universities for 15+ years. They also established a media consulting business, making educational films accessible to the sign language community.After they experienced some challenges with severe anxiety, Summer found Mother Nature calling them back home. Summer decided to study Nature and Forest Therapy through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and eventually found a new purpose- assisting humans from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and languages to rediscover their connection with the Natural world through the healing practice of forest bathing.
Summer , as a certified Nature and Forest Therapy guide, works in partnership with Nature to provide opportunities to help humans re-connect with the Earth and themselves.
Born and raised in the cypress swamp of North Florida, Summer has navigated through various life experiences as a human being who happens to be deaf. After getting their degrees in Expressive Art Therapy and Deaf Cultural Studies, and certified in American Sign Language, Summer taught ASL, Spanish, and Deaf Culture in various high schools and colleges/universities for 15+ years. They also established a media consulting business, making educational films accessible to the sign language community.
After they experienced some challenges with severe anxiety, Summer found Mother Nature calling them back home. Summer decided to study Nature and Forest Therapy through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and eventually found a new purpose- assisting humans from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and languages to rediscover their connection with the Natural world through the healing practice of forest bathing.
Tamberly Kerr - Conway - PhD
Tamberly serves as an ANFT Certified Guide and ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Trail Consultant. Tamberly holds an MS and PhD in Forestry, with a focus upon Human Dimensions in Natural Resources, focusing upon diversity engagement, health and nature connections, forest health/human health relationships, and community empowerment in conservation.
Tahia Devischer - PhD
Tahia is a research and teaching fellow at the University of British Columbia. She holds a PhD in ecosystems science from the University of Oxford, and is a certified forest therapy guide with ANFT. She works at the nexus of urban forests, human well-being and climate resilience.
Tamberly Kerr - Conway - PhD
Tamberly serves as an ANFT Certified Guide and ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Trail Consultant. Tamberly holds an MS and PhD in Forestry, with a focus upon Human Dimensions in Natural Resources, focusing upon diversity engagement, health and nature connections, forest health/human health relationships, and community empowerment in conservation.
Tahia Devischer - PhD
Tahia is a research and teaching fellow at the University of British Columbia. She holds a PhD in ecosystems science from the University of Oxford, and is a certified forest therapy guide with ANFT. She works at the nexus of urban forests, human well-being and climate resilience.
Tamberly Kerr - Conway - PhD
Tamberly serves as an ANFT Certified Guide and ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Trail Consultant. Tamberly holds an MS and PhD in Forestry, with a focus upon Human Dimensions in Natural Resources, focusing upon diversity engagement, health and nature connections, forest health/human health relationships, and community empowerment in conservation.
Tahia Devischer - PhD
Tahia is a research and teaching fellow at the University of British Columbia. She holds a PhD in ecosystems science from the University of Oxford, and is a certified forest therapy guide with ANFT. She works at the nexus of urban forests, human well-being and climate resilience.
Tamberly Kerr - Conway - PhD
Tamberly serves as an ANFT Certified Guide and ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Trail Consultant. Tamberly holds an MS and PhD in Forestry, with a focus upon Human Dimensions in Natural Resources, focusing upon diversity engagement, health and nature connections, forest health/human health relationships, and community empowerment in conservation.
Tahia Devischer - PhD
Tahia is a research and teaching fellow at the University of British Columbia. She holds a PhD in ecosystems science from the University of Oxford, and is a certified forest therapy guide with ANFT. She works at the nexus of urban forests, human well-being and climate resilience.
Our Mission: Support planetary health by nurturing heart-centered relationships between all peoples and the More-Than-Human World of Nature.
