In the spring, the Association met with Nature Sacred to learn more about them and to discover opportunities for collaboration. Nature Sacred is an organization that designs and installs “sacred sites” in urban communities with the intention to “reconnect people with nature—to restore our minds. Regain perspective. Find balance. Renew ourselves.” As we walked through a sacred site and spoke with Erin Robertson, Executive Director, we felt a natural partnership develop with our shared desire to connect people to nature in a healing way.

A few guides in the Maryland and DC area have guided at sacred sites, and now we wanted to share this opportunity with all of you. All activities that happen at Sacred Sites are free and available to the public. This doesn’t mean you need to guide for free, but rather that you meet with the site’s “Fire Soul,” an impassioned individual who oversees the site, to share your desire to bring forest therapy to their community. Share with them what forest therapy is and how it can support the intention of their Nature Sacred site. If they would like to bring forest therapy to their site, then they can request funding to compensate you for your guiding service.  

There are Nature Sacred sites in the following locations:

• Maryland: multiple sites
• Washington D.C.
• Portland Oregon
• Arlington, Virginia
• New York: New York, Queens & Brooklyn
• San Diego, California
• Alabama: multiple sites
• Joplin, Missouri

Nature Sacred is interested in informing their Fire Souls about the opportunity to offer forest therapy programming at Sacred Sites. They would like a list of Certified Guides near sacred sites who are available to guide at these locations and the cost of guiding. Nature Sacred can then send an email out to their Fire Souls letting them know that Forest Therapy is an approved program that they can offer at their Sacred Site.  

If you have a Sacred Site in your community and would like to guide there, then share with Michele the following:

• Your Name
• Name & Location of Site
• Your guiding fee—this should be a flat fee for your time that is not based on a per person attendance)

This is a wonderful opportunity to bring forest therapy to a new population within your community and to show that forest therapy can be adapted to a variety of environments.

Forest Bathing in Sacred Spaces blog post from July, 2019.
Urban Forest Bathing: A City Movement - nationwide blog post form April, 2019

About Nature Sacred

Nature Sacred exists to inspire, inform and guide communities in the creation of public green spaces—called Sacred Places—designed to improve mental health, unify communities and engender peace. For over 25 years, Nature Sacred has partnered with over 130 communities across the country to infuse nearby nature into places where healing is often needed most: distressed urban neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, prisons and more. Through a collaborative, community-led process and an evidence-based design model, each Sacred Place is bonded together by a common goal: to reconnect people with nature in ways that foster mindful reflection, restore mental health and strengthen communities. As each community imagines its own space, the design becomes a unique reflection of the community’s culture, story and place—making it inherently sacred to them.

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