Press Inquiries

The ANFT Way of Forest Therapy

ANFT has developed a specific approach to forest therapy that is widely emulated around the world. Midway through 2020, we have trained over 1000 guides who are working in 55 different countries on six continents. In every cultural context, the ANFT framework for forest therapy is providing the right combination of foundational structure and open-ended creativity for the practice to take root.

Guides learn the ANFT framework and the theory, philosophy, and skills to teach the practice effectively. Just as importantly, they learn a core set of principles and values. A few of these are:

• There is a specific intention to connect with nature in a healing way. This requires mindfully moving through the landscape in ways that cultivate presence, opening all the senses, and actively communicating with the land.

• It is not something to rush through. Forest therapy walks are not undertaken with the primary goal of physical exercise. We prefer to avoid the term “hiking” because of its implications of physical exertion. As taught by the Association, forest therapy walks are typically a mile or less and range in duration from two to four hours.
• Forest Therapy is not an extractive process, where we treat forests as a "resource" from which we extract well being for humans. Instead, it is a deeply relational practice, characterized by a sense of loving and tender connection. This connection leads naturally to an ethic of tenderness and reciprocity. Forest therapy is about creating relationships between humans and the more-than-human world, in which the relationship itself becomes a field of healing and a source of joyful well-being.