Forest Therapy for Families

My first memories of Nature were with my family, on a ranch in Valle de Bravo, a small town near Mexico City. There, we spent weekends and vacations around green mountains, huge oaks, peach trees, and a stream that ran from side to side. I think that at that time in my life, the small seed was planted that would later become a close relationship with nature and the desire to bring people together to strengthen their bond with it.

A few decades later, Forest Therapy appeared on my path, where the path I have followed has been one of much learning and personal growth. What I have liked most is serving as a bridge for groups of friends, companies, children, adults, people in mourning or celebrating birthdays to experience the profound healing power that Nature has.

Specifically, guiding groups of families has been a very rewarding experience. I perceive a different environment with the interactions of people of different ages. Children get in tune with the forest, adults (parents, uncles, grandparents…) begin to contemplate with love and attention how children flow, are free, get into a different rhythm. This helps everyone get into the same rhythm.

Accompanying families, I have learned to let go and trust, I have stopped waiting for children to close their eyes in the pleasures of presence or to walk slowly, I trust that the invitations flow and I have noticed how children take the lead and adults follow the game, creating a fluid, fun and harmonious dynamic.

I really enjoy witnessing each circle of sharing and how listening without judgment is activated when the 4-year-old child or the 80-year-old grandfather speaks.

Being immersed in the forest, a part of us remembers that this is our home, just as when we are with our family, deep within our being, there is also that memory that we always lived in community. In a family Forest Therapy, nature and community come together, creating an almost magical atmosphere where the family joins together in cooperation and a natural and harmonious relationship is generated. In the end, everyone finds it deeply healing, both for the family system, for each member, and of course for the Forest.

Likewise, in Relational Forest Therapy, one experiences firsthand being part of the Interbeing network, living the objective of caring for our common home, of communicating and interacting. It is very clear that the family is a perfect analogy of the relationships that occur in the forest. Nature becomes a mirror, reminding us that the constructiveness of these relationships also exists in each family nucleus.

When families return from the wild world to the tamed world, they describe to me the harmony that exists in their homes, there are fewer disagreements and coexistence flows better, coexisting in a general state of well-being. Concluding that Forest Therapy strengthens relationships within the family, creates lifelong memories and makes us aware of the importance of cultivating the relationship with the more than human world.

 

Carola Amtmann, Condor Cohort

Mexico