Gallery
Guide Details
Singapore, Singapore
Youmin is a certified Forest Therapy Guide and Trainer with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. As a pioneer forest therapy guide in Southeast Asia, she has been practising full-time since late 2017 and has led thousands of people – both local and international, on these nature-based wellbeing experiences. She knows and embodies the essences of the work in heart, body and mind. Together with her professional and academic backgrounds grounded in Science, she excels in navigating the worlds of quantification and logic, and that of the subtler arts of wellbeing and intuition.
Youmin founded Xiu Nature Connections in 2017, an award-winning entity that curates and delivers restful, nature-inspired wellbeing experiences for the masses. Forest bathing / forest therapy is one of the signature programmes, and the innovative and collaborative ways of bringing that into urban landscapes and/or urban nature have conferred Xiu Nature Connections the prestigious Singapore Tourism Board Awards 2023 and 2024: Outstanding Wellness Experience awards. Her extensive forest therapy guiding experience includes working with:
- corporations and organisations
- senior executives and C-suites
- schools and universities
- cancer survivors and patients
- caregivers
- people living with HIV
- people living with mental health impairments and challenges including dementia
- visitors and tourists
Her clients and partners include Aberdeen Standard Investments, Changi Airport Group, Deloitte & Touche, Johnson & Johnson, LVMH, Microsoft, Spotify, various public and private schools, Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore Cancer Society, Far East Hospitality, Mandai Wildlife Group, Yeo Boon Khim Mind Science Centre and more.
Youmin has also been a guest speaker or presenter for several forest therapy-related local and international seminars, conferences and talks, and contributed the article “Urban Forest Therapy in Singapore” on the invite of the National Parks Board, Singapore.
As a forest therapy trainer, Youmin has trained more than 180 forest therapy guides from the Asia-Pacific region and around the world. Her deep connection to this body of work has also led her to continue to train and develop in the role of an ANFT Trail, Space, Place Certification Consultant.
Academically trained in plant and science research, as well as education, Youmin holds the degrees of Master of Science (Life Sciences) by research from the National University of Singapore, Bachelors of Science (2nd class upper) from the National University of Singapore, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from the National institute of Education Singapore. She is also trained in yoga, yoga nidra/sleep meditation and mindfulness. She carries into each project a down-to-earth attitude, balancing mind and heart, science and art, rational and mystical.
Youmin is currently based in Singapore and Taiwan. When not guiding, teaching or managing the business, Youmin loves spending quiet time in nature for her own self-care, traveling and exploring the small and big fascinations in our wonder-full world.
