Relational Forest Therapy
A four-day gathering. A council with the more-than-human world
Explore the principles and practice at the heart of ANFT's relational approach.
An advanced, self-paced course for certified guides ready to deepen their understanding of Relational Forest Therapy. Learn the Standard Sequence, the Language of Invitation, and the Heart Sense, and walk the seven Stages of Relational Forest Therapy, from isolation toward interbeing.
Self-paced | Online
$690
USD
- Language: English
- Duration: 4 weeks
- Video lessons
- Audio lessons
- Practice between sessions
- Nature connection activities
- Journaling prompts
- Special price for ANFT trained Guides - $390
- No pevious experience needed
Who it's for
This course is for guides who already hold a Forest Bathing or Forest Therapy certification, through ANFT or another training organization, and who sense that something essential is still missing. You know how to lead a walk. What you’re craving now is a deeper, more authentic relationship with the nature you guide people into, one built on reciprocity rather than resource. This is an advanced course, and it asks you to bring with you a solid foundation in Forest Bathing or Forest Therapy practice.
This course is for you if:
– You’re already a certified Forest Bathing or Forest Therapy Guide, from ANFT or elsewhere
– You want to learn the Standard Sequence, the Way of the Guide, and the Language of Invitation in real depth
– You sense that nature has been treated as a resource for wellbeing, and you’re ready for a reciprocal way
– You’re an ANFT guide looking to update and deepen your own approach
– You’re craving a genuine, heart-centered relationship with the More-than-Human World and not just another technique
– You’re willing to sit with your own edges, not just guide others toward theirs
What you'll experience
– A welcome video with ANFT founder Amos Clifford, introducing Relational Forest Therapy™ and how it differs from other forest bathing modalities, plus your own sit spot practice, established from the very first module and deepened throughout the course
– A clear understanding of what this course trains you to be: a Guide, not a therapist and the relationship behind the ANFT motto: “The Forest is the Therapist; the Guide opens the Doors”
– The full Standard Sequence. The threshold of connection, liminality, and the threshold of incorporation and the rationale behind each invitation within it
– The Language of Invitation: how to phrase invitations that orient participants to their senses and to the here and now, the difference between descriptive and prescriptive language, and how to craft “it depends” invitations that stay within the scope of practice.
– Listening and Sharing Circles: how to hold deep listening and unconditional positive regard, and how to be fully both participant and facilitator during these moments of the walk.
– The Heart Sense. An exploration of the heart as more than a blood-pumping organ, and your own embodied experience of it as a doorway into deeper connection with the natural world.
– The role of edges in Forest Therapy. Your own edges as a guide, your “headroom,” and how to recognize that what feels edgy for one person may be entirely comfortable for another.
– The seven Stages of Relational Forest Therapy that take you on a journey from Numbness and Isolation through to Interbeing. Explored and deepened through guided journaling prompts
– A Harvest Project: building your own web of interbeing with up to twelve beings you’re in relationship with at your sit spot.
– A door into the wider ANFT ecosystem, and what might come next in your own path as a guide
What makes this different
Most forest therapy training focuses on what nature can do for us, the health benefits, the stress reduction, the boosted immune response. All of that is real, and none of it is in question here. But Relational Forest Therapy™ starts from a different question: if nature gives us so much, what would it mean to give something back? As Amos Clifford writes, all medicine is relational and much of who we are is shaped by the relationships we’re in. This course is built around relationship, the Heart Sense, and how we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the More-than-Human World. It also doesn’t shy away from the fact that this journey has real edges. Moving from isolation toward interbeing can surface grief, resistance, and discomfort as old assumptions about nature and about ourselves begin to loosen. Rather than smoothing over those edges, this course gives you the frameworks, language, and practices to recognize them, sit with them, and guide others through their own. For guides who already know how to lead a walk, this is the piece that’s often missing.
Why join us
If you’re already guiding, this course gives you a possible missing piece. The relationship at the heart of the practice, and the map for moving through it, not just the structure around it.
– Taught within ANFT’s Academy of Relational Forest Therapy, developed with founder Amos Clifford
– Learn the Standard Sequence, the Way of the Guide, and the Language of Invitation in full depth
– Work with the seven Stages of Relational Forest Therapy, from isolation to interbeing, through guided reflection and journaling
– Build your own web of interbeing through a hands-on Harvest Project at your sit spot
– Open to guides certified by any organization, not only ANFT
– Self-paced and online, so you can move through it alongside your existing practice
– Grounded in reciprocity, the Heart Sense, and honest engagement with your own edges, not just technique.
Nature Needs You
Join the movement healing people and planet.
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