Sometimes we don't even know what we are thinking or feeling until we give ourselves a chance... I have some sliding scale fee spots available.
San Francisco, CA
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Iâm in the middle of a mission to bring nature back to the city of San Francisco. Iâm hiking into the canyon of the Glen Park neighborhood with friends and clients to restore health and vitality to individuals and our community, and decrease the technological noise that so often fills our lives. From an evolutionary perspective, this connection to nature was implicit. In the modern world, some societies lose touch with the natural world, while there exist cultures for which this ecotherapy is still traditional.
As summarized by Fauver (2018), âSpending time with trees and opening to your intuition are integral parts of a Japanese practice called forest bathing (shinrin-yoku). Forest bathing involves quietly relaxing under the trees or casually walking through them, which research has found to provide a wide range of health benefitsâ (p. 6). Among the evidence for this is work by Lee et al. (2011), in which young japanese male subjects participated in a 3 day, 2 night nature-based experiment.
The study used physiological and psychological measures, including heart rate variability analysis, that indicated the forest environment significantly increased parasympathetic nervous system activity, the rest and digest side of the autonomic nervous system, and significantly suppressed sympathetic, fight or flight activity of participants compared with the urban environment. This could be particularly helpful for anyone with a dysregulated nervous system, especially including those with such experiences as hypervigilance from trauma.
