Deepening into our relationships with the More-Than-Human-World.
The Forest is the therapist; the Guide opens the doors.
Willow Dejesus, ANFT Guide, OTR/L
I have enjoyed being immersed in nature since childhood, and still feel that awe and wonder in natural environments. Forest Bathing ( Forest Therapy) is a way to share not only that magic, but also the health and wellness offered by being in nature. It is a gift to oneself and a practice that has called me again and again back to the source of all life.
I offer contemplative and uplifting monthly Forest Bathing Retreats/Walks nature walks for honoring your health and for honoring the earth.
For information about offerings for the general public, private groups, and consultation for Nature Rxs for health, see My website for more info.
My “Restorative Nature Practices for Health and Wellness”is a weekly journey together to explore contemplative and creative nature -based practices to restore and deepen our relationships of reciprocity with nature and restore our own emotional and physical health.
Through Forest Therapy guided sensory invitations and other practices such as nature writing, movement, art making, rituals, and more, we will discover our own inner and outer journeys for resilience and joy. Email me about any of these offerings: myforesttherapyrx@gmail.com
Blake Ellis, MSW
Blake Ellis has spent many years helping others learn about and deeply connect with nature. Blake helped establish community gardens with refugees in Atlanta, Georgia, WWOOFed on organic farms in Taiwan and New Zealand, taught garden education to elementary schoolers, and provided horticultural therapy for adults with developmental disabilities. Following the 2018 Camp Fire, Blake decided to return to school to become a social worker to better support community recovery efforts. While completing her Master's in Social Work, Blake served as an AmeriCorps Disaster Case Manager with individuals impacted by the Camp Fire and conducted her thesis on the concept of "solastalgia." Solastalgia can be defined as the mental, emotional, and spiritual impacts of environmental degradation or the loss you feel when your beloved home environment is transformed beyond recognition. Her research led her to discover the practice of Forest Therapy, a hopeful intervention to help her community process trauma, solastalgia, and grief, rebuild individuals' sense of place, and reconnect to nature. Blake is now a certified Forest Therapy Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and the Program Manager for the Chico State Ecotherapy Program with the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve. Blake provides holistic, nature-based wellness practices to individuals impacted by wildfires in Butte County and Chico State students, staff, and faculty.
Bethany Slattery, B.A., M.S., ANFT Guide
I am so pleased that you're here to explore how Forest Therapy can support your life. I believe that you are here on purpose because you are feeling the need to reconnect to nature, and to some part of you that you feel you've lost touch with, or perhaps you're just curious what this Forest Therapy stuff is all about? To begin, I am not a trained therapist; I am a Forest Therapy Guide. As a guide, I offer 2-3 hour Nature Immersions that open doors to the healing and wisdom that the elements of nature have to offer using the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) research based sequence of invitiations. While I cannot guarantee you any results on an immersion, I do know that during your Forest Immersion experience, you will be reciprocated with gifts of health and enhanced wellness from the natural elements of the outdoors. I began practicing Forest Therapy with the founder of ANFT, Amos Clifford, since 2013, and just recently became an ANFT certified guide so I an offer this lifechanging practice to others in the greater Chico area and beyond. Please email me, share your story, and let me know if you'd like to be part of an upcoming walk. I can also schedule a private walk for any number of people from 1-20 for special events. Email me by clicking the button below!
Greg Shafer, ANFT Guide
My name's Greg. I grew up in Paradise, graduated from Chico State with a bachelor's degree in Philosophy, and have worked as a mental health provider for young people since 2015. I've enjoyed many summers swimming in and around the feather river canyon since my childhood. A Forest therapy walk is a gentle, open ended sensory practice that tends to adapt organically to the needs of the participant. Walks can be playful, reflective, profound, simple, provide opportunities for grief, or provoke many other emotions and responses. As a practice, the experience tends to resist conventional description. In a professional clinical setting dependent on lengthy conversations, reading, training, and dialectical methods, I find Nature therapy to be a refreshing alternative for those who have not found talk therapy to be for them. The model is fundamentally non-coercive, and all responses are welcome. Nature therapy is a way to experience what we all know intuitively. Much is accomplished by nature with silence. If you'd like to schedule a walk with me please send an email to shfr.greg@gmail.com.
Josh Trout, PhD., ANFT Guide
Hello and welcome to Chico Forest Therapy! I am so pleased that you're here to explore how Forest Therapy can support your life. I believe that you are here on purpose, and that I can support you in creating deeper connections with natural places, including that "soft animal" within. I know that the Forest will reciprocate with gifts of health and wellness. To begin, I am not a trained therapist, I am a Forest Therapy Guide. The Forest is the therapist; the guide opens the doors. My exploration into wellness led me to Nature Therapy and I have fallen in love with it. By day, I am a Kinesiology professor at Chico State where my focus is on wellness promotion through exercise. I believe physical activity is the best medicine for physical health. And I believe that nurturing a reciprocal relationship with nature is the best medicine for mental and emotional health. There is an abundance of peer-reviewed research demonstrating the healing effects of Nature Therapy, but you have to experience it to really feel it. In his book, Dr. Qing Li sums up Forest Bathing (AKA Nature/Forest Therapy) in a few simple steps: 1) leave behind your phone and your expectations, 2) slow down and come to the present moment, and 3) sit by a tree and notice what you see, hear, and feel. That simplicity may prompt you to wonder why a guide certified through the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy would be helpful. While you can certainly practice Nature Therapy on your own, a guide will usher you through a sequence of invitations to help you slow down and connect all your senses to the forest. Guides also manage wilderness safety, secure permits to forested environments, and provide hospitality. You may find that Nature Therapy helps your body and mind “rest and digest” as you relax into slowness and indulge our sense our curiosity about the forest. When we connect with nature, we remember that we are nature. Email me at joshtrout@hotmail.com if you would like to schedule a walk with your friends, family, or colleagues. I can guide walks at sunrise, sunset, full-moon, or daytime.
Laura Nelson, BA, MSW, ANFT-Guide
After the Camp Fire disaster in 2018, it took time to heal from the trauma of losing my home and accept the loss of our entire community. The experience of being a refugee displaced forged a motivation for me to return to this land. Many affected by the fire in Butte County had to grapple with the amount of catasrophic loss during the tragedy. The loss of human and animal lives, the loss of the forest trees, the plants and animals, the irreplaceable flora and fauna and our homes. I truly wondered, “How are we going to heal”? I learned grief work is important work.
I consider myself a lifelong learner. During the 2020 year, the ANFT program was a perfect balm for the mental health ailments being experienced resulting from the Camp Fire disaster compounded with the pandemic requirements of social isolation. During our Nature and Forest Therapy program it taught somatic alternative modalities that offered trauma informed and safe to ways to reconnect to the land. Our Forest Therapy program infers the, “Forest is the Therapist and the Guide opens the doors”. The forest walks offer invitations which allow participants to decide at all times. Nature knows trauma. After the shock, grief and loss, it took time to feel safe and it took practice to slow down. Nature has cycles and seasons, it has timing, complexities and vulnerability. I began to remember and reconnect with myself and with our cohort in healing alongside the community. I remembered my childlike sense of wonder!
Each year we have new wildfires, new fire adapted landscape and more fire adapted people! During our program we are learning about the indigenous people of our community and collaborating in their cultural practices in TEK, Traditional Ecological Knowledge from the Mechoopda and Maidu tribal education programs. This TEK education has informed me personally as a fire survivor and inspired my interest in the term GOOD FIRE, which is used as intentional burning of the land. This fire treatment has been used in nationwide forest areas since time immemorial by indigenous peoples to caretake and maintain the land. This is precious knowledge in a time of policies.
In Forest Therapy I view my role in guiding to support people in their ability to have a unique personal relationship with nature. To feel safe in the wind, in the woods and in the forests again after the trauma of the wildfires. To remember the forest is our home.
I specialize in Fire Trauma Stewardship in private practice at my local small business, Cedar Creek A Place For Healing, with offices are located in Chico and Paradise.
Inviting you to view more information on Laura’s website: www.cedarcreekchico.com
Dan Efseeaff, B.S., M.S., ANFT-Guide
In June 2017, Dan Efseaff joined the Paradise Recreation and Park District as the District Manager (Chief Executive Officer). The District spans over 170 square miles in the Sierra Nevada/Cascade foothills and serves over 50,000 citizens. Dan guides the overall success of the organization. Following the November 2018 Camp Fire, Mr. Efseaff lead the rebuilding effort for the District and has developed innovative community wide protection efforts and worked with partners to develop resiliency programs for the community. He plays a key role in developing strategies for the long-term planning, wildland and wildfire management, and community building. The California Recreation and Park District Association awarded Mr. Efseaff with the 2019 manager of the year for his leadership following the Camp Fire. He has certifications as an Emergency Medical Technician, Nature and Forest Therapy Guide, Sea Kayak Instructor, Whitewater Kayak Instructor, and Wildland Fire Fighter (Red-Card Equivalent).
Mr. Efseaff has extensive experience as a wildland and park land manager, riparian restoration ecologist, and leading collaborative conservation efforts.
Mr. Efseaff has a B.S. in Environmental Toxicology from U.C. Davis and a M.S. in Ecology from C.S.U. Chico, where he researched the interaction of riparian tree roots with soil types. Mr. Efseaff is an American Canoe Association (ACA) certified instructor for both whitewater and sea kayaking, and has taught kayaking since 1990.