GUIDED FOREST BATHING
A guide who leads every walk unhurried, welcoming, and grounded in research.
Dr. Tara Tiger Brown, PhD in Forestry and certified Forest and Nature Immersion Guide, draws on doctoral research and years of lived practice to lead sessions grounded in the environmental conditions that produce measurable health outcomes.
Why Forest Therapy
The problem
Metro Vancouver is increasingly urbanized and noisy. The World Health Organization Environmental Noise Guidelines connect environmental noise with cardiovascular and metabolic effects, blood pressure, sleep, and stress. A guided walk offers a slower way to notice the conditions around us and our relationship with them.
The evidence
Tara’s PhD dissertation at the UBC Faculty of Forestry followed a randomized crossover study of 106 Metro Vancouver adults across four parks and four seasons. Guided and self-guided sessions both reduced heart rate. Mood and nature connectedness improved most for participants with lower baseline levels, and peri-urban sessions with lower sound levels produced the largest mood gains. That finding also informs Silent Trails.
Referred through a nature prescription, or a health worker looking to prescribe one?
See the PaRx pathwaySession Formats
Guided Sessions
In-person, Metro Vancouver, B.C.
A two or three hour session for groups of 2 to 15, with a tea gathering and reflection to close.
Minimum booking fee $500.
Talks
In-person or remote.
Pricing depends on scope.
Reach out for a quote.
Talks + Guided Session
A talk followed by a guided forest therapy session.
Delivered for: IUFRO, UBC, UN GEF Assembly, VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
Starting at $750.
Past Sessions
Plants, People, and Place Teacher Series
Guided walk
UN GEF Assembly
EcoWalk
Guided walk
Guided walk
Who Hires Me
For organizers booking groups for retreats, instructional programs, teambuilding, body integration, and more. An additional guide will be hired for groups over 15 people.
About Tara
I came to forest bathing while living in Tokyo and experiencing technostress, and the usual mental health options were not accessible. Learning the research behind Shinrin-Yoku changed how I managed my own health.
In 2019, I completed a Forest Medicine certification through the International Society of Nature and Forest Medicine (INFOM) at their forest therapy base in Uenomura, Gunma, Japan, studying under Dr. Qing Li, with advice from Dr. Yoshifumi Miyazaki. That led to a PhD in Forestry at UBC, where my dissertation research became the evidence base these sessions are built on.
I am also certified with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, a westernized version of forest bathing.
What Participants Say
“Tara has created a wonderful Sit Spot program that has helped me get out in nature and tune into my senses. Her academic background (PhD in Forestry) combined with her lived experience as a Forest Bathing practitioner around the world make her an excellent guide.”
Glee Devereaux
Google review · 5 stars
“Tara creates a welcoming, thoughtful space and guides the experience in a way that feels natural and unhurried. As a fellow forest therapy guide, I really appreciated her approach and the care she puts into creating opportunities for people to reconnect with themselves, each other, and the natural world.”
Sean Graham
Google review · 5 stars
“My goal was to slow down and feel my senses more while connecting with nature. Afterward I definitely felt calmer — there was something that had agitated me this morning and after the walk that was 95 percent gone. I also loved the sharing over a cup of tea in the forest afterwards.”
Participant
Pacific Spirit Regional Park session
