My name is Claire and I am a Certified Forest Bathing Guide based in Liverpool in the North West of England.

I completed my training through the Forest Therapy Hub (FTH) and I am fully insured and certified in Outdoor Emergency First Aid which meets the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) requirements.

My background is as an accredited Cognitive Behaviour Therapist (CBT) and I have 10 years experience working within primary care mental health settings in the NHS providing CBT to individuals and groups for common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

I was lucky enough to grow up in Donegal, a rural part of the North West of Ireland, spending my days and summers with siblings and cousins roaming the fields and farms near our house where we would spend hours entertaining ourselves, playing hide and seek, climbing bales of hay and playing ‘house’ in the trees.

As I grew up and moved away to work in urban areas, I began to spend less and less time in nature and unfortunately lost my connection to it.

It was only during the first lockdown in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that I began to spend more time in my local woodlands and began to experience a sense of calm and wellbeing that brought me back to my carefree childhood days.

I happened to come across a video online about shinrin-yoku and I just immediately connected with the idea and began to learn more about it. I decided I wanted to learn more formally about this practice and after much research, decided to train to become a Forest Bathing Guide with the Forest Therapy Hub.

My main goal was to learn how to practice this for myself, but as I began to feel the benefits on my emotional wellbeing, I realised that I wanted others to know, and to help them build their own nature connection.

The great thing about forest bathing is that it is accessible, you don’t have to be in a remote forest to gain the benefits, you can still practice it in your local parks and woodlands.

If this sounds like something you would like to try, then please have a look at the events page to begin your own journey in nature.