Forest Therapy Session - Change and Opportunity

I held space for a group of 7 participants last Saturday (7 December). We set this session up to be one that will help participants to take stock of the Year 2024 and moving on to Year 2025. Although I know that we should not set an agenda for forest therapy session, I took the liberty to set Change and Opportunity as the theme so that my participants can have some objectives when soaking themselves in the liminal space with nature. I mentioned to them that although I set a theme for the session, they are also free to decide for themselves what they wanted to get out of the session. They are not restricted to the theme for sure.

Two things that were particularly significant to me from this session. First, I learnt a new thai phrase “wang jaai” which literally means “put your heart at ease”. This was how one participant described her first forest therapy experience. She expressed that through the invitations and the standard sequence, she was able to put her heart at ease and totally immersed herself in forest. She felt safe being covered by the trees and vegetation around her.

The second significant thing that happened was how one of my participants cried after we completed the Pleasure of Presence (POP). Most of my participants decided to lie down on the mats during the POP. When I gave the invitation for them to slowly open up their eyes, one of them shared that she cried when she saw how the trees were connected to the sky. She later shared that she cried because it has been a long while that she felt such a comfort with nature and the sight of it brought her to tears.

We concluded the session with the usual tea ceremony. I actually got the participants invite forest guests into the tea ceremony party. It was our little year end tea ceremony party with one another and also with the forest guests. They brought in many more than human beings like stones and rocks, flowers, leaves, branches, etc. There was completeness at the end of the session and I find joy in bringing slow-ness to people.

Ronneth, 9 December 2024