About ANWPs
EcoWisdom offers Shinrin-Yoku sessions called Accessible Nature Wellbeing Programs
(ANWPs). These programs are suitable for people wishing to support their holistic mind-body-soul wellbeing. Our program is focused on caring for self, one another, and the earth.
The program facilitation team is co-led by David Gordon, who has 30 years of experience as an award-winning environmental educator and activist, and Dr. Kari Krogh, PhD Psychology, who is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher and spiritual director. They live off-grid on the EcoWisdom Forest Preserve and use mindful nature connection to sustain engagement in social and environmental activism.
Health Benefits
The significant health benefits of EcoWisdom’s Accessible Nature Wellbeing Program model have been well documented by forest medicine researchers at Derby University. Benefits include reduced anxiety, rumination, physical pain, fatigue, and social isolation as well as improved memory and concentration.
The study found a 27-33% reduction in symptom severity after participating in a single ANWP and these improvements were maintained over a month. After attending one EcoWisdom ANWP, 92% of participants were able to continue using mindful nature connection practices on their own. If participants engaged in more than one ANWP, the adoption rate of this free and accessible health promotion behaviour increased to 100%.
Forest bathing or mindful nature connection has well known benefits for promoting physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. EcoWisdom has a team of skilled facilitators and graduates of our Nature and Forest Therapy Guide training program who can provide, for example, a series of three 2.5 hour ANWPs, to support and sustain members of an organization in continuing to do their important work.
We work to accommodate differences in ability. Resources are provided to support people not well enough to attend the entire session. EcoWisdom’s programs are most suitable for people living with physical limitations associated with disability or chronic illnesses, as well as those experiencing social isolation, pain, and fatigue for any reason. We like to partner with organizations to offer support to their membership.
For more information or to participate in our upcoming ANWP, please email info@ecowisdom.ca.