Testimonials
Andrea is a gifted forest therapy guide who brings heart, mind and soul to her offerings. Andrea has guided forest therapy sessions to support the holistic wellbeing of frontline street health, harm reduction, community and social service workers via Soul Space since 2020, and each offering leaves participants more connected to themselves and to nature, and with a renewed energy for their important work in our community. What a gift! This will open your senses to nature's beauty - a 'connecting' process that will bring peace to head and heart, and feelings of childlike wonderment. I’ve had the pleasure of attending both in person and virtual forest walks with Andrea. I came away from each experience feeling calm, relaxed and rejuvenated. Her sensitive guidance enabled me to appreciate the beauty and restorative healing of nature on a very personal level. I would highly recommend a forest therapy session with Andrea. Thank you Andrea for a wonderful forest therapy walk through Hampton Park on Saturday. I have a deeper appreciation for the quiet and beauty that surrounds us. It was a special experience that you led with grace. I have been to a number of walks with Andrea. I loved the spontaneity of her invitations and the thoughtfulness she put in to make sure the participants felt safe and free to explore the forest. It's time well spent! Andrea is a wonderful guide and going on Forest therapy walks with her is an invitation to both playfulness and a loving authentic relationship with nature and self. I've been on 2 walks with Andrea now and thoroughly enjoy them. Afterwards I feel very re-charged and calm. It's a little tricky to fully explain what a guided forest walk entails, so I would recommend that you just go. I think you'll be happy you did. She's a very knowledgeable and gentle guide... very good at what she does! I participated in one of Andrea's walks at Stony Swamp trail. It was just what I needed after a week long of scurrying around to get to places on time. I wish I could go at the same slow pace in everyday life but I'm grateful for the opportunity to do so. It was a great experience with great people, great scenery and a great guide. |
I always leave Andrea's forest therapy walks feeling more connected to myself, others and the wider world. Her calm, joyful presence and invitations help me to slow down, quiet my mind and recognize the beauty all around me. A Forest Therapy walk is perfect to calm you, centre you, re-calibrate how you live life. It is a joyful and easy approach to mindfulness, which has always eluded me because my mind is always too busy to be mindful. I have been a nature enthusiast for a very long time, but after one walk with Andrea I learned how to deepen the experience into something that shifts my centre of gravity from my head to my body. I’m more present now. I use all my senses. I stop a lot more, just to pay attention to the miraculous life that pulses all around if you give yourself time to tune in. I heartily recommend Andrea's walk at the Old Growth Forest at Gillies Grove National Historic Site. The site is stunning with its towering Eastern White Pine and Andrea's nature connection invitations offered all of us a way to connect with these venerable giants. The walk was wonderful and so, too, was the on-going feeling of wellness after I returned to my day-to-day routine. Thank you, Forest Therapy Ottawa, for a chance to shift my focus and connect with this awesome forest. It is calming and stimulating, and underscores the human health benefits of forests and of contemplation. It is an escape from machine noise and the two-dimensional digital world. |