“To know what the true self is without social pressure is to know your true nature.”
Services
Forest Therapy Walk
Join me for an immersive experience in partnership with the more than human world. Forest Therapy is a dynamically developing practice based on the general principle that it is beneficial (for humans and nature) to spend time bathing in the atmosphere of the forest. Inspired by the Japanese practice of Shrinrin-yoku (forest bathing), we will slow down, relax, and use our senses to get to know the land we are living with.
As a guide, I will support and facilitate the experience - in person or virtually. You will be fully encouraged to follow your body’s wisdom while we explore partnership with the land and the present moment. As the lineage I am trained in (Association of Nature and Forest Therapy) says - “the forest is the therapist, the guide opens the door”.
Personal Coaching
I believe that you are in the driver seat of your life and my coaching role is to support your innate navigator. You are a whole being with unique characteristics, identities, joys and challenges and all is welcome. We will work together to identify your goals and use tools such as the body compass, thought work, visualizations and dream analysis to uncover your inner wisdom about the life that is best for you. The path may not always be straight or smooth or clear and that’s okay! I will give you my full attention and help you find the answers that are already within.
I am a graduate of the Wayfinder Coaching program, working on completing the requirements for certification and am offering pre-certification coaching packages at a deeply discounted rate. Send me an email and we can book a 20 minute complementary connection call.
Collaboration
I love connecting with people and organizations interested in deep conversations, wellness, human development and relationships with the more than human world. If you are a business or organization looking to bring forest therapy and/or coaching to yourself, your clients, or your colleagues, I would love to talk more about what we might build!
My story…
This is my ‘for now’ story that I try to hold lightly as I know it will change - even if I don’t want it to!
I believe that my experience of life is an experience of constant flux AND I still try to cling, grasp and control so that I can be more comfortable. I also believe that each individual has an inner wisdom of the life that is best for them - including myself. My wisdom was buried and tangled by the expectations of the social world - it was and is incredibly helpful for me to heal through working in partnership with coaches, guides and the land. I am on a journey of re-wilding, remembering, and uncovering the gifts I have to bring to the world.
I was born on Treaty 7 territory, in what is also known as Calgary, Canada. In my adult life I have mostly lived in Northern Canada, currently and very gratefully on the traditional territories of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation. I acknowledge the lands and waters that sustain my life and acknowledge the stewardship of Yukon First Nations in caring for the lands and waters since time immemorial. I am a daughter, mother, wife, sister, and aunty. I recognize that I have many characteristics which provide me unearned advantages in western culture, including being white, cis gender, straight passing, university educated, able bodied and a home owner.
I have worked for many years in health care, as a physiotherapist and a health care executive. A recent experience with occupational burnout provided me the opportunity to explore a new way of living, not just a new way of ‘working’. My process of healing has led to my current life philosophy - using embodied and meditative practices to help me recognize what brings me freedom, peace, love and joy, and then turning my feet and taking turtle steps in that direction. I want to share these practices for the benefit of all things in this world - Nature and Forest Therapy guiding through the lineage of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, Wayfinder Life Coaching (www.marthabeck.com) and meditation teaching soon to come.
We are not in nature, we are nature.
Forest Therapy Walk participant
“Time in nature is always well spent. Time with a forest guide to provide purposeful engagement and reflection, self awareness and awareness of the rich world around you. This experience is truly helpful to our health and well-being. Amy did a wonderful job facilitating a connection to nature that is both personally renewing and promotes appreciation that we are part of the natural world”
Forest Therapy Walk participant
“In a high-paced world that progressively takes us out and away from, nature - this is a great, accessible practice to return to something beautiful that lives within the core of us all.”
Events
Welcome!
Book a Forest Therapy Walk - virtual
Join me as we slow down, connect to ourselves and the more than human world. In this virtual offering, all you need is a device with good internet or cell connection and a place to be comfortable outdoors or indoors by a window or with a house plant.
Email amyriske5@gmail.com to sign up.
I look forward to honouring the turning of the seasons with you and the land you are living with.
Pre Certification Coaching Sessions
Working through a challenge in your life, wondering what path is right for you? I will hold space, give you my full attention and help you find the answers that are already within you.
Blocks of 3 or 5 sessions (50 minutes).
Zoom, phone or walking outdoors.
Pricing
Pay it Forward
This option is for those who easily meet their basic needs of food, housing, transportation and leisure… and then some (like vacations and eating in restaurants)
Forest therapy walk: $65
Pre certification coaching session: $75
Full price
This option is for those who regularly meet their basic needs of food, housing, transportation and leisure.
Forest therapy walk: $45
Pre certification coaching session: $50
Need-Based
This option is for those who mostly meet their basic needs of food, housing, transportation and leisure.
Forest therapy walk: $25
Pre certification coaching session: $25 or equivalent barter
In the spirit of reciprocity and reconciliation, there is no expectation of financial payment from Kwanlin Dün citizens, Ta’an Kwäch’än Council citizens or Indigenous Elders.
If financial barriers will prevent you from joining in my offerings, please email me with “pay what I can” in the subject line. In the body of the email, please let me know what is possible for you, even if that amount is zero dollars. No explanation required.
Please reach out if you are interested in a forest bath, coaching or working together.
Fill out some info and I will be in touch shortly. I can’t wait to hear from you!
”You only have to let your soft animal body love what it loves”
- Mary Oliver
I would be honoured to walk with you and your wisdom!
I am profoundly grateful to be experiencing life on the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. The opportunity to raise my children in this place has been an incredible gift. I recognize that these lands and waters sustain our lives and recognize the Indigenous Peoples’ relationships with these lands and waters since time immemorial.
I am also grateful to all the beings who have helped and continue to help me on my life journey - plant beings, animal beings, elemental beings, human beings.