About
Nature Therapy with Karyn was created by Karyn Folwell, an Occupational Therapist with 30 years’ experience in healthcare and passion for supporting joy and wellbeing in people’s lives. Her qualifications as an INFTA * Certified Forest Therapy Guide is her pathway to sharing nature and forest therapy with you, guiding you to foster a greater connection with nature and a more peaceful way of being.
My Story
Nature and Forest Therapy with Karyn was created by Karyn Folwell, an Occupational Therapist with over 30 years’ experience in healthcare and a passion for fostering joy and wellbeing in everyday life.
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Karyn connected to nature early in her life, like most other kids exploring the grass, trees, plants or dirt for their textures, smells and tastes! This combined with frequent camping holidays in bush and beachside settings away from all things modern, cemented her love of the natural environment.
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Whilst working in large hospital settings, she noticed how clients would seem calmer, relaxed and happier when she took them outside of the clinical environment and into nature, and it was moment like these that have inspired her to want to share the joy of connecting with nature with others.
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Her research on this connection led her to Forest Therapy Guiding, a way for all people to create greater connections with nature via structured, meditative activities. Since then, Karyn has become an accredited Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and continues to run sessions throughout the natural landscape of The Great Ocean Road and surrounding Geelong region.
'In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks'
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John Muir
Shirin-Yoku: The Origins of Forest Therapy
To better understand the forest therapy experience we start with the words Shinrin – Yoku, a Japanese term meaning ‘to immerse oneself in nature.’
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The public health practice of Shinrin – Yoku was strongly encouraged by the Japanese government in the mid 1980’s, aimed at encouraging its mainly urban dwelling and hardworking citizens to spend a day of their weekend in a forest setting. This community response was an antidote to their stressful urbanised working lives that was affecting their health and wellbeing. However, spending time in a forest was not enough, they needed processes to follow in the forest to fully gain the available benefits. The guided walks sort to then direct participants to use all their senses to experience the forest environment.
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This same consequence of urbanistion has seen people in other countries like Australia, experience similar effects. In particular, an ever-increasing number of people with diseases related to stress, and diseases associated with sedentary lifestyles. People are spending less time in natural environments and more time indoors looking at or working on electronic devices. There is an ever-growing body of scientific evidence and research that demonstrates the benefits for us in spending structured time in nature, and how it improves many aspects of health – physiological, mental, and spiritual, and of not only being outdoors, but specifically participating in a specially designed and structured activity such as guided forest therapy walks.
