Looking up into a bright green forest canopy

For anyone with a nature prescription

Nature was the prescription.
I'm glad it led you here.

Someone you trust wrote nature into your care. That isn't just vague advice to get more fresh air. Nature prescriptions are real, and there's good research behind them.

The question is what to actually do with one. I'm a registered PaRx Connector, and that's my part: helping you turn the prescription into a practice you can keep.

See Upcoming Walks

Start where you are

Knowing it would help isn't the same
as knowing where to start.

You may already know that time outside would be good for you. The harder part is making it happen when you're tired, carrying too much, or have spent so many years caring for everyone else, or building a career, that you're not quite sure anymore what actually restores you.

Knowing that would help is one thing. Making space for it is another. It gets much easier when someone says: meet me here, wear comfortable shoes, I'll take it from there.

Tamara Schmidt, forest therapy guide and registered PaRx Connector, standing among green trees

The guide

Someone to
walk it with.

I've been guiding forest therapy since 2020, certified through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, and I'm a registered PaRx Connector.

What I love about this work is helping people discover that connecting with nature doesn't have to be complicated. You don't have to know the names of the trees. You don't have to be outdoorsy. You don't even have to be especially good at slowing down. We start where you are.

A registered PaRx Connector, part of the national program that helps people follow through on a nature prescription.

Where

Where we
walk.

I'm based in Cowansville in the Eastern Townships, about an hour from the Champlain Bridge. Most walks take place at the Centre de la nature, where there's forest, water, open sky, and room to wander.

We move slowly, at the pace of noticing, and there's forest tea afterward.

A country road winding through the Eastern Townships hills in fall colour

Step out of the car and notice what's here. Birdsong, moving air, trees. For a little while, nowhere else to be.

What to expect

What a walk is
really like.

If you've never done anything like this, here's the shape of it, so none of it is a surprise.

It isn't a hike. We move slowly, over a short distance, with plenty of stops to notice what's around us.
There's nothing to achieve. You won't be asked to keep up, push through, or do anything that doesn't feel right to you.
No fitness or experience needed. If you can walk for an hour at an easy pace, you can do this.
I lead you through simple invitations to slow down and use your senses, and there's always forest tea afterward.
Come dressed for the weather, in comfortable shoes. That's the only preparation.

The evidence, briefly

There's good reason
your provider chose this.

Your provider didn't suggest nature on a hunch. Research has linked regular time in nature with benefits for physical and mental wellbeing, and one large study found that people who spent at least 120 minutes a week in nature were more likely to report good health and wellbeing.

You don't have to get those minutes all at once, and they don't have to involve hiking a mountain. A park counts. Sitting under a tree counts. A slow walk counts.

What can you do with your prescription?

So, where do
you start?

These aren't packages to choose between so much as steps you can take in whatever order fits your life. Most people begin with a walk.

Come for a walk.

Thursday evening forest therapy walks

A 90-minute guided walk at the Centre de la nature in Cowansville on Thursday evenings. A good place to begin if you'd like some structure and company as you put your prescription into practice.

$35, tax included

Monthly community walks

A relaxed, welcoming introduction to forest therapy, open to everyone. The easiest way to try it for the first time, with nothing to prepare.

Pay what you can, $20 suggested

Not sure which? Start with whichever fits your schedule. You don't need any previous experience for either.

Want something more personal?

Private forest therapy sessions

One to one, ninety minutes to two hours, arranged around you, in the forest or over Zoom. For when you'd like individual attention rather than a group.

$130 a session

Ready to make it a practice?

Rooted

Six guided sessions to help you find your own ground again.

Six private forest therapy sessions at a rhythm that works for you, with up to a year to use them. We might begin closer together and spread the later sessions out as your own practice starts to take root. Along the way we notice what actually helps you feel grounded and connected, and build a way of being in nature you can keep doing on your own. Sève is included, so the practice continues between sessions.

$590, including tax

Something for the days in between?

Sève

My daily nature practice app. A few minutes a day: a seasonal invitation, a feeling check-in, and a way to notice what you need. It's the thread that holds a practice together between walks.

$120 a year, or $12.50 a month

For healthcare providers

Thinking of prescribing nature?

If you're a physician, nurse, nurse practitioner, or other provider thinking about a nature prescription, here's what I offer the person you send: guided forest therapy walks, private sessions, and Sève, my daily nature app, so the time outdoors you recommend becomes something they actually do.

You provide the clinical care. I give your patient a practical way to follow through on the prescription you've written. You're welcome to point patients to this page, or to get in touch with any questions.

Nature was the prescription.I'm glad it led you here.

Knowing it would help isn't the sameas knowing where to start.

Someone towalk it with.

Where wewalk.

What a walk isreally like.

There's good reasonyour provider chose this.

So, where doyou start?