Today we’d like to introduce you to Georgia Bromehead.
Hi Georgia, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in a rural place outside of Nashville, spending a lot of time in the woods by myself. This created a foundation of relationship with the Earth that has brought me comfort throughout my life. Throughout the growing pains and deep hardships of growing, nature has been a constant. My late 20s brought a shattering of sorts, of my spiritual community, my self-perception, and of my romantic relationship. Therapy and walking amongst trees reframed and grounded me when everything else wobbled.
I ended up taking a sabbatical year, pursuing everything I’d ever thought I might like to be or do. I took acting classes, worked as a gardener, volunteered in a chocolate shop, and ended up teaching ESL abroad (traveling and language are two of my favorite things). While in rural Japan for a year, I admired my community’s ties to the natural rhythms of the seasons. They incorporated the colors, sounds, and smells of their Earth into activities, decorations, and reverent traditions. It felt natural and rooted in presence. I researched and found the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy website. The Association spoke to everything I felt but couldn’t verbalize about nature connection– it is liminal, it is deep, it is relational, it is wordless but a felt sense that matters greatly.
I applied for a scholarship through the Association and became the first practicing certified Forest Therapy Guide in Nashville. My hope was and is to offer ways for others to tend their relationship to nature. Humans remembering and cultivating this connection can, I believe, not only support them in good and hard times but also change the world one person at a time. You can’t care about what you don’t know. As a Nashvillian, I’m also passionate about encouraging urban forest bathing. You don’t have to visit a national park to connect with the Earth and feel awe. There is sensory connection big and small every day in the most unlikely, busy places. I try to embody and show this as a mom of young kids who lives and bustles in Nashville, herself.
I eventually became a Clinical Mental Health therapist and am one of the only ANFT Guides to be a Guide first, therapist second. Practicing therapy has only expanded my understanding of how powerful nature connection can be. I now understand more clinically what I’ve always known somatically, that nature connection heals.
Currently as a therapist and forest bathing guide, I feel arrived in a role that feels “just right,” where everything in my life journey has melted together into a calling that is meaningful, challenging, rewarding, and fun.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
In the beginning, forest bathing wasn’t a well-known practice and I was the first in Nashville offering it. My first guiding experiences were as a regular program at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. The guests and staff were absolutely always wonderful, but I did have to have a brave heart and hold a sturdy space in the face of natural skepticism from some attendees. Some were wary and even wondered if we’d literally bathe in the woods together. We would always laugh as I explained forest bathing and acknowledged how it might come across. Rooted in those memories, sometimes I still say “If this is the most hippy thing you’ve ever heard and you want to bounce out of here, just let me know!” No one has ever not stayed. I hold a special place in my heart for the early walkers who were brave enough to be open to something truly new.
Understanding the healing power of nature is undeniable now through many pieces of research that I love to talk about, so it’s easier to pitch. But, in the early days, it was more challenging to face the blank faces and furrowed eyebrows of both walkers and medical providers. I think it’s all very hilarious now and completely tracks with my personality and tendency to jump into new things and wait for people to come along.
Currently the most challenging part of my job is maintaining my authentic voice while also trying to market my offerings. I’m an actual person offering a healing experience instead of a corporate wellness retreat with an unending budget and social media assistants. All this, and… ticks.
As you know, we’re big fans of Forest Therapy Nashville. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Forest Therapy Nashville offers guided forest bathing experiences. Rooted in the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy protocol and the Japanese practice of “shinrinyoku,” these experiences invite us to connect with our surroundings through our senses. Forest bathing is a research-proven way to reduce cortisol, anxiety, depression, and angst and increase immune function, peacefulness, cognitive function, and more! Forest Therapy Nashville also offers psychotherapy with Georgia Bromehead, A/LPC-MHSP. Psychotherapy with Georgia incorporates body and room awareness through attention to nervous system, sensations, and presence. Together, psychotherapy on the couch with nature connection in the woods offers a holistic blend of left-brain and right-brain, of intellect and embodiment, of choicefulness and impulse.
Regular forest bathing experiences are around two hours in length and take place in a small area. We move slowly and lean into instinct and to our senses. We begin to speak the language of the Earth, which is not verbal, but sensual.
As your guide, I’m trained to model and give invitations to connect with the land, your body, and presence. We experience relational mindfulness together in a spacious but connected way. I’m known for my uniquely open, excited, yet grounded energy (people say I feel like “lying down in moss” but my personality is also funny and spirited, so I can hold space for deep pain and also big joy and pleasure). Though forest bathing is not therapy, as a mental health therapist I hold sturdy trauma-informed space. As, I believe, the only practicing Guide in Nashville who is also a therapist, I can speak to a broader scope of healing potential and experience with nature connection. As a therapist and forest bathing guide who loves community and humans, I love talking to various organizations about the power of nature healing. I’ve guided at Vanderbilt (students and staff), spoken at churches, and spread the word from Memphis to Nashville to Chattanooga in various ways about this particular type of nature connection experience.
I’m really proud to offer a practice that’s not just “another thing to fail at.” I try hard to communicate that forest bathing/nature connection is accessible even indoors. I offer tools to take home into busy, urban lives. I’d love people to hear that taking the time to come on even one forest therapy walk reduces their cortisol, refreshes their cognition, leads to reduction in depression/anxiety and more. I’d love for people to know that they’ll probably leave feeling differently than they arrived, and it is possible to cultivate a headspace that notices nature all day every day despite all the tasks and roles we serve.
My first walk of the year is coming up on March 28th, 9am! I’m also offering a therapist/medical provider only walk in April. I’m planning a Mother’s Day mini-retreat for moms in May as well as a signature retreat in November. This retreat will be based on embodiment through connection with the four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. So excited about this!
I’m also fired up at the idea of guiding private corporate or business teams based on research around increased creativity and cognitive function. I think incorporating this practice into the workplace could have remarkable results. I’d love for forest bathing to become a go-to idea in all sectors for nourishment, just like yoga or meditation or massage.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I would love to work with more therapists in guiding their clients in this unique way, then sending the client back with ideas for regulation techniques and collaborative care. I’d love to offer more mini retreats in collaboration with sound bath practitioners and the like. I’d love to offer research opportunities on brain waves during forest bathing walks (any scientists out there?!).
People can support me by coming on walks, telling friends, or gifting loved ones these forest bathing experiences. People can support me by bringing me to their staff or team and letting me talk about nature healing research or guide a short experience. People can support me by bringing me to your people and your land and letting me offer invitations to slow down and connect with your place and each other. I love this practice, guiding it and talking about it, so any opportunities to do more of that are welcome!
I believe more and more that getting into our bodies, into the present, and connecting with the Earth is a beautiful nonviolent resistance to the coming wave of tech takeover. Let’s forest bathe en masse and reclaim our senses!
Pricing:
- $40 each for public walks
- $175 for 1-1 or couples walks
- $250+ for private groups depending on time and travel
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.foresttherapynashville.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forest_therapy_nashville/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foresttherapynashville
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/1173956
