Kate Kampner is a reporter with the Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.
BURLINGTON — While sitting on the hills of Shelburne Farms, a sustainable education farm near Burlington, Kelly Knudsen was given an invitation. She, along with the group she sat near, were asked what movement they could see. At first, Knudsen, confused by the question, didn’t see anything.
Then, she focused. She saw the soft swaying of singular branches, the slight shift in fine blades of grass, the unexpected appearance of a bird, and clouds, making their slow expedition towards her.
That newfound attention is what forest bathing is all about, according to Knudsen. The process of slowing down, a process that Knudsen began even before she received a diagnosis of non-cancerous meningioma in December.
Forest bathing, based off the Japanese practice “Shinrin-yoku,” emphasizes intentionally surrounding oneself in nature and staying focused on the present. It can take many forms such as meditating, walking, or group discussions. As forest bathing gains popularity in Vermont and New York, some have begun pursuing the therapeutic act as part of their healing journey through complex medical conditions.
Stacey LaFave, an oncology social worker, hit her wall with healthcare and became a certified forest bathing guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs in 2022.
LaFave now runs an eight-month forest bathing support group for cancer patients out of the initial treatment phase — the first line of treatment to control the cancer — through the CVPH Fitzpatrick Cancer Center, a hospital in Plattsburgh, New York that’s part of the University of Vermont Health Network.
Between early April and November, her patients can attend bi-weekly, closed sessions in the woods of New York’s Point Au Roche State Park. She guided her first group last year and took on a second group in the spring.
“The goal is to just walk and really notice, to get them out of their heads and into their bodies,” LaFave said.
LaFave’s group members span a variety of ages and stages in cancers and treatments. The younger members are in their 40s and the oldest are in their 80s, LaFave said. One of her patients had been diagnosed with a second cancer during the sessions. LaFave said that being surrounded by a world of support helped her deal with the diagnosis.
“I think she was at peace with it,” LaFave said.
But typically, she said, cancer doesn’t take center stage.
“We don’t talk about cancer that much,” LaFave said. “Maybe cancer was the one thing everybody had in common, but often people talked just about anything.”
Through support groups like LaFave’s people around the world are implementing the practice into their healthcare decisions as researchers have found that medical patients who spend more time in greenspaces can see their health improve.
“People that engaged with this greenspace, they had more beneficial health outcomes,” said Dr. Jean Bikomeye, a researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee who published a 2022 review showing that in five cancer-related studies, cancer patients who spent more time gardening, forest bathing, and just more time outside overall had improved health effects.
“We saw improvement in strength and weight loss,” Bikomeye said. His team also saw an improvement in biological markers such as inflammation and an overall quality of life, according to the study.
Knudsen, who participated in forest bathing sessions long before her diagnosis, saw the effects on her everyday life.
“In today’s society it’s so hard for many of us to slow down and be present in the moment,” she said. But when you do that, she added, “You develop more of a gratitude for the natural world.”
Knudsen is an outdoor educator at Shelburne farms. She works with kids at the farm by getting them outside and fostering a relationship with the natural world. One activity she does with them is called “Fist Full of Sounds” where she gets the kids to stop, close their eyes, and shout out all the sounds they hear.
“When kids are coming to the farm, a lot of the time they really just need to play and explore and be curious in the natural world,” she said. “To me, forest bathing is a way that as adults we’re going out and just playing in the forest and being curious about what’s around us.”
Knudsen’s forest bathing sessions are also held at the farms and have always been led by Duncan Murdoch who has been a certified Nature Forest Therapy Guide since 2015. He guides primarily group walks with a variety of people. This includes those being affected by cancer.
Around the same time Knudsen received her diagnosis, she learned from another session member that they had been diagnosed with cancer. The two of them have stayed connected beyond the forest bathing group ever since.
“For three hours, you’re with people who get it,” Murdoch said. “That feels really healing.”
Much like other guides, Murdoch uses all five senses as a means of focusing on the present. Smell, touch, sound, and sight come easy, but to experience taste, both he and LaFave make a tea at the end of their sessions, either out of plants or mushrooms.
Six months after LaFave finished her 2024 session, she sent out a follow up survey to her patients who reflected on their experience and how it’s changed their lives.
“I got in touch with nature, made great friendships with others, and it gave me a large amount of personal growth,” said one anonymous patient.
Another said that after the treatment their house was now full of houseplants. “I met other people who have taught me a lot about surviving positively after cancer,” another anonymous patient said.
These are reflections from what LaFave tries to teach in every session, she said: “The forest is the therapist, we’re just the guide.”
