In select nooks of Nature, there are trails specially designed to maximize the healing properties of flowing water, elder trees, and wildflower essences. Chipmunks scamper about, a fox gingerly weaves her way across the meadow, and a sprightly warbler alights on a branch in front of you. In such company, merely walking barefoot, breathing the air, and drinking in the setting become healing exercises. For an intimate look at a Healing Nature Trail, google Healing Nature Center video tour and go to www.healingnature center.org.Healing Nature Trails are nestled in sanctuaries reserved exclusively for those seeking Nature’s guidance and healing touch. Healthcare practitioners bring their clients, and people of all persuasions come to restore body, mind, and spirit, and to renew their relationship with Nature. This book serves as a comprehensive guide for all trail users, with in-depth sections that give:
A multidisciplinary overview of the healing power of Nature.
An introduction to Healing Nature Trails.
A guided tour of a representative Healing Nature Trail.
A workbook for establishing Healing Nature Trails.
A description of Trail certification and Trail Guide degree programs. Tamarack Song’s vision for healing nature trails is an important and timely addition to the literature on forest therapy. Besides presenting a solid overview of recent science on the healing power of nature, he walks the reader along a path with surprising twists and turns, all in support of joyful connection to the earth and its many beings. - M. Amos Clifford, Founder of Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides & Programs and Sky Creek Dharma Center; author of Your Guide to Forest Bathing: Experience the Healing Power of Nature.About the AuthorTamarack Song learned about the healing powers of Nature through academic study, apprenticing to Native shamans and herbalists, living with a pack of Wolves, and residing in the wilds for most of his life. He currently lives in the Nicolet National Forest, where he keeps in touch with the Wolves and other medicine animals and plants with whom he works.Tamarack serves as executive director of the Healing Nature Center, and he cofounded Healing Nature Trails. He has academic training in Stress Management, Ethics, Therapeutic Breathwork, Conservation, and Nonprofit Corporation Management. This book, The Healing Nature Trail, is based on his Nature-based Healing and Trauma Recovery PhD research. The author of books on shamanic trance healing, suicide prevention, spirit animal guides, animal tracking, Truthspeaking, Native-inspired childrearing, and Zen, he also serves as an environmental restoration and outdoor expedition consultant.As founder of the Teaching Drum Outdoor School, he has developed management strategies for the psycho-emotional challenges unique to wilderness experiences. He has taught conflict resolution and indigenous living skills, herbalism, and dream therapy for forty years.
