About The Forest Therapy School
A few words about us…
The Forest Therapy School is a boutique school that delivers comprehensive, high quality, student-focused training in a co-created learning space that allows for greater depth and personal growth.
When you study with us, you will learn how to offer forest therapy to your community, integrate it into your existing wellness practice, and gain clarity on your professional direction as we walk with you every step of the way.
Forest therapy is a form of ecotherapy that focuses on the therapeutic benefits of being among the trees. Backed by 40 years of scientific research, it is a growing global wellness movement, similar to where yoga was thirty years ago.
At The Forest Therapy School, we teach forest therapy as a mindful practice of being in nature for our own well-being and that of the planet’s, inviting connection to all of life. It is a waking up to our wholeness, to our belonging to the Earth, and to our place in a vast universe.
Meet The Team
Regan Stacey
Co-Founder & Instructor
Regan Stacey is an artist and advocate for the Earth whose passion is to reconnect humans to nature for the betterment of themselves, their communities, and our planet. Through her private practice, she offers forest bathing and meditative walks in nature as well as mindfulness in nature retreats.
Locally, she volunteers for a number of nature-based organizations and facilitates the Tree Collective, a teen conservation, stewardship, and education program she started in 2018 with the Lyme Land Trust.
Regan holds a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Master of Fine Arts in visual studies. She is qualified to teach mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) through Brown University and is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher through Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She is trained in Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy through the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies.
She lives in the hills of Lyme, CT with her family and dog pal, Winnie. You can often find her sitting with the trees – sometimes singing, sometimes drawing – whatever inspires.
You can find out more about her at reganstacey.com
Julie Sczerbinski
Co-Founder & Instructor
Julie Sczerbinski is a forest therapy guide, retreat facilitator, and co-founder of Magic Tree Sanctuary, a 53-acre retreat space in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Since 2016, she has been leading individuals and groups in nature-based retreats. Her approach draws from training in mindfulness and shamanic practices combined with kindness and her belief that nature is always the best teacher. She believes deeply in the power of sacred nature connection to support human and planetary health and loves to see people awaken to the magic that comes from tuning into what is being offered by the natural world.
Julie holds degrees in photography and business. She is a member of Friends for the Blue Ridge and a supporter of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
Julie splits her time between Davidson, North Carolina and Meadows of Dan, Virginia. When she’s not wandering in the woods, talking to the trees, she loves spending time with her family and hiking with her dogs.
You can learn more about her work at magictreesanctuary.com
Our Story
We like to say The Forest brought us together.
We met while on an Association of Nature and Forest Therapy training and we’ve been friends ever since. We are deeply grateful for our training and met some truly wonderful guides and advocates for the Earth along the way.
Regan came to the training by way of a spiritual journey with the forest and breast cancer. Searching for a way to reconnect humans to nature for personal and planetary well-being, she came across the practice of forest bathing. It is her life’s mission to invite humans to wake up to all of life—to live more fully into their aliveness from a place of grounding and belonging.
Julie came by way of a magical forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The land healed her spirit, then nudged her to find a way to invite others to come and experience its healing power. When she learned of forest bathing, she knew it would be part of her mission to awaken others to inner peace through nature connection.
After guiding for some time and furthering our studies in embodiment practices, we wanted to introduce the work in a different way.
Then in 2020, Regan had the vision to start a school that framed the practice around mindfulness. Around the same time, Julie had someone ask to apprentice with her. It felt like a natural fit to offer this work together, and just like that, The Forest Therapy School was born.
Together, we bring our complementary strengths and our broad-based knowledge and experience to the school through biology, art, mindfulness, yoga and mindful movement, life coaching, eco-chaplaincy, shamanic practices, and sound healing, among other interests.
We are committed to making the training as accessible as possible both in time and cost. Our program is a robust offering rich in content and connection that aims to over-deliver to our students while advancing the work in an ethical and heart-centered way.
We believe forest therapy is needed now more than ever for the health and well-being of all beings. Imagine a world where humans and the-more-than-human world not just co-exist, but thrive together.
Ultimately, we’d like our story to continue with you! The more guides trained through The Forest Therapy School, the greater the reach in turning our collective hearts towards healing our relationship with ourselves, each other, and the Earth.
We all play a role and we invite you to join us on the journey.
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