Lazy River Forest Therapy
Nature and Forest Therapy is the practice of mindfully spending time in natural spaces to support your overall health and well-being. Rooted in the simple act of slowing down, Forest Therapy invites you to step away from daily pressures and reconnect with nature—and yourself—in a gentle, intentional way.
A Forest Therapy Walk is not a hike or a workout. It is a slow, guided stroll designed to awaken your senses and deepen your relationship with the living world around you. Through simple invitations—such as noticing the feeling of the ground beneath your feet, the play of light through the trees, or the rhythm of your breath—you are encouraged to experience nature with curiosity and presence.
Forest Therapy supports relaxation, stress reduction, emotional balance, and mental clarity. By engaging all of your senses—sight, sound, touch, smell, and even taste—you allow your nervous system to settle and your mind to rest. There is no destination and no expectation, only time and space to be exactly as you are.
Forest Therapy is accessible to people of all ages and abilities. Each walk honors your own pace and comfort, creating a safe and nurturing environment where meaningful connection, insight, and restoration can naturally arise.
About Lazy River Forest Therapy
Lazy River Forest Therapy is nestled along the gentle flow of the Grasse River on the grounds of Lazy River Playground and Retreat Center in Hermon, New York. This peaceful riverside landscape—shaped by water, trees, and seasonal rhythms—offers a naturally supportive setting for slowing down, listening deeply, and reconnecting with what truly matters.
Guided by Sarah, an ANFT-Certified Forest Therapy Guide, each experience is rooted in care, presence, and respect for both people and place. Walks are thoughtfully guided and intentionally unhurried, allowing space for rest, curiosity, and genuine connection to unfold.
Forest Therapy as practiced through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) is known as Relational Forest Therapy. While participants receive the well-documented benefits of time in nature, the heart of this practice lies in relationship. Guided walks gently invite the mending and strengthening of relationships—with yourself, with others and community, with the natural rhythms of time, and with the More-Than-Human World: the trees, water, plants, animals, and unseen life that share this place.
Rather than asking anything of you, the forest offers an opportunity to be in dialogue—listening, noticing, and remembering your place within the larger living world. Each walk is a unique experience shaped by the land, the season, and the people who arrive.
Our Services
Public Forest Therapy Walk
On this public Forest Therapy Walk I invite you to re-connect with nature through all of your senses to help you feel more relaxed, less anxious and give your immune system a boost.
Reiki
Reiki is a gentle form of energy healing which helps to clear and balance your energy field promoting relaxation, stress and anxiety reduction as well as, boosting the immune system.
Forest Therapy and Reiki
Re-Connect with nature during any season through all of your senses to help you feel more relaxed, less anxious and give your immune system a boost. Your time in the forest will be follow by a Reiki session to help clear and balance your energy in a wonderfully complimentary way to your time in the woods.
Spiritual Counseling
Spiritual Counseling is a time for people to come and talk about their spiritual journeys and the challenges along the way. Many clients find Spiritual Counseling helpful to get them back on track and clear their heads in order to help them make decisions in alignment with their greater life purpose.
Solo Nature Retreat
Are you looking to escape the daily stresses of life and lose yourself in the magic of the natural world? Connecting with the forest and the water helps to recharge your spirit and clear your energy field.
The Solo Nature Retreat includes your own cabin, a guided trail walk and a continental breakfast. You will have access to the waterfront so feel free to bring your bathing suit, kayak or paddle board. Available May-Oct.
Solo Forest Healing Retreat
Immerse yourself in healing. Enjoy a 1 hour Reiki session and then let the healing energy of the forest wash over you with a guided forest bathing experience during your stay.
The Forest Healing Retreat includes your own cabin, a Reiki session, a guided forest bathing experience, a solo sit spot location for contemplation, and a continental breakfast. You will have access to the waterfront so feel free to bring your bathing suit, kayak or paddle board. Available May-Oct.
Public Walk Dates
Public walks are open to the community. There is limited space so reserve your spot. You can schedule by clicking the button below or calling 860-488-1895.
Why Forest Therapy?
Re-Connect With Nature
Forest Therapy draws on nature’s ability to calm us down and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
Boost Immune Function
One of the ways that trees protect themselves is by giving off chemicals called phytoncides. When humans breathe in or absorb these phytoncides through their skin it signals the body to produce NK cells. This type of white blood cell detects cancerous or infected cell before other white blood cells have been activated.
Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Time in nature and taking in the phytoncides released from trees decreases the production of stress hormones and has a calming effect on the human body.
Focus and Creativity
There are many studies that suggest that time in nature has positive effects on attention, cognitive performance, mood and creativity.
Why Create an ANFT-Certified Forest Therapy Trail?
An ANFT-Certified Forest Therapy Trail offers landowners, towns, and organizations a meaningful way to support community health, accessibility, and connection to nature. Designed to encourage slowing down and sensory engagement, these trails make natural spaces more inclusive and restorative for people of all ages and abilities.
For landowners and organizations, certification adds value while promoting thoughtful stewardship and low-impact use of the land. For towns and municipalities, Forest Therapy Trails demonstrate a commitment to public well-being, enhance parks and green spaces, and offer a peaceful resource for residents and visitors alike.
Sarah Pickard, ANFT Trail Certification Consultant, partners with landowners, towns, and organizations to guide the certification process—helping create trails that honor the land and serve the community.
Into the Forest I go to Lose my Mind and Find My Soul
~John Muir
Let’s Go For a Walk!
Contact
(860) 488-1895
lazyriverforesttherapy@gmail.com
456 Lazy River Road
Hermon, NY 13652
