Meet your guide…

Hello! I’m Susan Aitken, a forest bathing guide certified by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT).

Ever since I was a child, I have loved spending time outside basically doing nothing, just wandering around and noticing all the cool things that are there waiting to be discovered. Now, decades later, as a semi-retired professional with a forest bathing passion project, I offer guided walks for groups and individuals and can guide anywhere from a small backyard to a local park to the edge of a waterfall.

Some of my favorite places to guide are where the forest and water meet. Fortunately, those places are plentiful in my hometown of Rogers City, Michigan, with miles of unspoiled Lake Huron shores and nearby forest trails along rivers and inland lakes. I am also available to travel to other locations such as Petoskey, Mackinaw City, Cheboygan, Alpena, and Gaylord.

Northern Michigan is known for its scenic shorelines and vast forests, and it would be my pleasure to accompany you on a slow, guided walk where you can experience the natural beauty of this region with all of your senses, deepen your connection with nature, and leave with a renewed sense of wellbeing.

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What is forest bathing? What do we do on a walk?

First of all, you don’t need a bathing suit. Unless you want to jump in a lake!

Forest bathing could also be called forest immersion. Basically, it’s a slow walk in nature. Think of it like an art gallery walk, where we slowly take in the scenery and our surroundings, perhaps only covering a few hundred feet in an hour.

This may sound unusual, but what you notice by slowing down can be remarkable and often hard to describe. At the same time, the health benefits are scientifically measurable, including boosted immunity and reduced blood pressure and stress hormones.

The walk begins with a few minutes of guided quiet time to simply be still and reawaken the senses. For example, listening to the surrounding sounds to heighten one’s sense of hearing. Next, we move through a series of guided “invitations,” which are open-ended, optional suggestions that you may choose to do, modify, or do something else, as you see fit.

After a few invitations, we typically end the walk with tea and snacks, if time allows.

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Additional Offerings: Nature Art

Beyond standard forest bathing walks, I also host events inspired by forest bathing that explore the forest as a creative collaborator. No artistic talent is required, and this activity can be enjoyed by families and groups of all ages.

These events integrate Nature Making—using found materials to create impermanent, ephemeral art—as a way to deepen our relationship with the land. What we do depends on the setting, since each place and season offers something different to explore. We may weave together “forest quilts” from fallen leaves and twigs or arrange seashells and rocks on a beach, for example.

These gestures allow us to experience nature and creativity in a very low-impact way that eventually returns to the earth.

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Get outside. Slow down. See what's waiting for you.