The Forest Therapy Practitioner Training Tutors

Jonny Elphinstone

I originally trained and worked as a wildlife manager and forester learning a lot from my elders about the natural world which I have shared through guiding experiences in nature in countries including Norway, the USA and now here in the UK.

Professional roles supporting vulnerable people, led me to return to university to study psychology and to further this by moving to Trondheim to study a masters at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research, where my thesis investigated the experiences of urban children in nature.

While in Norway I learned a lot about the Norwegian lifestyle approach to nature known as “Friluftsliv” and since my return to the UK I have aimed to combine my experience of working with people, with my knowledge of nature, psychology and childhood. This led to me training as a Forest therapy practitioner with Light Box.

Following this training I set up “Raven Call Project” as a way of reaching as many different groups as possible. So far, I have guided experiences for private groups of adults, environmental charities, menopause support groups, children in care and wellbeing retreats.

With “Raven Call Children’s Project” I have also developed a program of nature based, child led experiences with foundations in the free play and democratic education movements and am a member of the “Children and Nature Network”.

I passionately believe that deepening connection with the more than human world is vital, at a time when our species finds itself more disconnected from ourselves and the natural world than at any point in history. Practices such as Forest Therapy are therefore of increasing importance and I’m very happy to be a part of this as a tutor for Light Box’s Forest Therapy Practitioner Training.