“Nature is the place where you can experience the spiritual dimension in the easiest way, without any way of concrete religion or beliefs. I think this is so needed today, so needed.” This Inside Forest Bathing interview is featuring ANFT forest therapy guide Marc Ayats Plana, who guides walks in the woods and along the Mallorca’s seashore. Marc: “When I bring people into nature I feel realised, complete: I feel I have done my job.” With his wife, award-winning illustrator Nívola Uyá, Marc also offers Art & Nature workshops. Together, they published a children’s book about forest bathing. For the Red Cross, Marc also guides forest bathing walks. Marc: “In the latest walk, a month ago, I invited the participants to be buried on the forest floor. When they started placing sticks and rocks on each other, I suddenly realized they were the suicidal survivors group. I was pretty scared.”
Interview by Marjolein C. Groot, 31 October 2023
I meet Marc Ayats Plana online on a Tuesday afternoon in late October, while he’s in the middle of preparing the family Halloween dinner. The event had completely slipped out of our minds when choosing a date for the interview. “I just prepared the bread for tonight, it’s in the oven now” Marc says.
Over a year ago, Marc and I first met in Sintra, Portugal, where we completed our training with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programmes (ANFT) to become certified forest therapy guids. From the backseat of a car driving us and fellow guides to the starting points of the many beautiful nature walks, Marc shared bits and pieces of the inspiring work he does in the field of forest therapy. Soon, I realised he was a person with a story to tell, and I am very happy to share something about his calling and activities to connect people with nature.
Nature as compass
From a young age, nature played a big role in Marc’s life. It has been like a compass, pointing out the direction of his next steps. According to Marc, nature has always been there as a ‘being’ or ‘presence’ he could sense. Marc: “In any situation in my life, nature is like: “This way. That way.” He laughs. “The way to nature”. He remembers his father enrolled them on trips to the mountains with other people. “Every Saturday we went. Looking back, I think this has marked my route into nature.”
Forest bathing came into Marc’s life in a very natural way. Marc: “Before becoming a certified guide with ANFT, I already guided people into nature for a long time. I used techniques such as opening the senses and slowing down, not knowing this was called ‘forest bathing’.”
Misson in life
In high school, one of Marc’s teachers took his class often out on nature trips. Marc: ”He was the only teacher that went in nature with us.” Marc realized this was very important and noticed it was easy to do. He had found his mission in life: promoting the encounter between humans and nature. Marc: “Or, as I say it today, creating consciousness of being part of a whole, as I believe nature is the easiest way of feeling part of a whole, which is the spiritual dimension of human beings.” According to Marc, nature is the place where you can experience the spiritual dimension in the easiest way, without any way of concrete religion or beliefs. Marc: “You are home in nature and can experiment this part. The spiritual dimension. Which I think is so needed today. So needed.”
He walks away from the screen. “Sorry, one moment, I have to check the bread!”
Marc studied Environmental Sciences. In 2008, he started working as an environmental manager at the Spanish Red Cross. He organizes nature walks, nature meetings, and nature workshops. Marc: “All different approaches to reach the same objective: connecting people to nature.”
Feeling completed
When I ask Marc if he could describe what happens to him when he brings people into nature, his eyes sparkle. Marc: “I feel realised, I feel complete, since I feel I have done my job.” He adds that it feels like a thing he does not fully control. “I bring people into nature, but I don’t know what’s going to happen, maybe they feel better, maybe they feel worse afterwards. But it’s like my calling. My work in this life, or one of them, is to bring people into nature.”
Creating a new relationship with the world
By discovering the forest bathing field, Marc says he found another way of bringing people into nature. Marc: “Accessible to all kinds of people, ages, physical conditions and without any prerequisites.” Not closed, like the science that he was taught at university. Marc: “This was very important to me. It was what I had been looking for.” He wants people to realise that we as humans are not separate from nature. Marc also considers the forest bathing walks he offers as a political instrument for a better world. “It has been demonstrated that changing the way we view nature is at the core of this new relationship with the world that is much needed and urgent today. We need to start seeing nature as a living being, not as dead objects that we can manipulate for our sole interest” he adds.
Children’s book about forest bathing
Marc walks away from the screen again, to return with a book. On the cover, I notice a cute dark-haired girl embracing a tree. I see a woodpecker up high in the tree and a fox with eyes closed, relaxing next to the girl, as if taking in the different scents of the beautiful flowers that surround them. A dragonfly circles above the flowers. Marc: “My wife Nívola Uyá creates wonderful illustrations. She has won several prizes and international awards.” Initially, Marc and Nívola did not know a word for his activities of bringing people into nature. But after reading a few books about forest bathing, they decided to create a children’s picture book about this topic together. In 2019, ‘Un Baño de Bosque’ (Bathing in the forest) was published by Cuento de Luz. A year later, it won the Independent Publisher Books Award.
Meeting Amos Clifford
The first book Marc read about official forest bathing was written by M. Amos Clifford, founder of the Association for Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT).” Marc: “I met Amos at a conference in Girona, Spain. We were talking about the activities both of us undertook to connect people to nature.” Upon hearing some of the things Marc did, Amos gave him his book as a present. Marc laughs. “I didn’t know him at all.”
The Originals
In 2020, Marc became a certified forest therapy guide. For his training, he chose ANFT. “They are the creators, the inventors of the methodology.” This was important to him. Marc: “I liked ANFT’s approach more than others. ANFT is focusing on ‘reciprocity’, the nature-human relationship, instead of the therapeutic one. This is more in line with how I see it.” ANFT’s methodology gives him tools. “Maybe I was using them already, but I was unaware of it.”
Marc has five or six spots where he takes people for his forest bathing walks. “The problem in Mallorca is that 90 percent of the land is private, so it’s very difficult to reach the forest, or nature really.” He organises forest bathing walks for the general public, but also via his employer, the Spanish Red Cross, for special groups.
Bringing suicide survivors into nature
In 2020, Marc started offering forest therapy walks to complete his guide training with ANFT. One of the walks he did was with a group of people who were suicide survivors. A colleague found out about it and asked him to continue. Marc: “They paid me for a year of forest therapy walks.”
On the first couple of walks with them, Marc admits he was extra cautious. “I did not know what kind of ‘invitations’ – voluntary activities we generally use to slow people down and connect them with nature by using their different senses – I could use or not.” He laughs. “I was thinking, maybe I say something that was not right for their experience.” But this did not happen. Marc: “Usually, there are some people who cry during the walk, and this is absolutely not an issue. What I was scared about was some kind of deep consequence.” Marc: “During my training with ANFT, they taught me to just trust the forest. So I did, and it worked.”
Invitation to be buried
He laughs. “In the latest walk, a month ago, I invited the participants to be buried on the forest floor. When they started placing sticks and rocks on each other, I suddenly realized they were the suicidal survivors group. I was pretty scared.”
Marc: “I like this ‘invitation’, it goes like this: ‘The soil of the forest is like a sheet that covers the rocks. You can open a little window, grasping with your hands and explore with all your senses what’s taking place inside the soil, all the life that’s in there.’” He explains: “By this ‘invitation’, participants connect with the soil and all the processes of regenerating life that’s taking place inside the soil.”
Further, Marc invited the participants to be part of this process of regeneration. “The participants are divided into pairs and one of the pair lies down on the forest floor. The other participant places leaves, sticks and rocks on top of this person, for them to experience they are inside the soil of the forest.” Marc says it’s fun, like playing a game. “When people were covering each other, maybe they did not dare to put more stuff on top. I was passing by the small groups and added a big stick, or a rock.” Marc believes that the more embodied you are, the more you feel held by the earth. “It was very good.”
Feeling very protected
According to Marc, by taking part in this invitation, the participants are regenerating in some way. “I do not use this word, I always say they are “inside the forest soil”. However, afterwards, when each of the participants shares what they were noticing, they do mention ‘regeneration’, ‘feeling very protected’, ‘inside, like in a mother’. They did feel the earth was carrying them.”
Marc says this is the ‘invitation’ most liked during his forest therapy walks. “The moment they remove the stuff that was placed on top of them, it’s like a reversal. Incredible.”
Feeling a lot of energy
The day after a walk, Marc asks participants to fill out an online form to share their experiences. So far, he has gathered over 100 answers. Marc: “With regard to the visible effects, I see people ending the walks more relaxed, open and happy than the beginning. In the questionnaire, participants generally share they ‘feel at home in the forest’, ‘feel care for nature’, ‘feel part of nature’ or ‘feel peace’. Participants also share ‘feeling a lot of energy’.”
Marc also went into nature with homeless people and refugees from Africa. “These people often lack the means to go out in nature and are locked in cities. Through my job at the Red Cross, I made going into nature more accessible and introduced them to Spanish nature.” During the walks, Marc provided his participants with an environment of peace, tranquillity and relaxation. Marc: “They move from here to there, go where the police or the Red Cross or other institutions tell them to go. They are not free. In nature, they are away from their everyday stress. This is so important for them.”
Snorkelling forest therapy
This past summer, for the first time, Marc offered snorkelling forest therapy. Marc: “It was wow, incredible.” He partnered with a local association engaged in environmental awareness. Marc: “They were in charge of the security part, and I did the guiding.” The snorkelling they did together. The walk started on the seashore with what ANFT guides call ‘The Pleasures of Presence’ invitation, in which you bring yourself into this very moment, by focusing on using your different senses. Next, the participants went snorkelling, guided by various ‘invitations’. Back on the shore each of them shared what they were noticing.
Experiencing the Posidonia
Marc: “Here in Mallorca, we have the Posidonia, a sea grass that can grow over one metre from the seafloor and comes very close to the water surface. During the session, I invited the participants to put on their snorkel, go into the water and just experience the seagrass, on any part of their body.”
For another invitation, Marc asked the group to pair up into couples. One of them would put on the snorkel to be able to breathe with the tube, and just float with the sea, being carried by the sea, while having the eyes closed for about five minutes. The other would keep an eye for security; to provide a feeling of safety and protection; and to make sure the partner would not float into a rock or something. “That was wow, super, incredible” Marc recalls.
The session was concluded on the sea shore by drinking tea together. Marc: “To experience the ambience of the sea, I offered small pieces of algae in the tea”. He thinks this type of forest bathing, while going in and out of the water, has a lot of potential. “It’s complete. The seafloor is very clear. You can see fish, rocks, snails, and a lot of living things.”
Combining Art and Nature
Three years ago, together with his wife Nívola, Marc also created a project of Art and Nature. His wife contributes the ‘art’ part, Marc the ‘forest’ part. “We call it Trazos de Bosque, which can be translated like ‘Sketches of the Forest’. We offer art and nature workshops.”
Marc excuses himself for another moment. “I have to go again to see the oven.” He returns and says everything’s OK now. “I finished the cooking!”
Trusting the forest
When I ask Marc whether there are any challenges he faces in his activities as forest therapy guide, he laughs. “One big challenge is my own insecurity about what I am doing, or if it will work.” He is silent for a moment, then continues. “For me, trusting the forest is very important. During the first moments, I had to rely on this. I didn’t have any rational elements for knowing it would work out. It’s like faith.”
Having done a lot of walks now, Marc says he knows and trusts it will work. “To me, the most important thing is staying attentive to the forest, and also to the group. I feel I can even change the order of things, or catch an ‘invitation’ on the spot, matching the forest atmosphere.” He stresses that the guide should always check: “How is nature arriving at the participants?”” Meanwhile, Marc invented thematic walks, such as winter walks. Or he uses a little story, for example a Greek myth, to introduce an ‘invitation’.
Spiritual manipulations
Another challenge for him is to explain what a forest therapy walk is exactly, since it’s different from an ordinary walk. Marc: “You have to be very clear, because some people might think it’s like a sect, that we use spiritual manipulations or other strange things.”
Confusion
Further, Marc doesn’t like to call his walks ‘forest therapy walks’, not wanting people to expect some kind of therapy. “We create a therapeutic environment, but as a guide, I am not offering any kind of therapy.” In the introduction of his walk, Marc always explains that he’s not any kind of doctor, practitioner, or psychologist. “Nowadays, there are a lot of practitioners of any therapy, and it’s very easy to assume that the forest therapy guide is a practitioner of any therapy.”
According to Marc, in Spanish, and probably in Europe, generally, the word ‘forest therapy’ is a bit problematic, since therapy is not understood in the same way as the ANFT understands it. Marc: “I think it creates a lot of confusion, and also barriers for reaching the public administration, universities or other influential actors. Marc prefers to call his walks ‘forest bathing’ walks. “All the guides in Mallorca, including those from Forest Therapy Hub, use the name ‘forest bathing’. It sounds very good, very commercial.”
Balearic Islands Association of Forest Bathing (ABBIB)
Marc says that since 2020, forest bathing is becoming more known in Spain and Mallorca. Marc: “There has been a lot of work done by the Forest Therapy Hub in the field of training and promoting of the practice. They have a lot of guides now, from ANFT we are still very few.” He adds that in Girona, Catalunya, the public health system started offering forest therapy walks on prescription. Further, a private company is offering commercial forest bathing walks in Madrid.
In 2020, together with other certified forest bathing guides, Marc started the Balearic Islands Association of Forest Bathing (ABBIB) to promote forest bathing walks. Marc: “From the six guides, I am the only ANFT guide, the others are trained by the Forest Therapy Hub.” Marc is especially proud and happy that the association included different forest therapy schools and guides. “That is very rare.” The Association is the only one in Spain about forest therapy.
A cute little black-haired girl appears on the screen behind Marc’s back. She starts watching me. Is she the girl from the children’s book? I wonder. “Hola” she replies to me. “This is Jessica”, Marc introduces his daughter. “Does she speak Catalan?” Jessica asks her father. “No, that wasn’t any Catalan” he replies. “But in Catalan it’s all the same: hello, OK, thank you.”
Marc looks at me. “Marjolein, I think I have to go now.” We both laugh. “I think you better should”, I reply. “Thanks so much for sharing your story and have a wonderful Halloween celebration!”
You can find more about Marc and his walks here: https://www.trazosdebosque.com (Web) and @trazosdebosque (Insta)
The children’s book about forest bathing you can order here: https://nivolauya.com/projects/un-bano-de-bosque/
The Balearic Islands Association of Forest Bathing (ABBIB) you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/banysdeboscib/
stillnessnature.com 