My Job Is Helping People Destress Through Forest Bathing

A certified forest-therapy guide leads visitors and locals into the woods.

Name: Phyllis Look
Job: Certified Forest Therapy Guide

Beginnings: Phyllis Look’s strong connection with trees and forests began in childhood. “When I was in elementary school, Mānoa Elementary, I had a friend who lived on the woodland side and her front yard had a huge banyan tree, and it was really climbable,” she says.

“It had the roots and all sorts of branches, and you could go everywhere in it. We spent a lot of hours in the banyan tree imagining all sorts of things.”

Training: Look says she has held a variety of jobs with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Olomana Loomis ISC and Hawai‘i Public Radio. She founded Forest Bathing Hawai‘i in 2018 after completing training and certification as a forest therapy guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. Now she provides tours for locals and tourists.

“This practice is really powerful – something the world needs – and so in sync with the spirit of Hawai‘i and what this land has to offer.”

Tours: Look takes her guests either to Lyon Arboretum in Mānoa Valley or to Camp Pālehua (formerly Camp Timberline) in the Wai‘anae Mountains above Makakilo. A typical tour includes an informal land acknowledgment, then a process of destressing by connecting with the forest and trees, and ends with a tea ceremony using māmaki gathered from Mānoa Valley.

She says forest bathing connects people with a more natural and less stressful part of humans’ past. “Most of that time before the Industrial Revolution we were outdoors – 99.99% of our human history has been mostly outdoors. This forest is where we come from.”

Look encourages companies to consider group tours to create bonds among employees and teams.

Marjorie M., a reviewer on Yelp, said of Forest Bathing Hawai‘i’s tours: “If you want to remember why life is worth living, to appreciate the beauty of nature, and to bring you back to yourself and the experience of just being a human in a world of many beings, this is definitely for you!”

Japanese Origin: In October, the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy sent Look and other forest therapy guides to Japan to learn more about shinrin-yoku, which inspired forest bathing.

A 2010 study published in the journal Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine found that people participating in shinrin-yoku had lower pulse rates, lower blood pressure and other measures of greater calmness than people in urban environments.

Personal Connection: “Lyon Arboretum is a 20-minute walk from my home. It is in the valley that my family has lived in for more than 60 years. So it’s a place that I feel deeply connected to. It’s home, it’s what drew me back from the mainland.”

Look says she also feels a close connection to Tuahine, the gentle rains that fall on Mānoa. “Tuahine is more than auntie to me. She has gone in the tomatoes and lettuce that I consume. She is actually a part of my being.”