Forest therapy walks, creative workshops, and nature-inspired artwork & photography. Kelly Hutchison, ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Guide. Shinrin-Yoku (forest bathing) on Vancouver Island, BC—serving Qualicum Beach, Parksville, Nanaimo, Courtenay, and Comox.

Find the lost parts of yourself through calm, connection, and creativity in nature.

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Hello, I'm Kelly.
For as long as I can remember, I have felt a deep bond with trees. They have been like family to me—quiet companions through every season of my life.

I trained as an artist, graduating in 2001 with a Diploma in Fine Art from Langara College in Vancouver, BC. Then my son was born, and I set down my brushes for what I thought would be a short pause. The years went by—one by one—and before I knew it, he was grown and twenty years had passed.

I do not regret a single one of those years. But somewhere along the way, I had quietly stopped believing the artist in me would return. I think this is one of the most common stories there is. Women set themselves aside—for marriage, for motherhood, for caregiving, for the thousand quiet demands of a life well-loved—and slowly forget the parts of themselves that were once most alive.

Then forest therapy found me.

In 2018, I travelled to California to become certified as a Forest Therapy Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT). When I returned, I founded Salish Sea Nature Connections on Salt Spring Island, where I lived for nine years among the forests and shorelines of the Salish Sea. 

In 2020, the practice of forest therapy reignited my creative spark. After that twenty-year pause, I returned to painting again. I began writing, and in time I published my BC bestselling book, co-authored with my husband, Vancouver Island: The Art of the Landscape. In 2025, we moved to a peaceful oceanside community on central Vancouver Island, where this work continues to unfold.

The lost parts of myself were not gone. They had simply been waiting in the trees.

It is never too late to follow your heart. This is the gift I now hold space for in others.

A Lifetime in the Healing Arts

For nearly two decades, I have walked the path of whole-body wellness. My journey began in 2006 with Reiki, and later expanded to include ThetaHealing and Holistic Nutrition. Today, I hold certifications as a Forest Therapy Guide, Registered Holistic Nutritionist (R.H.N.), ThetaHealing Teacher and Practitioner, and Reiki Master.

While I no longer practice these modalities professionally, the wisdom they offered me lives in everything I do. It informs how I hold space, how I understand the nervous system, and how I trust the quiet intelligence of the body and the natural world.

Beneath the Trees Workshops

Out of my own journey home to creativity, I have created Beneath the Trees—a creative practice in the company of nature. A series of small, intimate workshops that weave forest therapy with gentle creative invitations through painting, photography, journaling, and quiet presence in nature.

A return to wonder, to play, and to the joy of creating without judgment.

These are not art classes. There are no skills to master, no finished product to judge. They are doorways—for anyone who has felt their creative spark slip quietly away, for anyone who has wondered whether a creative self might still be waiting somewhere inside them, and for those longing to deepen the creative muse already alive within. It is never too late.

Nature does the deeper work. I hold the space.

Walking This Path Together

Together with my husband, wildlife and nature photographer Dave Hutchison, I also offer guided forest therapy walks and photography tours throughout Vancouver Island. Whether you are drawn to nature, to photography, to creative expression, or simply to the quiet courage of slowing down, we would be honoured to walk with you.

Please reach out to begin the conversation.

May you find yourself in the forest,

Kelly Hutchison, ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Guide, Author & Artist
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Port Renfrew, BC, March 2024
"The feeling of well-being we get from spending time in the woods is more than psychological. Trees release antimicrobial chemicals in the the air called phytoncides to help defend themselves against harmful insects and germs.  These chemicals are closely related to essential oils. That wonderfully intoxicating scent of cedar, for example, is the result of phytoncides. When we breathe the forest air, phytoncides stimulate our "natural killer cells," white blood cells in our bodies that attack tumors and viruses. 

So, when you walk among the trees, your immune system gets a boost from the trees' own medicine." 
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​~Hannah Fries. Forest Bathing Retreat:  find wholeness in the company of trees.

“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”

​ ​― Mary Oliver