Forest Bathing: A Japanese Nature-Based Mindfulness Approach

Date: August 31st, 2025

Time: TBA, 2 hours total

Location: TBA

In this salon, participants will learn about Shinrin-yoku or Forest Bathing. There will be a short informational talk about forest bathing followed by participants being invited to experience forest bathing techniques for themselves. Following the experiential part of this salon, there will be a de-brief. 

Presenter Bio:

Marianne Rowe, MS, LMFT is a psychotherapist, meditation teacher, nature therapy guide, relational facilitator, and artist. In her work and personal life, she is dedicated to enhancing mindful awareness and compassionate connection with oneself, with others and the world. Marianne established her psychotherapy practice in Pacific Grove in 1986. Since that time she has been working with children, adolescents, and adults, in individual, couples, and family therapy. Her focus is on facilitating healing, integration and transformation. Her therapeutic approach is sourced in her training in transpersonal psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy, gestalt therapy, family systems, ecotherapy, and integral theory. In her work with clients, she brings attention to the psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects of life as pathways for cultivating well-being, connection and compassion.

In the 1990’s, Marianne began her study and practice of meditation. Her teachers included His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Jack Kornfield, Adyashanti, and Pema Chodron. In 2007, she founded the Mindful Education Project and has been teaching mindfulness to children, youth and adults ever since. She has taught the mindfulness curriculum she developed for students and teachers in elementary and high schools, at California State University of Monterey Bay, and at Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey. Since 2011, Marianne began her training in Interpersonal Meditation with Authentic World in San Francisco. The practices and principals of this work foster understanding, compassion and connection in all aspects of life. She has served as a facilitator for these trainings and intensives in San Francisco, CA, and at the Integral Center in Boulder, CO. Marianne also teaches courses in mindful relating and facilitates trainings and retreats in cultivating authentic connection in schools, healthcare organizations and businesses.

In 2016, Marianne co-founded Monterey Bay Meditation Studio, a culmination of a long-time dream of offering a space for cultivating awareness and community. Here, she develops and teaches courses, facilitates retreats, and offers consultation in developing mindful awareness and compassionate connection in personal and professional life. Her retreats engage meditation, creativity, and nature as conduits for connecting with self and the world.

Marianne was certified in 2018 as a Nature and Forest Therapy Guide by the Association for Nature and Forest Therapy. Since that time, she has been leading Forest Bathing sessions and numerous other outdoor healing and meditation practices. She created and continues teaching a 9-month online course, “Being Outdoors: Sensing the Sacred,” that focuses on cultivating a relationship of reverence and reciprocity with Earth and all beings.