Over the last few years, Shinrin-roku, or ‘forest-bathing’ has been lauded across a wide range of publishing outlets, from TIME and The Guardian, to Country Living, and National Geographic.
Originating in Japan in the 1980s, the practice of finding physiological and psychological healing through ‘taking in the forest atmosphere’ has been magnified by the work of forest ecologist, Suzanne Simard. Professor Simard’s work on how trees communicate with one another, including via the compounds and scents they give off, has been popularized in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, released in 2019, The Overstory, by Richard Powers — for me, the most impactful book of my life thus far, for, if nothing else, rekindling my love affair with nature.
My particular interest in this topic comes from the intersection of this rekindling, with the chosen path of my younger brother, Dr. Alexander Lai. It is he who pointed me to the widespread uptake of social prescribing in the U.K., as covered in this recently updated explainer from the Kings Fund.
As they summarize: “Social prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services to support their health and wellbeing.“
By enabling patients to benefit from a more holistic approach to their health and wellbeing, beyond merely taking drugs and medicines, social prescribing can involve a range of activities that recognize the social, economic, and environmental factors that impact health.
Since qualifying into the Royal College of General Practitioners, my brother has been an active member of their Wellbeing Committee, and pointed me to the work of the RCGP’s lead for Social Prescribing, Mohan Sekerem.
As part of my time at le Chateau-du-Feÿ, I have witnessed first hand how time in community and nature can regenerate the body, mind, and soul; both for myself and for urban dwellers seeking reconnection with self, other, and nature.
Nature plays a fundamental and symbiotic role in the community of Feÿ. She is an endless source of inspiration in daily reflections on wellness, health, art, gastronomy, psychology, philosophy, and systems of governance.
Healing in nature is deeply embedded as a theme of Feÿ, with community-based activities to support physical and psychological health and wellness.
These activities, all collective, include regenerative eco-agriculture practices, healthy and lively cooking, physical exercises, and workshops about humans, permaculture, local economy and supply chains, landscape design, forest-protection, and more. We work daily with advice and input from botanists, farmers, chefs, and therapists with a view to developing whole-person wellness in harmony with whole-system wellness.
Rose Camille, ecological steward at non-profit, Les Amis du Chateau du Feÿ
Feÿ founder, Jessica Angel, is a passionate advocate of the learning revolution: While previously living at the Embassy SF for over a year, she worked for a company dedicated towards offering transformational learning experiences through bringing together 14-18 year olds for short, high impact residential experiences, with a focus on resilience, sustainability, and flexibility.
Now at Feÿ, this vision has evolved alongside a community of residents, program participants, and frequent visitors, bringing together programs and initiatives to support deep ecology, systems change, and the transformation of learning and education to incorporate alternative approaches such as arts, storytelling, nature, agency, governance, and other radical, revolutionary ideas to positively impact the institutional world of education.
My hope is that, in 2021, we will see many more connections taking place, between policymakers, healthcare professionals, ecological and community-experts, and local mutual-aid groups and leaders, so that social prescribing can take its place as a fundamental part of our individual and collective health and wellbeing.
To this end, we will be organizing, in autumn of 2021, at le Chateau-du-Feÿ, a convening around Social Prescribing, with invitations to key experts, stakeholders and practitioners from across Europe, and around the world.
Please get in touch if you’d like to learn more about programming at Feÿ or if you’d like to be be kept informed about the Social Prescribing convenings later this year.