Ireland & England Institute Coordinator

Shirley Gleeson lives in Dublin and is a Nature and Wellbeing Consultant and the founder of Ecowellness Consulting Limited, formerly known as Nature, Health & Wellbeing Ireland. She holds master’s degrees in both health promotion and social work and has over twenty years of experience working in the areas of health and social care in the public and private sector. She designs nature-based interventions to improve and enhance people's health and well-being and facilitates nature-based training for mental health professionals.

Shirley was the first Certified Forest Therapy Guide in Europe, after completing her training in the US with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT) in 2014. She was a mentor and trainer with the ANFT and has mentored guides from all over the world.

She has extensive postgraduate training in ecotherapy, expressive arts therapy, counselling, stress management, dialectical behavioural therapy skills, behavioural family therapy and therapeutic use of mindfulness.

Shirley has presented her forest therapy research and practice at international conferences in Ireland, Greece, Switzerland, the UK and Austria and recently addressed the United Nations in Geneva on the topic of forests and human health. She trained as a nature guide with Eco Training in South Africa and has completed an internship with the South African National Parks.

Shirley has a deep love and respect for nature, especially trees.

Pedro M. Trindade has worked as an intern and collaborated in research in the Schau- und Sichtungsgarten Hermannshof, in Weinheim, Germany.

Back in Portugal, he decided to dedicate himself to one of his other passions – dance – teaching and leading several artistic and choreographic projects.

Passionate for personal growth and the development of health and wellness habits, he decided to create in 2018 his blog Peace of Plant, sharing content on how contact with nature, plants and the art of gardening can be a source of well-being in our lives.

Discovering Forest Bathing was something that allowed Pedro to reconcile his several interests, from the contact with public and personal development, to health and wellness habits promotion and environmental protection.

Pedro holds a MSc in Landscape Architecture by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Oporto. He is a Certified Forest Bathing Guide.

Ibero-American Institute Co-Coordinator

Claudio is responsible for the Instituto de Baños de Bosque (Chile). Founder of Bosque para Ti, pioneer of Forest Bathing practice in South America.

He is a Forest Bathing Adviser for the Department of Protected Areas of CONAF, Ministry of Agriculture of Chile.

He facilitates and develops techniques of connection with nature to improve employees' health benefits through natural environments. Claudio develops programmes for companies and organizations in stress management, employee well-being and stimulation of creativity and teamwork.

With its operations centre in Valdivia, where his projects are developed under the eaves of the Valdivian rainforest.

Certified Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy Guide by the Forest Therapy Institute. He is also a Forestry Consultant, Technician in Risk Prevention and Environment, Engineer in Risk Prevention, Master Student in Occupational Hygiene, (E) Diploma in Ecotourism. He has been mentioned and/or interviewed; Radio El Conquistador where he actively participates in the Gen Viajero programme; Diario La Tercera, Diario La Segunda and Publimetro.

Ana is friendly, curious and with a contagious laugh. Nature is her Home, where she regularly recharges her energy. Art is also part of Ana. She loves to photograph, painting, dancing, singing, acting, creating.

She’s graduated in Civil Engineer in Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Really interested in self-development, personal growth, spirituality and well-being areas, moved from the structure of construction to Human structure, which is also real engineering.

She is a Holistic Therapist, Yoga teacher for adults and children and Citizenship Circles Trainer Project for children in elementary schools.

Rocío is a journalist, writer and singer-songwriter. As a BA in Communication she has worked in national-wide media for 25 years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as radio producer, writer and general editor in news sites, writer in news magazines and blogs, and producer of some of the most viewed television news programs of Argentina.
She has trained producers and journalistic writers and has been a teacher of Narrative Journalism, Online Journalism, Practices of Journalistic Discourse and other subjects in different national universities.

Rocío (the spanish word for “dew”) writes texts and songs from a very early age. She took singing and guitar lessons and has led rock, pop and blues bands. 

She has travelled all along her country since she can remember. Later on, chose for longer journeys the Córdoba’s hills and streams of La Cumbrecita, and the beaches and pine forests of the Atlantic Coast of Buenos Aires, where she also guided Forest Bathing walks. 

The intense years of extreme timetables and harsh contact with different realities and the news propelled her to resignify her core bond with the nature world. She can spend several days surrounded just by nature and found in Forest Bathing many meanings to that intuitive connection with the woods. 

Rocío is an FTI Certified Forest Bathing Guide and the first woman in Argentina to become one. She created Buenos Aires-based Shinrin Yoku Argentina, for Forest Bathing walks in different landscapes of her country, and is committed to helping spread in her land this restorative practice for health and wellbeing that she believes enhances people´s resilience and the union with nature’s ancestral memory. 

Paco is an amateur percussionist with musical training and is passionate about writing, both disciplines are fundamental in his life. The practice of forest bathing is the basis on which he develops his projects for the creation of experiences in nature.

Galician by birth and heart, he has spent more than half of his life in Madrid, developing activities in the field of IT consulting, specialized in the field of Human Resources, and the development and implementation of agile methodologies (Lean, Scrum), as a means to optimize and humanize business processes.

He studied Technical Engineering of IT Systems in Madrid. In addition, he has a master's degree in creative writing (Hotel Kafka), and has completed different courses and retreats of Vipassana meditation. He is a Certified Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy Guide by the Forest Therapy Institute (FTI). He is also a Guide certified by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT).