A person hiking on a rocky trail through a forested mountain landscape with pine trees and distant peaks.

About

About Your Guide

Welcome! My name is Tatjana “Tati” McAlister. I am a certified Forest Therapy Guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, specializing in guiding Shinrin-yoku style Forest Bathing and nature-based creativity such as journaling and photography.

I became a certified Forest and Nature Therapy guide in summer of 2024!  I have worked in the Colorado Springs area as an Environmental Educator with Bear Creek Nature Center, and as an outdoor educator with The Nature Lab School in Monument, CO.  My hobbies are hiking, paddle boarding, photography and travel. 

I live with my husband of 32 years and our pup, Piper. I love insects and arachnids, adore foxes and make my home in Palmer Lake to be immersed in nature! I recently spent 3 years living full time in our RV traveling from coast to coast, Canada and Mexico.  I have a profound appreciation for nature in all of her diversity, mystery and connection!

The mission of Fox Mountain Forest Bathing is to facilitate an experience to help people to awaken to the mystery of presence and ignite the flame of the language of the heart rooted in the words of my most treasured poem; For Presence by John O’Donohue:

Awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.
Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.
May anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.

A woman wearing a black hat, sunglasses, a white shirt, and hiking gear standing in a desert landscape with large rock formations and blue sky.
A hiker in winter gear stands on a large rock trail with a mountain landscape in the background, including snow-capped peaks and pine trees, under a clear blue sky with the sun shining.

Publications

Bold Journey Magazine
Colorado Springs Town Tidings
A woman wearing a blue jacket, shorts, and a cap standing on a rock with her dog, overlooking a vast open landscape with fields and a blue sky filled with clouds.
Close-up of a fox with gray and tan fur, black eyes, and erect ears, outdoors among fall leaves and rocks.
A peaceful lake surrounded by yellow and green trees with mountain in the background under a clear blue sky.
A woman wearing a large straw hat and tan vest is outdoors on a dirt path, holding a clipboard and speaking. She has a backpack and a smaller blue floral-patterned bag beside her, with trees and rocks in the background.
A simple illustration of a flower with beige petals arranged in a circular pattern.
A digital illustration of an abstract sunflower with cream-colored petals on a black background.
A stylized flower with cream-colored petals arranged in a circular pattern on a black background.

About Forest Bathing

A person is reaching out their hand towards tall grass in a field during sunset or sunrise, with sunlight streaming through trees in the background.
Decorative arrangement with a green teapot, a ceramic fox figure, yellow flowers, various green leaves and branches, and rocks on a striped fabric outdoors.

Forest bathing (from the Japanese shinrin-yoku) means slowly soaking in the forest with all your senses to boost physical and mental health. Instead of hard exercise, it’s about being present—feeling bark and leaves, breathing in forest scents, listening to birds and wind, and noticing the surroundings. Benefits include less stress, lower blood pressure, and a stronger immune system.

This nature therapy, backed by research, improves health by immersing the senses in a forest setting as a form of active meditation. It lowers stress and blood pressure and boosts immunity by promoting slow, mindful engagement with nature instead of hard exercise, making it an effective, low-cost preventive health practice.

My approach to guided Forest Bathing is creating a safe container to reconnect, to remember our relationship to the natural world. In this place, you are the author of your own experience, interpreting the sensory invitations as the land and beings call to you. As a practitioner, I love the opportunity to slow down, notice, tune in to my senses and perhaps discover there are more than just five! My greatest joy is bearing witness to the medicine of the land and forest and how it translates to each and every participant! What will you discover?

A scenic landscape featuring tall, reddish and pinkish rocky mountains against a partly cloudy sky, with a grassy field and trees in fall colors in the foreground.
A person sitting on a large rock outdoors, writing in a notebook, wearing a brown hat and a plaid shirt, surrounded by foggy trees and greenery.

About Mindful Creativity

Mindful creativity as a healing modality blends present-moment awareness with artistic expression to support recovery, emotional balance, and stress relief. Emphasizing the creative process over the finished work, it reduces self-judgment and allows people to soothe anxiety, work through trauma, and strengthen overall mental well-being. Common practices include painting, doodling, and journaling.

Key aspects

  • Process over product: The emphasis is on making rather than achieving, which quiets inner critics and frees expression.

  • Active meditation: Repetitive creative actions—drawing, knitting, painting—serve as a meditative anchor, calming the nervous system.

  • Emotional regulation: Creativity offers a safe, often nonverbal channel for naming, processing, and releasing complex feelings and traumatic material.

  • Flow and focus: Engaging in creative tasks can induce flow, a state of absorbed attention that restores concentration and provides respite from daily pressures.

A woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a backpack standing by a rocky creek, taking a photo with her smartphone.