Way Back Home

Coming back home into your Heart, with Nature

Way Back Home is a program based on Forest Therapy, EcoNIDRA™ and Self-Discovery that will help you come back home to your inner nature in a challenging period of your life. It is here for you when you have found yourself in a challenging life period. It's here for you for the times when life can feel quite overwhelming, for any reason. What you will experience, feel, discover and learn in the coming months is pure gold - these are tools that you can always fall back on during all future challenges that life and/or our own mind sometimes like to present to us. The six-month Way Back Home program is a deep dive into yourself and into the forest.
Dates & Registration

A Deep Dive into the Forest and your own Inner Nature

Will you be joining me?

Dates & Registration

On your Way Back Home, you'll receive:

  • 6x Forest Therapy Session

    Every month, you'll have the opportunity to join a remotely guided Forest Therapy (Shinrin-yoku) walk guided in realtime from a forest in the Netherlands. You can join form your nearby nature: a forest, park or even your back yard. This is a complete immersion in nature that can help you get out of your mind and to your senses, into the here and now. The forest is your therapist, the guide opens the doors of perception for you. The rest is between you and nature. The dates and times of all Forest Therapy sessions can be found in the registration form below. Are you unable to attend on one or more dates? Don't worry, the session will be recorded so that you can do it in your own time.

  • 6x EcoNIDRA™ Session

    Six deeply relaxing EcoNIDRA™ sessions to do in your own time and as often as you like. EcoNIDRA™ is a blend of Forest Therapy and Yoga Nidra that you are invited to do lying on your back in the Shavasana position (or any other position that is most comfortable for you). Every month you get a new EcoNIDRA session that you can do in your own time, as often as you like and wherever you want. The sessions give your brain, nervous system and immune system an absolute reset, bringing you back into contact with yourself, your heart and the rest of nature. It allows you to experience and remember what it feels like to be truly relaxed and recharged, and what effect living from this state can have on your life, work, health and relationships.

  • 6x Walking Contemplation & Self-reflection

    Each month you will receive an inspiring audio for your Walking Contemplation with journaling prompts around the following topics: Month 1: Turbulence and Compassion: The Way of the Squirrel, Month 2: Resistance and Inner Peace: The Way of the Hedgehog, Month 3: The Nagging Voice and Warmth: The Way of the Deer, Month 4: When Everything is Different than What It Seemed: The Way of the Bear, Month 5: The New-Old Heart: The Way of the Wolf, Month 6: From Feeling Stuck to Emotional Liberation: The Flight of the Dragonfly. See more details below.

Turbulence and Compassion: The Way of the Squirrel

First Month

In the first month, you will receive an inspiring audio for your Walking Contemplation about the path through (emotional) turbulence and how you can apply the transformative power of compassion with yourself, with others and with the rest of nature. You will reflect using questions that relate to your current situation. The squirrel will be your guide. You will experience deep relaxation with an EcoNIDRA™ session and come out of your thinking mind and into your heart and nature with your remotely guided Forest Therapy session.
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Resistance and Inner Peace: The Way of the Hedgehog

Second Month

In the second month, you will receive an audio for your Walking Contemplation about how you can embrace your (unconscious) patterns of resistance and maintain your inner peace regardless of the circumstances. You will have a honest look at this theme in your life with the help of self-reflection journaling prompts, a process that can be very illuminating. The hedgehog will guide you through it. You will sink even deeper into relaxation with an EcoNIDRA™ session and learn to slow down during your monthly Forest Therapy session.
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The Nagging Voice and Warmth: The Way of the Deer

Third Month

Month three is all about the power of your (inner) language and reprogramming your body by being gentler to yourself. With the help of the self-reflection prompts for this month, you will explore what this means for you, at this moment. The deer will take you along in her way of dealing with what is. Your body and mind will relax deeply with EcoNIDRA™ and it might remember what it feels like when they receive the regular delicious reset they and you deserve. During this month's Forest Therapy session, we will come together in the forest again and let the forest be the guide and therapist.
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When Everything is Different than it seemed: The Way of the Bear

Forth Month

In the fourth month of your Way Back Home, you have literally become a different person. You have changed the entire chemistry of your body through deep rest and connection to your heart and the rest of nature. You will receive an inspiring audio for your Walking Contemplation about how this works and how the perception of your life is everything there is. You will have a chance to reflect on this and its practical implementation in your life with your monthly journaling prompts. The bear will help you on the way. You will receive a new EcoNIDRA™ session for a total reset of your nervous system. During this month's Forest Therapy session, you will receive exactly what you needed, from nature.
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The New-Old Heart: The Way of the Wolf

Fifth Month

In the fifth month, you may receive the greatest gift of this journey. In an inspiring audio for your Walking Contemplation, you will be prompted to try and test what it means to you to truly open your heart. You will learn to recognize that it's happening and what effect it has on you and others. With this month's self-reflection journaling prompts, you will apply this practically to your daily life and situation. The wolf will be your guide to your pure heart where your authenticity is to be found. With your monthly EcoNIDRA™ session, you will give your nervous system an enormous boost. During this month's Forest Therapy session, you can let your heart connect with your outer and inner nature at the same time.
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From Feeling Stuck to Emotional Liberation: The Flight of the Dragonfly

Sixth Month

In our sixth month together, everything comes together in a beautiful synthesis. With an inspiring audio for your Walking Contemplation, you will discover that you have now taken great steps towards your emotional liberation. You will explore to what extent you are the master of your own emotions and no longer allow other people or circumstances dictate your emotional state, unless you choose so. The dragonfly will inspire you in this. She will take you along in her ancient story of transformation. In the last EcoNIDRA™ of this program, you will have the emobodied skills to bring yourself into the slow alpha and theta brain waves. Your brain has re-learned how to recharge so that you have more capacity to face any challenge. Our last Forest Therapy session will be the crown of your Way Back Home and will allow you to take a seat on the throne of your life and feel comfortable.
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Your Investment

Course curriculum

  • 01

    Welcome

    • Welcome

    • Overview
  • 02

    Turbulence and compassion: The way of the Squirrel

    • Forest Therapy session

    • EcoNIDRA™ session

    • Walking Contemplation
  • 03

    Resistance and inner peace: The way of the Hedgehog

    • Forest Therapy session

    • EcoNIDRA™ session

    • Walking Contemplation
  • 04

    The nagging voice and warmth: The way of the Deer

    • Forest Therapy session

    • EcoNIDRA™ session

    • Walking Contemplation
  • 05

    When everything is different than it seemed: The way of the Bear

    • Forest Therapy session

    • EcoNIDRA™ session

    • Walking Contemplation
  • 06

    The new-old heart: The way of the Wolf

    • Forest Therapy session

    • EcoNIDRA™ session

    • Walking Contemplation
  • 07

    From feeling stuck to emotional liberation: The flight of the Dragonfly

    • Forest Therapy session

    • EcoNIDRA™ session

    • Walking Contemplation
  • 08

    Integration

    • Integration

Instructor(s)

Instructor Bio:

Kat is the founder and teacher of EcoNIDRA™. Kat's passion and mission are to help people reconnect with nature, with themselves and others, by focusing on deep relaxation, slowing down, the heart intelligence and the relationship between humans and the planet. As a certified Forest Therapy Guide, Kat has guided more than 420 groups in both private and corporate settings. As a former Forest Therapy trainer (ANFT) and EcoNIDRA founder, she has trained about 230 Forest Therapy guides and 140+ EcoNIDRA teachers to spread this connective work even more. As a Chair of the European Council of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, Kat has served to nourish the community of European Forest Therapy guides. Kat has more than two decades of experience in teaching adult students in both private and InCompany settings. She is trained in Yoga Nidra, Forest Therapy, Holistic Nutrition, Cross-Cultural Communication, and is using her skills, gifts and passion to help improve the wellbeing of humans and the rest of nature.

Kat Mertens

Founder, Certified EcoNIDRA™ Teacher