The Mano a Mano Family Resource Center first became involved with the Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods’ Transforming Internal Experiences for Resilience and Restoration through Acceptance (TIERRA) program in 2020.
Last year showed it could help an entire community.
Diana Gutierrez, Mano a Mano’s community, health, education and outreach program manager, said the organization reviewed the pilot project and became encouraged by the way TIERRA utilized nature as a way to help people deal with trauma, stress and other mental health issues.
Gutierrez said she was impressed with the way TIERRA has the potential to help people. She reviewed the pilot project and became more enamored with its potential. When she saw how it worked with a group, she “fell in love with it.” Last summer, it became more.
People in the Hispanic community were afraid to leave their homes as more and more people were worried they would be detained as part of the immigration enforcement efforts of President Donald Trump’s administration. Time with community members in nature helped ease their minds.
“These are people who have been in trauma,” Gutierrez said. “Now, with the political situation, members of the community have been in trauma. Ideation has helped to reduce the trauma, stress and uncertainty.”
Brushwood is poised to launch its TIERRA program countywide with a group of community partners in Waukegan, Round Lake Park, Gurnee and Highwood, using nature to help people deal with trauma and other issues by spending time in a natural setting in a group with a professional
Jessica Rodriguez, Brushwood’s coalition-building manager, said when people have the opportunity to spend time in a natural setting like a forest preserve, it can provide relief from stress, trauma and other emotional situations.
“Nature can help relieve stress in a variety of ways,” Rodriguez said. “It offers a nonjudgmental situation. We get them into the practice of forest bathing. You should be able to feel all of your senses. You can find a presence through the senses.”
“Forest bathing,” also known as forest therapy, involves immersing oneself in the atmosphere of the forest, according to the Cleveland Clinic website. It is not a walk in the woods, but working with a therapist who helps participants engage in activities that help them experience the natural environment with all their senses.
It is used to help people dealing with stress and anxiety, the website said.
Rodriguez said an intervention normally consists of eight two-hour sessions weekly over eight weeks. A session begins with 25 to 50 minutes of forest bathing. Participants will walk and sit. Eventually, they form a circle.
Andrea Barba, a community health worker with Mano a Mano, became acquainted with TIERRA a year ago. She started conducting interventions with smaller groups of people, taking them into the woods for forest bathing. The timing made a difference, helping a community in fear.
Working with predominantly Latino families, Barba said the nine-week intervention, which usually consists of six to 10 community members, became a way to help people deal with fear arising from the immigration enforcement activities happening in Lake County as well as throughout the Chicago area.
Barba said each session started with forest bathing in a natural setting like a park or forest preserve. The goal was to be “mindful in a natural space.” There were discussions. Participants had the opportunity to connect with each other.
“It was geared toward helping people become more mindful and communicate in a natural setting,” Barba said. “We built a community in the group. There were moments of reflection on how they were feeling.”
A multi-year study, Brushwood teamed with DePaul University and the Highwood Library and Community Center for detailed research to fine-tune TIERRA. The research was led by Shreya Aragula, an intervention developer and a Ph.D. candidate at DePaul.
Through her research, Aragula said she determined that spending time in a natural setting like a forest preserve improved a person’s mental health, particularly among people in underserved communities. They often do not have access to natural areas either because of geography or lack of transportation.
Just as Barba’s group of people at Mano a Mano formed a community that spread to other people in the area, Aragula said a goal of TIERRA is to extend the healing efforts to more people.
“The ultimate goal is by helping some members of the community it will help heal the entire community,” Aragula said. “Working with a community means reaching a lot more people because there is much more trust and less stigma.”
Partners will be offering the TIERRA intervention free to community members 18 and over in the coming months. They include Mano a Mano, the Highwood Library and Community Center, Roberti Community House in Waukegan and the Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center in Gurnee.
