Sienna Forest, MFT

About Sienna Forest

I specialize in marriage, family, and child counseling. As an avid adventurer and lover of the outdoors, I offer walk-and-talk therapy in natural spaces for individuals in Santa Cruz County and therapeutic climbing groups for teenage girls at Agility Boulders in Capitola, CA. I am passionate about providing alternative methods of therapy for folks who value a relational, non-hierarchical approach to therapy. Having worked in the restaurant industry for ten years, I have developed strong interpersonal skills which give me the ability to center kindness, compassion, and professionalism into my work ethic.

Finding Your Voice in Relationships: The Power of Differentiation

Art by Susan Wilkinson Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how things shift when we’re in a romantic relationship. It’s fascinating how easily the lines between what I need and what they need get blurred. Differentiation—the ability to hold onto your own sense of self while staying connected to your partner—can get really tricky. It sounds simple, but it’s something that can quietly slip away without us even realizing. Take this for example: [...]

Sienna Forest2024-10-23T00:43:03+00:00October 18, 2024|Tags: accountability, boundary, communication, conflict, connection, couples therapy, dating, differentiation, Marthakauppi, needs, partnership, relationships, responsibility, trust, vulnerability|

Boundary Setting: It’s not you, it’s me (seriously)

Nature even likes to draw the line! These days, we hear the word “boundary” thrown around a lot. One might say “I set a boundary with my partner the other day and told her she needs to stop calling me so much”, or “I set a boundary and told them to not talk to me like that”. While these examples might feel good to say in the moment, they aren’t actually boundaries, because they [...]

Sienna Forest2024-10-05T01:07:30+00:00September 25, 2024|Tags: boundaries, boundary, communication, dysregulation, overwhelmed, therapy|

Trailblazing Therapy: Embracing Nature’s Healing Pathways

On February 5, 2024, the New York Times published an article titled “Therapists Trade the Couch for the Great Outdoors”. The impact of this article rippled through my life unexpectedly, with approximately seven friends reaching out to me about it, followed by a flood of inquiries from graduate students and fellow clinicians curious about my experiences with hiking therapy. It was evident that this article had struck a chord, whether due to its prominence in one [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-25T21:33:08+00:00April 1, 2024|Tags: alternative therapy, authenticity, benefits of nature, hiking therapy, imposter syndrome, mental health, nontraditional therapy, outdoor therapy|

From feeling like an outsider to seeing my home through an outsider’s eyes

I woke up the other morning, went on a walk, and was greeted by this incredible view. I can’t believe I live here! When I was in high school, I was convinced that I would leave my hometown and move to the Pacific Northwest for college, where I would fulfill my dream of beanie-wearing, coffee-drinking, alternative music-loving hipsterdom. Even though I came from a vacation town known for incredible nature, a beautiful coastline, and [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-19T03:15:37+00:00March 28, 2023|Tags: community, connection, friendship, gratitude, hometown, isolation, mental health, travel|

When a small trigger sets off a tidal wave

This week has been particularly intense. Clients have shown up to sessions experiencing breakups, flooding, grief, and pain, and I have sat there with an empathetic ear, bearing witness to each clients’ process of confronting, and embodying, all their emotions. I don’t think therapists talk enough about the toll that it takes to sit with so much vicarious pain and suffering. Yesterday, I finished my last session of the week feeling accomplished and proud to have [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-10T22:34:32+00:00December 17, 2022|Tags: catharsis, dance, gratitude, journaling, mental health, mental health awareness, movement, secondary trauma, self-care, somatic therapy, trigger, vicarious trauma|

Stepping into my Power as an Entrepreneur in Therapy

From the moment I stepped into my role as a therapist, I have known deep in my bones that traditional talk therapy was not my calling. I have always struggled to sit still, and the thought of sitting for hours making direct eye contact with clients made me want to quit this career path and become an outdoor educator or personal trainer. I was lucky to be given the opportunity to walk with clients outdoors [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-10T22:34:36+00:00October 16, 2022|Tags: climbing, entrepeneur, group therapy, mental health, self-esteem, teenager, therapeutic bouldering, therapy|

When Little Miss Sunshine feels anxious, things get intense

Over the past two weeks, I haven’t felt like myself. I injured my forearm due to an unfortunate collision on the dance floor, and this incident occurred right before moving into a new house. For a week my arm was constantly aching–the tendon on my inner right wrist creaking from the injury–and moving just exacerbated the symptoms. My arm was starting to feel a bit better, then last week, over two years into the pandemic, I [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-10T20:37:30+00:00July 25, 2022|Tags: anxiety, authenticity, COVID-19, energetic, exercise, grounding, meditation, overwhelmed, self-care, self-regulation, shame, somatic therapy|

Anxiety can feel debilitating: What helped me regain presence in the midst of the monkey mind

Yesterday, I was having a bad mental health day. I had insomnia the night before because I was on my phone late at night and experienced a trigger, which lit my brain up to the point where I lay in bed for 5 hours wide awake, thinking about everything and anything. I woke up irritated and anxious, and I felt like my skin was crawling with tension. My mind could not focus because my body was [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-10T20:37:21+00:00July 14, 2022|Tags: anxiety, authenticity, climbing, flow state, insomnia, mental health, mental health awareness, monkey mind, therapy, transient hypofrontality|

I’ve got a Pocketful of Sunshine that is Weighing me Down

As a therapist, I have studied addiction. I have worked at a residential substance use disorder inpatient treatment facility, and I have learned about how addiction can include not just physiological and psychological craving and dependence on substances, but also to videogames, social media, and even people. I have witnessed people who have become consumed by their addiction, and I have watched them struggle to gain a sense of autonomy and normalcy in the process of [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-10T20:37:14+00:00June 14, 2022|Tags: addiction, body dysmorphia, body image, COVID-19, obsession, pandemic, self-esteem, sun addiction, tanning, tanning addiction|

Objectification: An internal inquiry

I have been thinking a lot recently about the word “objectification” and what it means for me as I explore what makes me feel beautiful in my body. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “objectify” means “to treat as an object or cause to have objective reality; to give expression to (something, such as an abstract notion, feeling, or ideal) in a form that can be experienced by others”. I have spent my life trying to live [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-09T19:29:55+00:00March 23, 2022|Tags: addiction, authenticity, beauty, beauty myths, body dysmorphia, body image, community, eating disorder, exercise, objectification, objectify, overexercise, overtanning, patriarchy, tanning, vulnerability|