Sienna Forest, MFT

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 Forest2024-09-10T22:34:27+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|

Climbing has Transformed my Mental Health

Flow: “a cognitive state where one is completely immersed in an activity…it involves intense focus, creative engagement, and the loss of awareness of time and self”- Psychology Today (2021). “I kind of entered a flow state. I’ve been there before while climbing. You are not thinking ahead. You are just thinking about what is in front of you each second.”- Aron Ralston According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (2017), over 40 million adults in [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-10T22:11:00+00:00March 8, 2022|Tags: anxiety, climbing, community, exercise, flow state, insomnia, mental health, mindfulness, resiliency, therapeutic bouldering, transient hypofrontality|

Transient Hypofronta… what now? Why should I care?

I don’t know about you, but sometimes my brain feels like it is whirring so fast with thoughts that I can’t even think straight. For years, I have struggled with an overactive mind that seems to laugh in the face of meditation then look at me with a smirk and hit me with a big dose of anxiety. The only times I have been able to truly calm my monkey mind have been while swimming, running [...]

Sienna Forest2024-09-10T22:34:18+00:00August 28, 2021|Tags: anxiety, climbing, flow state, here and now, monkey mind, overthinking, peaceful, present, running, therapy, transient hypofrontality, walking|

Sienna

About Sienna Forest