Tam Willey (they/them)
Founder and Guide of Toadstool Walks
Tam Willey (they/them) Founder of Toadstool Walks
Tam Willey is a certified forest guide, trainer, mentor, and educator with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and co-founder of Acorn Programs, a business & practice development bridge program for guides.
As a white gender expansive queer settler living on Pawtucket and Massachusett Land fed by the ground springs of Jamaica Pond and the Muddy River in what is modernly known as the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain in Boston, Massachusetts, Tam is passionate about the ways that forest therapy can build collective empathy and compassion to deepen and broaden relationships, by supporting health and healing for all beings. Tam is interested in exploring how we seek and find belonging in the natural world through story and immersive experiences.
Tam’s guiding practice is informed by their background as a local handy person, children’s woodworking instructor, custodian, skateboarder, musician, artist, mentor, their Queer experience as an active community member serving and uplifting LGBTQ Folks through BAGLY, The Theater Offensive’s True Colors, Black and Pink, and The Venture Out Project.
Tam holds CPR, First Aid, Wilderness First Aid, and Mental Health First Aid certifications.
Tam has Guided, Collaborated and Presented Forest Therapy with:
and more
Participants Share Their Experiences
“This was the safest and most joyful I have felt in a long time. Tam’s facilitation is confident, kind, grounded in authentic presence. I live with the effects of complex PTSD and often don’t have an easy time relaxing or connecting in group activities. The miraculous support of nature and the skillful guidance of Tam made it so that I was able to be fully present and engage in each activity in a way that felt healing and nourishing to my heart and body.”
— Community Walk Participant
“Tam created a safe, warm and welcoming space for my first experience of forest bathing. Their quiet, deep connection to the process helped me settle in to experiment with different ways of being with the environment…allowing me to interact with a well loved location, the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, in a completely new and different way.”
— Community Walk Participant
“Walking slowly in the wide forest with Tam, a relaxed and knowledgeable guide, opened my senses and brought out the peace waiting within.”
— Community Walk Participant
“Not at all what I expected and would love to do it again!”
— Community Walk Participant
“I am a backpacking instructor for The Venture Out Project, an LGBTQ outdoor organization. We had the incredible benefit of having Tam join us as an instructor on our Youth Trip trip and on our last day in the back country, they led us on a forest bathing walk. I was unsure how our teenagers would respond, but because of Tam’s inherently calming and grounding nature, Tam captured all of our attention and then brought that attention deep into the ground in which we stood. For the first time maybe ever, I really REALLY looked around in the forest in which I spend so much time. I became apart of the woods. I’m bringing this practice now every time I go into the woods.”
— Backpacking Instructor (The Venture Out Project)
“During the forest bathing walk with Tam, I felt like I was discovering an entirely new part of the world around me. The experience was one of peaceful calm and exploration.”
— Youth Participant (The Venture Out Project)