Join Smith Center staff for a social hour of community and connection!
Tea and Conversation will be held Monthly on the 2nd Friday from 10 – 11am.
Upcoming Dates:
Click here to learn more about Smith Center staff.
Need a little dose of green to destress and reconnect with yourself? Restorative nature-based practices are available to you, even if you are stuck at home. Certified forest therapy guide, Ana Ka’ahanui will guide you through the experience of shinrin-yoku, the Japanese term for “forest bathing.” Shinrin-yoku is a nature therapy practice that has its roots in ancient Shinto traditions and modern medicine, to support wellbeing. Contemplative but more active than meditation, shirin-yoku has been demonstrated to reduce blood pressure, boost immunity, and enhance mood and creativity.
Ana will lead this session virtually from a beautiful nature spot in the DC metro area, inviting you to engage your senses in a restorative and relaxing immersion experience from home. You are invited to join from inside your house or apartment, yard, or balcony, wherever you can view a spot of green for the session.
Suggested Donation: $10
Capital Nature is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing nature into the lives of Washington Metro area residents and visitors. We are a fiscal 501c3 project of Green Spaces for DC.
We believe people are healthier, and our communities more resilient when nature is part of our lives. We envision a Washington DC region where a culture of nature engagement and stewardship thrives—where daily contact with the natural world supports human wellbeing and ecological health across our communities.
Capital Nature provides information on the region’s many available, but not always known, nature events: from forest walks to citizen science adventures to educational workshops and stewardship projects. We collaborate with partners and friends to create new opportunities for nature engagement, and invite all to share their stories of experience with the natural world.
Through Capital Nature’s Biophilic Practice Group, we develop nature-based designs and strategies for wellbeing and community health.
Ana Leilani Ka’ahanui is Co-Founder and Director of Tours & Experiential Programs for Capital Nature, a regional nonprofit that promotes nature engagement in the Washington DC metro area. She is a certified forest bathing guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and is passionate about sharing the practice, which is needed now more than ever. Ana is also a Virginia Master Naturalist and committed to connecting people to nature through citizen science and other biodiversity initiatives such as the global City Nature Challenge.
Nature has an amazing power to heal. If you’ve ever taken a walk to clear your head, sat on a beach to take in the refreshing air, walked under the trees, or tended a garden, you know how restorative time in nature can be. Especially when dealing with cancer, nature can be healer, friend, and counselor, helping to bring us back to wholeness.
Smith Center invites you to join our friends at Capital Nature to explore practices, both ancient and new, that connect us to the potential healing power of nature in our lives.
Stella will introduce Capital Nature’s work in this innovative field, and Ana and Melanie will introduce forest bathing as a healing practice. Their section will include a short nature immersion experience. Brenda will share her work East of the River in DC where activists are bringing healing and justice to their communities through nature engagement.
Capital Nature is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing nature into the lives of Washington Metro area residents and visitors. We are a fiscal 501c3 project of Green Spaces for DC.
We believe people are healthier, and our communities more resilient when nature is part of our lives. We envision a Washington DC region where a culture of nature engagement and stewardship thrives—where daily contact with the natural world supports human wellbeing and ecological health across our communities.
Capital Nature provides information on the region’s many available, but not always known, nature events: from forest walks to citizen science adventures to educational workshops and stewardship projects. We collaborate with partners and friends to create new opportunities for nature engagement, and invite all to share their stories of experience with the natural world.
Through Capital Nature’s Biophilic Practice Group, we develop nature-based designs and strategies for wellbeing and community health.
Stella Tarnay Is co-founder and Executive Director of Capital Nature, a nonprofit with a mission to bring nature into Washington DC-area residents’ lives. She leads Capital Nature’s partnership efforts and co-creates programs with Ana that promote wellbeing, stewardship, and a joyful connection with the living world. Educated as an urban planner, Stella also leads Capital Nature’s Biophilic Practice Group. She is a practicing member of the Shambhala DC meditation community.
Melanie Choukas-Bradley is the author of seven nature books focused on the Washington, DC area. She leads nature walks and talks for many organizations, including Smithsonian Associates, the US Botanic Garden, the Audubon Naturalist Society and the Nature Conservancy. Melanie is on the Advisory Board of Capital Nature.
Ana Leilani Ka’ahanui is Co-Founder and Director of Tours & Experiential Programs for Capital Nature. She is a forest bathing guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and is passionate about sharing the practice, which is needed now more than ever. Ana is also a Virginia Master Naturalist and committed to connecting people to nature through citizen science and other biodiversity initiatives such as the global City Nature Challenge.
Brenda Richardson is an eco-feminist and community advocate for health, mental wellness, education, welfare reform and environmental justice. She is also a consultant that specializes in community engagement, training, facilitation and government relations. Brenda is a founder of the Friends of Oxon Run Park and is on the Advisory Board of Capital Nature. She is anxious to re-ignite spirits to help re-imagine our new future.
The year 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. In celebration of this momentous achievement, we are launching a series of special conversations. Across the course of the coming year, members of our Smith Center family will join us to reflect upon Smith Center’s roots, examine its present programs and impact, and imagine what the future may hold for us at Smith Center and the larger world of integrative healing.
Our second conversation will be held Monday, March 8th from 6 – 7:30 pm (Eastern Time). We are honored to feature Shanti Norris, Co-Founder and former Executive Director of Smith Center. Shanti will be interviewed by Smith Center’s Executive Director, Lisa Simms Booth.
We hope you will join us for the conversations in this special series. Please feel free to circulate this announcement and share with others the details of this upcoming conversation.
Tickets for this event will be $25 and will help raise money for Smith Center’s 25th Anniversary Fund.
Smith Center’s 25th Anniversary Conversation Series will be hosted throughout 2021.
Selected Themes:
Tickets for each conversation will be $25.
Shanti Norris served as Executive Director of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts from 1996 – 2017. She initiated the Smith Center hospital Artist-in-Residence program and Healing Arts Gallery. She ran the weeklong retreats for people with cancer, and oversaw new initiatives, including the Faith-based Community Navigation project at Smith Center. Former Vice President of Kent Homeopathic Associates, she has an extensive background in complementary medicine and mind-body approaches to healing. She has taught meditation, yoga philosophy and stress reduction for over 35 years and underwent a formal ten-year mentorship with a renowned yoga master. She is a three-term member of CARRA, the patient advocacy program at the National Cancer Institute and a graduate of Project LEAD from the National Breast Cancer Coalition. She is a graduate of the Georgetown University Nonprofit Leadership certificate course and the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute in Minneapolis/St Paul. She is a former board member of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare and Chaired their Annual Conference in 2004. She is a founding board member of The Art Connection in the Capital Region and a founding member of Arts in Healthcare Advocates (AHA.) She is a frequent speaker on the healing power of the arts. Her formal art training began at New York University and The Cooper Union in New York City and includes running the fine art studio of artist Peter Max. She is a member of ArtTable, the mother of three adult children, and is a painter and sculptor.
The year 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. In celebration of this momentous achievement, we are launching a series of special conversations. Across the course of the coming year, members of our Smith Center family will join us to reflect upon Smith Center’s roots, examine its present programs and impact, and imagine what the future may hold for us at Smith Center and the larger world of integrative healing.
Our first conversation will be held Monday, February 8th from 6 – 7:30 pm (Eastern Time). We are honored that the speaker for our inaugural conversation will be Dr. Michael Lerner, co-founder of Smith Center. Dr. Lerner will be interviewed by Smith Center’s Executive Director, Lisa Simms Booth.
We hope you will join us for the conversations in this special series. Please feel free to circulate this announcement and share with others the details of this upcoming conversation.
Tickets for this event will be $25 and will help raise money for Smith Center’s 25th Anniversary Fund.
Smith Center’s 25th Anniversary Conversation Series will be hosted throughout 2021.
Selected Themes:
Tickets for each conversation will be $25.
Michael Lerner is president and co-founder of Commonweal in Bolinas, California. Founded in 1976, Commonweal has program interests in health and healing, education and the arts, and environment and justice. www.commonweal.org.
Michael’s projects at Commonweal include the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles Global, The New School at Commonweal, The Resilience Project, The New School at Commonweal, and the Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies website.
Michael is the author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer. The Commonweal Cancer Help Program was the subject of an hour-long documentary, “Wounded Healers,” part of Bill Moyers prize-winning PBS series, “Healing and the Mind.”
Michael is president of the Jennifer Altman Foundation and Advisor for the Barbara Smith Fund. www.jaf.org. He is co-founder and president emeritus of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. He is past chair of the Consultative Group on Biodiversity, co-founder and chair emeritus of the Health and Environmental Funders Network, and a past Board Member of Global Greengrants. He is chair emeritus of the board of the Wildflowers Institute in San Francisco, which works with low-income diaspora communities to identify their internal sources of strength in the Bay Area and beyond.
A Harvard graduate with a doctorate from Yale, Lerner left teaching at Yale to found Full Circle, a residential center for at-risk children in Bolinas in 1972. He founded Commonweal in 1976. He received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1984.
www.commonweal.org
www.tns.commonweal.org
www.healingcirclesglobal.org
www.bcct.ngo
www.omega.ngo
www.resilienceproject.ngo
Join Smith Center staff for a social hour of community and connection!
Tea and Conversation will be held Monthly on the 2nd Friday from 10 – 11am.
Upcoming Dates:
Click here to learn more about Smith Center staff.
Join Smith Center staff for a social hour of community and connection!
Tea and Conversation will be held Monthly on the 2nd Friday from 10 – 11am.
Upcoming Dates:
Click here to learn more about Smith Center staff.
Join Smith Center staff for a social hour of community and connection!
Tea and Conversation will be held Monthly on the 2nd Friday from 10 – 11am.
Upcoming Dates:
Click here to learn more about Smith Center staff.
In an effort to keep our Smith Center family connected over the holidays, we have set up two times that we can hop on Zoom and be with one another. We hope that you will utilize this time to check in with each other. Wishing you peace and love during this holiday season.
Kiersten has served as the Cancer Support Program Director for Smith Center since 2014. Before coming to Smith Center, she had the privilege to serve individuals and families living with cancer at Wellness House of Annapolis. Kiersten aims to offer programs to reduce stress and help participants to see the world we live in from different perspectives. She thoroughly enjoys teaching yoga and creativity classes at SmithCenter and encourages gentle movement and creativity in the healing process. Kiersten is a certified yoga instructor through Yoga Alliance and also has her YCAT (Yoga Therapy in Cancer and Chronic Illness) Professional Certification through the Integral Yoga Academy. She has completed Patient Navigation training through Smith Center’s Institute for Integrative Oncology Navigation and has also completed the Commonweal Healing Circles: Advanced Cancer Support Training. Kiersten is also certified in CLIMB®(Children’s Lives Include Moments of Bravery) a program that aims to build upon the strengths of children and increase his/her ability to cope with stress associated with a parent’s illness. She believes in a holistic approach to healing, human relationships and is grateful for each and every day. Kiersten has also completed the Compassion Cultivation Training – CCT™ an 8-week program, developed at Stanford University, with insights and techniques from psychology, neuroscience, and contemplative practice. In her spare time, you may find Kiersten laughing with friends, cycling, taking art classes, practicing yoga and spending time with her husband Shane, son Liam, and dogs Hooper and Pablo.
In an effort to keep our Smith Center family connected over the holidays, we have set up two times that we can hop on Zoom and be with one another. We hope that you will utilize this time to check in with each other. Wishing you peace and love during this holiday season.
Kiersten has served as the Cancer Support Program Director for Smith Center since 2014. Before coming to Smith Center, she had the privilege to serve individuals and families living with cancer at Wellness House of Annapolis. Kiersten aims to offer programs to reduce stress and help participants to see the world we live in from different perspectives. She thoroughly enjoys teaching yoga and creativity classes at SmithCenter and encourages gentle movement and creativity in the healing process. Kiersten is a certified yoga instructor through Yoga Alliance and also has her YCAT (Yoga Therapy in Cancer and Chronic Illness) Professional Certification through the Integral Yoga Academy. She has completed Patient Navigation training through Smith Center’s Institute for Integrative Oncology Navigation and has also completed the Commonweal Healing Circles: Advanced Cancer Support Training. Kiersten is also certified in CLIMB®(Children’s Lives Include Moments of Bravery) a program that aims to build upon the strengths of children and increase his/her ability to cope with stress associated with a parent’s illness. She believes in a holistic approach to healing, human relationships and is grateful for each and every day. Kiersten has also completed the Compassion Cultivation Training – CCT™ an 8-week program, developed at Stanford University, with insights and techniques from psychology, neuroscience, and contemplative practice. In her spare time, you may find Kiersten laughing with friends, cycling, taking art classes, practicing yoga and spending time with her husband Shane, son Liam, and dogs Hooper and Pablo.
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Smith Center for Healing and the Arts is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. (EIN/tax ID number: 52-1977976).
