Our Team

Christine Tappan

MSW, CAGS, CWMF

Christine is the founder and lead guide for BirchWalking, a social impact organization that “brings beings together in nature and creates safe spaces to deepen connections that promote resiliency and capacity for all to thrive and live well”.

BirchWalking provides a range of nature connected experiences including guided forest therapy walks and mindfulness for individuals, families, groups, and teams in New Hampshire and beyond both in person and virtually. Christine’s inspiration to become a certified workplace mindfulness facilitator and forest therapy guide came from her own experiences as a health and human services professional and leader experiencing burnout and vicarious trauma. After traditional trauma treatments failed to relieve her symptoms, Christine attended a multi-day forest bathing and mindfulness retreat and experienced profound benefits that lasted over time. She subsequently undertook training through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT) to become a certified guide and now offers tailored forest bathing experiences for individual health and human services practitioners, as well as teams, leaders, and organizations. Christine is also a volunteer with the Old Growth Forest Network where she is a County Coordinator for two counties in New Hampshire, Rockingham and Strafford, leading efforts to identify and preserve old growth forests.  She is also a member of the Advisory Group and Climate Justice Workgroup for the NH Healthcare Workers for Climate Action.

Christine has a Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Michigan and Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of New Hampshire.  She also holds a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies (CAGS) in Education & Leadership from Plymouth State University and is a Certified Forest and Nature Therapy Guide and Trail Consultant through the Association for Nature and Forest Therapists (ANFT). Christine is also certified as a Workplace Mindfulness Facilitator (CWMF) through the Mindful Leader Institute, Brown University.

Suzanna Fletcher

M.Ed., MS, Psy.D.

Suzanna is the Chief of Clinical Practices and a forest therapy guide for BirchWalking, a social impact organization that provides environments for people to awaken and deepen connections with nature beings for the benefit of both. These connections may promote relaxation, deeper self-awareness, creativity, flexibility, closer connections with others and nature beings, and many other positive effects.

BirchWalking provides a range of nature connected experiences including guided forest therapy walks and mindfulness for individuals, families, groups, and teams both in person and virtually. Suzanna’s inspiration to become a certified forest therapy guide came from her work in the mental health field over the past 25 plus years with very diverse populations and environments, including:

• Supporting children and families as an in-home family therapist
• Being the owner and operator of an outdoor adventure-based company that worked with youth and corporate teams on team building, creative problem solving, realizing strengths and others
• Building resiliency in individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their families, and
• Serving veterans with posttraumatic stress or chronic pain due to military service-connected injuries.

Suzanna participated in a forest therapy walk with Christine Tappan, and experienced a sense of relaxation, deeper self-awareness, and aliveness that was profound during this experience. She subsequently completed a 6-month course with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy guides and Programs (ANFT) to become a Forest Therapy Guide and now offers tailored forest bathing experiences for groups, families, and professional teams. She resides and works in North Carolina from the middle of October to the middle of May and in New Hampshire from the middle of May to the middle of October. Suzanna has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the Wheaton College. She has a Master’s of Education Degree from the University of New Hampshire. She also has a Master’s of Science degree in Psychology and a Doctorate in Psychology from Antioch University New England. She is a member of the American Psychological Association.