Engaging With Nature

My Professional Bio

Shelagh Smith, HTR, MAEEC

Shelagh inspires healthcare professionals and caregivers to engage with nearby nature for joyfully restorative self-care, and to share this evidence-based practice with their peeps for health promotion and therapeutic intervention.

She's a professionally registered Horticultural Therapist with the CHTA in Canada and the AHTA in the United States, and holds a Masters degree in Environmental Education and Communication.

For 23 years, Shelagh developed and led therapeutic garden programs for care home residents, while supervising and mentoring many students and volunteers. She taught people with mental health challenges how to grow their own food, collaborated on the design of restorative and enabling gardens, and gave 100+ live multi-media presentations and workshops to healthcare, community, and professional organizations.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is her local nature playground, and she loves to paddle remote lakes with her husband, Callum, and cozy up in their tiny Trillium trailer with big window views.

My work is featured in:

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What's that in my hands?

I was playing with plants from the word go.

I played with frogs, dared to touch slugs and climbed trees in our semi-wild yard near Vancouver

My dad built a rustic cabin near Squamish where I got to explore the woods all summer and many weekends

I gathered bouquets for my mom until my dad told me to stop picking wildflowers. He had a good point. Now I pick dandelions

When my dad had a two-week
vacation, the four of us traveled in our VW bug with a big canvas tent and sleeping bags on the roof. We saw rivers crowded with trout and salmon.

Nature was (and is) my playground, my escape, my trusted friend.

We camped throughout super natural British Columbia with our white bread, hot dogs and Spam in a can.

Today, I continue to camp in BC with my husband, Callum. We take our kayaks and tiny Trillium trailer to lakes where loons call and osprey dive for fish.

Nature speaks to me just as sweetly in the city as when we're camping. We eat outdoors while listening to birds at our feeders.

There's wild wherever we are.