Kindred Nature

Replenish inner radiance, resilience, and belonging with nature and community through empowering and restorative experiences.

With Ilana in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC + remotely-guided wherever you and nature connect.

Join an Experience

Reconnect with Nature

Nature reconnection and community co-creation services are empowering, restorative experiences that replenish inner radiance, resilience, and belonging.

Services are available for:

  • Individuals, as private one-on-one sessions.

  • Public groups, as public programs at parks, farms, gardens, and other venues.

  • Private groups, for companies, employees, club members, friends, family members, and more.

  • In-person experiences, in the greater Washington, DC metro area (Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland) and beyond.

  • Remotely-guided experiences, connected by video or phone call worldwide.

Available services include:

  • Nature Therapy (Forest Bathing): Release stress and relax through a guided restorative mindful and bodyful experience with nature. Enjoy benefits such as restored focus, improved mood, boosted creativity, and lower stress.

  • Mindful Naturalist Walk and Talks: Embark on an empowering learning journey with a warm, knowledgeable guide. Choose from topics such as identifying trees in all seasons, reading the landscape, understanding fungi, foraging with reciprocity, and more.

  • Nature Connection Consultations: Nurture your goals and inner radiance through an interactive discussion and exploration of nature-based approaches to ease stress, support change, honor loss, celebrate joy, and reconnect with yourself, nature, and community.

  • Custom Gift Experiences: Celebrate or support a friend, family member, or loved one with a meaningful custom nature connection experience. Give a one-of-a-kind restorative gift experience for a birthday, anniversary, self-care day, graduation, retirement, transition, or other occasion.

  • And More: Retreats, wellness days, employee wellbeing sessions, combinations of the services listed above, and more are also available upon request.

Testimonials from Participants

“Ilana has a very calming presence. The invitations and questions helped me really tune in to my surroundings and feel immersed in and embraced by nature."
– Gretchen“EVERYONE could benefit from this. ♥️”“Forest bathing is much more recharging than an ordinary walk in the woods, as the invitations encourage you to really engage the setting in a measured way, and be mindful of specific things around you.”“Ilana is a fantastic guide. She is calm, very knowledgeable and non-judgemental. She loves what she does. She makes it easy to want to learn and really ‘experience’ the environment in the present moment. Private session on starting foraging was superb.”
– Tracey“Definitely something you can take back into your daily life as a way of calming your thoughts and learning to just enjoy and observe nature and the outdoor experience.”

Ecological Design

Available services include:

  • Providing a site consultation, the starting point for new design clients, with in-person and remote options. Together, we'll discuss your goals, tour and observe site conditions, and brainstorm initial conceptual design ideas.

  • Analyzing and assessing site conditions, including weather and climate, sun exposure, water and runoff, soil, and ecoregion.

  • Crafting an energizing vision and goals statement for your site with multi-stakeholder input.

  • Generating a recommended plants list tailored to your goals and your site's conditions, challenges, and opportunities.

  • Creating garden design ideas and plans for your site and goals, such as to nurture wellness, provide fresh food, support native wildlife, attract pollinators, reduce erosion, create a nature playscape for kids, or cultivate a relaxing multi-sensory garden.

About Ilana

Hi there! I'm Ilana Z Rubin (she/her/hers), the founder of Kindred Nature. I am a certified nature therapy & forest bathing guide, as well as a facilitator, environmental educator, naturalist, forager, and regenerative ecological design (permaculture) enthusiast. Based in Northern Virginia on Piscataway land, I guide, facilitate, teach, and design to support people in remembering ourselves as nature.In remembering together how we, too, are nature, we can empower ourselves with more resilient mental and physical wellbeing, cultivate belonging instead of disconnection, and co-create a more radiant, thriving world of belonging, reciprocity, and interbeing.I know there are individual and systemic barriers to safe and inclusive nature connection for many, and I'm here to support you on your journey to replenish your inner radiance, resilience, and belonging with yourself, nature, and community - in the ways that are nourishing and restorative for you.You are welcome to connect with me, with Kindred Nature. All ages, sexes, genders, races, religions, national origins, family roles, and other identities you may hold are welcome. Whatever your life experiences have been so far, and however your brain, body, heart, and whole self are - you are welcome.Growing up exploring the rivers, ponds, and mountains of the Adirondacks fostered my early love and kinship with nature, and I am always on the journey of deepening that relationship. Wanders, adventures, dancing, playing music, cozy moments, neurodivergence, cultivating communities-of-the-moment, and finding ways to hold space for both the wonder and wounds of life are some of what fuels me.My Kindred Nature offerings and ways of being are also shaped by my breadth and depth of other experiences, including: environmental nonprofits, federal water policy, coalition management and leadership, disability services, team leadership, program development, job coaching, education, human resources, anthropology, spirituality, and personal loss and resilience.If you're curious about official credentials, mine include: a Nature & Forest Therapy Guide Certification from the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides & Programs, a Permaculture Design Teaching Apprenticeship Certificate from Shenandoah Permaculture Institute and the University of Richmond, two Permaculture Design Certificates, a Master of Public Administration degree in Environmental Science & Policy from Columbia University, a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Human Services Management from Suffolk University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from SUNY Plattsburgh.I'd love to hear from you, so please feel welcome to connect with me.