They know each other deeply -sometimes a glance is enough. They can burst into laughter as to dive into delicate dialogues to weave the focused meticulous thread that brings to life meaningful projects, ones that create real social and environmental impact.
They are key, complementary nodes of a living organism: the Forest Therapy Institute Lab (FTI Lab). Each one is a pillar of an unshakable and resilient triad in the International Projects team: Finance, Capacity Building, and Projects Direction. Sonia Juárez (Spain), Manuela Renzi (Italy), and Sofía Aivalioti (Greece) are rooted in the present, not waiting for the future: because change is already here.
Manuela is Training Director at FTHub and expert in Naturopathy, Mindfulness, and Oriental Medicine. Sonia, Learning Director at FTHub, has shaped her career across the corporate world in the UK, Spain, and Portugal, bringing strategic depth and purpose to nature-based education and learning. Sofía, Projects Director at FTHub is an expert in Green and Healthy Cities with 15 years’ international experience leading European projects that integrate One Health, nature-based solutions, and urban resilience to improve human and planetary well-being.
What moves them is not only their personal commitment, but the actual reach of the FTHub 5 Components of Nature-Based Interventions and the FTHub Method and Liquid Interactions Model, an approach capable of resonating across diverse cultures, souls, vulnerabilities, and landscapes.
In the same way that they design interventions based on these models, they also shape the structure and way of working at FTHub and the FTI Lab: a living network of nodes connecting people,cities and organizations in constant communication and growth. Everything is held together by a shared pulse, nurturing human and planetary health for deep and lasting change.
Discover in this in-depth interview the inner workings of how FTHub has evolved from education and training to implementation, and now to scaling and transforming nature-based interventions that are being applied, researched, and integrated into real-world global contexts.
The Art of Working Together
Manuela: “This means starting a journey to support sustainability and planetary health from a different perspective. In the Projects, some partners focus more on the social aspects, others on the urban dimension, and then you realize we’re all walking down the same street from different paths, which is great: bringing together all this knowledge to reach the same goal. Building networks gives you a strong sense of community while learning from others. That’s deeply enriching on a human level.”
“The possibility of working in different spaces and with different target groups broadens your view. It helps you understand the needs of each community, the similarities and the differences. I think that’s what’s most interesting, and also a challenge, because you learn and acquire new skills.”
“Clear examples of the convergence of goals are the trainings we carry out in the NASC Project, in the Back to Nature Project, and in the NATURELAB training that has just begun. These are concrete examples of implementation: this doesn’t remain at a theoretical level but becomes available for others, allowing the network to continue growing over time, open to new communities. It gives you a clear feeling that we’re planting seeds of growth.”
Sonia: “Working on European and international Projects has been a very interesting challenge -not only from a professional point of view, which involves financial management, budgets, contracts, communicating with authorities-, but also because these are projects where you can really see what the European Union is doing in different areas, from young people to adults, living in diverse realities and experiencing the world in different ways. These initiatives have a strong impact across Europe, and are also being implemented in America and Asia through collaborations with local partners, so the reach and mission in FTHub is adapting to diverse cultural and ecological contexts all the time”.
Sofia: “With FTHub these projects are facilitating new ways to do it more effectively and to scale it from small successful examples to city levels and to EU and global levels. And I see a great value in expanding our knowledge on how to reconnect with nature through all types of environmental, social, economic disciplines, and how we can connect more efficiently, more meaningfully with nature”.
Networks with Meaning
Sonia: “We’ve discovered a broader new world. I find very interesting how FTHub’s foundation harmoniously connects with so many topics within the projects, everything that can be created with FTHub’s expertise: from social awareness about nature and the planet to developing projects that improve the wellbeing of people with certain conditions, or even creating apps for students to help them relax. The range that can be covered with nature-based interventions is amazing.”
“I find it deeply enriching to work with the partners we collaborate with: there’s so much to learn from them. It’s been wonderful on a personal level and also for FTHub, in terms of knowledge and connections.”
“I enjoy working on smaller projects as well as larger ones like NATURELAB. It’s impressive to see what’s being achieved and how such a large number of partners are coordinating. What excites me the most is what will come out of this project: it’s powerful to feel that we are creating a foundation, a pioneering framework of action for something that will be used in the future by other projects and organizations that will be able to consult what has been done in NATURELAB.”
Sofia: “As the International Projects Director in FTHub, my primary role is to build collaborations that bridge scientific research, traditional ecological knowledge, practical training and forest therapy programs. Nature connection initiatives are culturally relevant, evidence based and sustainable. Connecting multidisciplinary teams creating and facilitating international partnerships, securing funds in order to mainstream forest therapy programs and initiatives in local, regional, and national level”.
“Partnerships are so important in order to advance together: everybody holds some part of the knowledge and we need to collaborate together to use our expertise in the best possible way. I’m very passionate about nature based solutions, about the evolution of nature based solutions and how to include One Health into our work. To understand that we are part of nature, not dominant or superior, but having a more non-anthropocentric approach”.
The future is already here
Sofia: “The projects are advancing towards a better understanding of the benefits and the impact that nature can have on our behaviors. As anxiety and eco anxiety are big challenges, we can empower individuals to be part of solutions and then to achieve more positive outcomes. They can change the narrative and support the big topics related to climate change and biodiversity crisis”.
Manuela: “Back to Nature is incredibly interesting because it focuses on adolescents with addictions. And when you think of addictions, you think of drugs, but not this time: these are addictions to screens, to energy drinks, different from those of 20 years ago but just as harmful.”
“And also PHorestALL is an example of how collaboration is so inspiring in our network. It’s led by FTHub and developed with partners from Asia and Europe, and bridges continents by exploring forests as nature-based solutions. Through shared learning and dialogue, it brings together communities, researchers, and practitioners to define the key characteristics of therapeutic forests and to strengthen the links between forest therapy, education, and sustainability”.
“All the projects have this approach with scientific rigor, but also enable us to create new professional training programs that continue to advance and strengthen the field, such as the Therapeutic Landscapes Consultant training”.
“Green Touch, with European collaborations and developed with universities and partners from Slovenia, Latvia, and Cyprus, integrates the EcoMind mindset into higher education, combining science, nature, and mental health to prepare future professionals with environmental responsibility”.
“These projects have different applications, but a common thread: that’s what we maintain, the link between everything these people share. In Back to Nature, we work with groups of teenagers from Slovenia, Serbia, and Latvia who come together for the intervention.”
“The trainings combine capacities and expertise among partners, and also create space for participants to get to know one another, exchange experiences, and take that back home. It’s not just training and that’s it. You provide tools that can then be shared with others, because the idea of community is always present in the Projects. And that’s very interesting, because it’s not just about learning for oneself: you learn tools that you can later offer to a colleague, a friend, a neighbor.”
“In Back to Nature, young people learn to offer nature-connection activities and also to experience them. They acquire tools to disconnect from addictions, above all. They learn what stress is, what addictions are, how to recognize them in themselves, and how to guide activities they can later offer in their communities.”
Sofia: “It is also about nature as not only a resource to protect, but also a partner in prevention and restoration of physical and mental health. With the FTHub, I can make sure that the citizens get access to high quality nature in their proximity and they get the most of it to maximize the impacts on their physical and mental health”.
Manuela: “The NASC training is designed for young Nature Ambassadors who can offer sustainability and connection programs that lead to a sense of belonging, for both human and planetary health. It’s not just about promoting care for the planet but also about recognizing how you feel in your urban park, how you use it, what you feel when you’re there. It’s part of your story, your growth in that place. It’s about stimulating a sense of belonging, and that’s powerful for change. Micro-actions, like hosting a webinar for the community, or a specific event focused on the importance of nature in our daily lives, so they can evaluate their own identity within their environment, their relationship with nature, and their communities’”.
Transformation in motion: personal journeys within global impact
Sonia: “A new world has opened up for FTHub -seeing how the training we deliver can be applied to various areas. It means gaining a broader perspective, not only in terms of human collaboration, but also in content development, ideas for growth, and collaborations, since we interact with professionals from many disciplines. We share our vision and knowledge, but we also learn in terms of content, culture, and even ways of working.”
Manuela: “All this is being done for our children, for the future, for planetary health. So I invite everyone to explore the projects. They will be available to all and are tools that can be applied over time. This work we’re doing, this thorough research, will be accessible for consultation, so people can get involved now and in the future.”
“We want to invite people to join in, to make proposals. FTHub is always open to new collaborations and new initiatives. Also, European projects aren’t only open to European countries: often, external countries participate as well, so anyone in the world can collaborate.”
Sonia: “I believe FTHub’s greatest strength lies in its ability to build networks, to create lasting, fruitful collaborations.”
Walking the talk
Manuela: “I live in nature, but it doesn’t mean you truly live it: we’re often rushing around, and there are days when, sitting at the computer all day, I don’t even know what the weather is like. That’s why I always take a moment to relax. I get up and look out the window at the landscape. I notice the differences from yesterday to today, and just staying there for ten or fifteen minutes gives me my moment of calm. I see how the landscape changes, how that part of the valley looks, and whether those ‘walls’ of forest look more oranges or more red, or when everything is bright green in spring. I also notice when birds arrive, and I always listen to the river.”
Sonia: “I’ve always loved being in nature. Since childhood, I’ve been used to spending holidays in the mountains, near rivers. I identify deeply with that. Although I’m very much an urban person and have always lived in cities, I loved having everything nearby (taking the subway, buses, feeling free in the city) but as I get older, I find I want the city less and the countryside more.”
“I’d love to live somewhere quieter, surrounded by green. Scents relax me deeply: the smell of pines, the smell when it rains, or the scent of the ground in summer, or of wet earth. It takes me back to childhood, to beautiful times. Now, I just need to drive fifteen minutes to the sea, or look from home at the distant mouth of the Tagus River, and it feels right.”
Sofia: “This is a primary motivation for me, to have a very purposeful and impactful job and role. I grew up also next to nature and next to a big forest in Greece, and I didn’t realize that I missed my connection to nature before I started living in very urban cities. I really needed to reintegrate nature to my daily life, to get the dosage of nature regularly, weekly, ideally daily. My favorite place in nature is being in one of the beaches of Chalkidiki in my home country, preferably on a Monday, listening to the soft rhythm of the waves and the birds, away from all human noise”.
“Forest Therapy with FTHub also showed me a way and motivation that empowered me to integrate nature-based interventions into my life. Spending time outdoors, next to plants or close to water gives me a lot of vitality. It relaxes my nervous system; my stress goes away.”
Ph: The FTHub
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