About Us
Inner Forest School was created for people who want to live and work in a way that feels deeply connected to themselves and to the natural world. It’s for dreamers, deep thinkers, and soul seekers—those who feel at home in wild, natural landscapes, but who are also drawn to the uncharted territories of their inner world. Some come with a desire to establish meaningful, sovereign work for themselves, while others are simply looking to connect with a like-hearted community. Both paths are equally valued here, and often, they intertwine.
At the core of our work is a particular understanding of nature. We don’t see nature as something separate from ourselves, or as something we step into only when we enter a forest or walk alongside the ocean. Instead, we understand nature as a vast, living web of energy—a matrix of relationship—that exists both around us and within us. It moves through ecosystems, landscapes, and seasons, but also through our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts, and our ways of relating to one another. In this sense, the word “nature” holds a dual meaning: it speaks both to the wild, external world and to the inner terrains that we each carry.
Our intention is to offer spaces, practices, and guidance that support people in reconnecting with this wider web. This includes supporting a deeper connection to self through reflective and creative practices such as writing and meditation, nurturing authentic connection with others through shared group experiences, and offering tools, skills, and confidence to those who feel called to guide others on similar paths. Whether the yearning is to lead groups, build a nature-based business, or simply live in greater alignment with nature, all of it helps to cultivate the world we yearn to live in: one where people feel more at home in themselves, on this Earth, and connected to the matrix we’re all a part of.
Our Founder
Inner Forest School was founded in 2024 by Gillian Florence Sanger, following several years of leading mindfulness meditation, guided imagery, and writing workshops, and training mindfulness teachers through an established organization. During this time, a clear thread emerged across her work: it was consistently shaped by nature—not as a backdrop, but as a source of insight, mirroring, and guidance.
What began as separate practices gradually came together into a single orientation. Nature was not something she was adding to her work; it was what the work was rooted in. Inner Forest School grew from a desire to create a space where others could engage with these practices through that same lens—approaching meditation, writing, and self-inquiry as ways of relating more deeply to the nature within and all around.
Gillian’s path was not shaped by an early connection to nature. She grew up in a suburban environment, where nearby landscapes like the Scarborough Bluffs were present but not deeply attuned to. That began to shift in her early twenties, during a summer day in 2012 when she read a particular passage in The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry:
“Most often we think of the natural world as an economic resource, or as a place of recreation after a wearisome period of work, or as something of passing interest for its beauty on an autumn day when the radiant colours of the oak and maple leaves give us a moment of joy. All these attitudes are quite legitimate, yet in them all there is what might be called a certain trivializing attitude.”
In that moment, she recognized that she had, her whole life, treated nature as something to visit, rather than something she was part of—and knew she wanted to live differently.
From there, she began building a life in closer relationship with the natural world, not as a fixed destination but as an ongoing practice of attention and awareness. That relationship continues to inform both her personal life and the spaces she holds.
Her work today draws on her training as a Certified Depth Hypnotherapist, Coming to Peace Facilitator, 200-hour Hatha Yoga Yeacher, and Holistic Nutritionist. Across these disciplines, her focus remains consistent: supporting people in reconnecting with themselves and with the wider web of life.
Inner Forest School is an extension of that path—a place where inner and outer nature are explored as part of the same whole, and where people are invited to live and work from that understanding.
Get in touch.
Reach out if you have questions about a course, want to collaborate, have media inquiries, or with any other questions. We will get back to you as soon as we can.