Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cathy McCauley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Cathy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

Birds have always been meaningful to me. As a child, my mom had a pet bird named Hopsalot. She would sing to him in the morning, and they would whistle back and forth to each other. My mom would call to Hopsalot in a singsongy voice saying, “Pretty Bird,” and he would chirp happily. My mom passed away in 2010, and whenever I am outside on a winter day, I revel in the clear, crisp song of cardinals. I am reminded of my mom. It makes me feel like she isn’t too far away.

When I was in my mid-20s, I wanted to be unencumbered by the heaviness of some things I was holding on to from the past so I empowered myself by chopping my hair into an amazing pixie cut. For me, getting my hair cut short was a way of letting go, a statement of independence and an action to assert my beauty. It was a fun style, and I was always playing with products like pomade and styling sticks to create depth and texture. In the mornings, it was crazier than ever after sleeping on it with all that product. One morning I rolled over in bed, and the man who is now my husband said I looked like a bird with my feathers sticking out all over the place. He jokingly called me “Birdie.” That was twenty years ago and still today, it’s his nickname for me.

As I’ve become more in tune with nature over the past five years, I’ve spent more time noticing birds chirping, singing and calling to one another from treetops and in natural spaces. I always feel comforted when I hear these sounds. As it turns out, research shows that birdsong can actually induce positive mental states in humans, make people feel safe, and lower heart rate and cortisol levels. Something else in me resonates, when I hear birdsong. It’s a memory or thread of connection to people of the past who lived in reciprocity with the land and the natural space they shared with the more-than-human world.

My oldest child loves to play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), and this summer they helped me develop a character so I could play a campaign with them. My character was an earth-loving pacifist with magical powers, and I named her Birdsong. Weeks later, my husband and I were taking a walk through a local forest preserve and were talking about the launch of my new business as a certified forest therapy guide. I had not landed on a business name. All around us the birds chirped and sang. I felt like they were talking to me! Suddenly, I knew exactly what to name my business. Birdsong Nature Co. weaves together my love of the natural world, the memory of my mom, and the spirit of my nickname—and through each forest therapy walk, I hope to share the connection and comfort that nature so generously offers.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a certified nature and forest therapy guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides & Programs (ANFT). My journey to becoming a guide started well before I could read or write, when I was picking green beans in my backyard, tasting forbidden raspberries from the neighbor’s garden and watching glorious Door County, WI sunsets melt into Lake Michigan. My connection to nature feels deeply etched in my heart, a knowing in my bones that I am part of all that is on Earth.

My career history winds and weaves down many paths, from journalism and marketing to a specialization working with fertility patients as a licensed massage therapy (LMT). I have facilitated groups as a volunteer organizer, bodywork workshop leader, and nonprofit board staff member. When the pandemic started in 2020, I put my career as an LMT on hold to homeschool my kids. At that time, so much was changing. My kids and I were spending all our time in nature, and memories of the past started surfacing. I was feeling more connected to life and motherhood by being in nature. I taught at nature-based homeschool co-ops and hosted seasonal educational programs from my house.

My kids were happier and their curiosity was blossoming outside of the school walls. I was questioning long-held beliefs about myself, challenging the norms of America’s systems and institutions, and breaking generational patterns. I started digging into my heritage and facing truths about my ancestry. I continue the work of deconstruction and decolonization today.

My kids decided to go back to school last year, and I felt untethered. I was working on a large-scale nature-focused public art installation with some other women and felt my calling was to be in nature full time. My friend Shari sent me information about a forest bathing training, and it just so happened that I had looked into the same program a year earlier. I considered it a sign pointing me in the next direction. I did research into the program and attended a forest bathing walk with a guide who had previously been trained through the program. I was hooked. In January 2025 I started a six-month forest therapy guide training which concluded in July 2025.

I envisioned my business model pretty quickly after starting the course, knowing that my gift to the world is to build community with all types of people and provide opportunities for us all to reconnect with ourselves and nature. As a nature and forest therapy guide and group facilitator, I now offer forest bathing walks to hold space for individuals to make personal discoveries with the support of the land and natural world.

I acknowledge that I cannot know what others need. It is in the sacred relationships with self, others, the earth, and spirit that people find what they need. I deeply trust the wisdom of Amos Clifford, founder of ANFT, who states, “The forest is the therapist; the guide opens the door.” I feel honored to offer forest bathing walks for all those who join me.

Today, in addition to guiding forest bathing walks, I lead children’s groups as a nature educator and also serve as president of my local library board of trustees. I tend to my native plant and vegetable gardens. I honor my kids and my relationship with my husband. I work on cultivating meaningful relationships to humans and the more-than-human world. I bow with deep reverence to all the beings. I bring them the gift of my presence and attention. I belong in their circle, sitting quietly among them, bearing witness, listening to their whispers, waiting for their slow mysteries to be revealed. I am rooted. Not for my sake alone, but for the sake of all. I’ve heard the call to invite others to remember their own connections.

How’d you meet your business partner?

In addition to being a forest therapy guide, I am also an installation artist. I say this incredulously because I never imagined I would create large-scale nature art. I attended a liberal arts college but majored in journalism and never considered my writing anything like art.

However, I am now part of trio of wonderful women called Preserve Collaborative that creates large-scale public art. I consider these women my collaborators and partners. One of those women is Shari Gullo. I met her in 2019 after moving into a new neighborhood and walking by her house. She has a huge garden with native plants, shrubs, trees and lush greenery. It’s a nature haven.

Shari and I talked about gardens and she invited me inside. Walking through the halls of her home I instantly felt like I knew her. She reminded me of someone or something, but I couldn’t figure out who or what. I think I had a dream about her before I met her. I was certain we were meant to be friends. It felt surreal and magical.

That summer we walked around our neighborhood together in the evenings and talked about so many things. She invited me to work on a public art piece that she was creating – a peace pole for our community. I loved the idea, and I agreed to join her. She also shared plants with me from her garden, and the next thing I knew, I was ripping out grass and rewilding my backyard. I didn’t have a plan but I had a vision! And that’s what I like about Shari, she has a vision.

We worked together on the community peace pole called the Ela Peace Project for more than three years, facing a lot of push back from people in the community. The experience brought Shari and me closer as we stood firm on the vision of bringing a symbol of peace to where we live. Shari encouraged me to face the difficulty of showing up consistently, of being willing to sit with the discomfort of people not agreeing with what we were doing but doing it anyway because of the good that would come from it. When the peace pole was finally installed, it felt like a huge accomplishment. I felt grateful to have been invited to be a part of creating a lasting piece of public art for our community and to have planted the seeds of a lasting friendship and collaboration.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A time in life when I had to pivot that sticks out in my mind is when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She lived in Montana, close to my sister and her grandchildren, and I was visiting her for the Memorial Day holiday. She hadn’t been feeling well for months and was tired and cranky. Shortly after I returned home she had a doctor’s appointment, and we found out she had stage 4 cancer and her prognosis wasn’t good. After scans and tests it was revealed that the cancer had spread vigorously. She was young – just 68 years old – but for personal reasons she didn’t want to go through chemotherapy. Instead, she chose to live out her days with her family and friends, doing all the things she loved.

I was newly married. I had recently purchased my first condo with my husband, and I had just started a new career as a licensed massage therapist. My life in Chicago was full and fun, but I felt a responsibility to my mom. I wanted to be with her for her final months on this Earth and to help provide care and support. I decided to put my life and career on hold, and I traveled back to Montana to be with her as she transitioned.

The two months I spent in Montana were some of the most difficult yet beautiful months of my life. Being there and spending those days with my mom gave me moments and memories of togetherness I will never forget. We laughed and cried, we disagreed and we rested. We watched movies and sunrises and sunsets. We cuddled with her dog and took fun day trips to special spots.

I learned some hard truths about myself at that time. I didn’t handle everything well. I saw how I coped with grief and anger in unhealthy ways. It showed me where I needed to grow. I tried to remember to be gentle with myself. It was the first time I was able to set boundaries with my family as an adult, to take care of myself in the midst of family drama and great loss.
In the end, my mom took her last breaths holding my sister’s and my hands. She passed gently. I could feel her presence move through my body as she traveled on. It was the most peaceful and spiritually connected experience I could have ever shared with another person.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://birdsongnatureco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birdsongnatureco/