A woman describes herself as an "ecosexual" - and says she has an "erotic" relationship with an oak tree.<br /><br />Sonja Semyonova, 45, has always felt lonely but says her new relationship with the tree has filled a void.<br /><br />Sonja, a self-intimacy guide, even says that the feelings she experiences with the tree are what she has always looked for in a person.<br /><br />Sonja, from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, said: "The presence I feel with the tree is what I'm looking for but that's a fantasy with a person.<br /><br />"The feeling of being tiny and supported by something so solid. The feeling of not being able to fall.<br /><br />"I had been craving that rush of erotic energy that comes when you meet a new partner and that is not sustainable."<br /><br />Sonja moved to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada in the winter of 2020 and went on daily walks during lockdown.<br /><br />During her walks, Sonja would stroll past a large oak tree near her home and she began having "erotic" experiences in summer 2021.<br /><br />Sonja said: "I was walking a path near the tree five days a week for the whole winter. I noticed a connection with the tree.<br /><br />"I would lie against it. There was an eroticism with something so big and so old holding my back."<br /><br />Sonja notes that she does not engage in physical acts with the tree and says the feelings she gets from nature are not necessarily the same as human sexuality.<br /><br />She said: "A big misconception is that ecosexuality means sex between people and nature, it's a different way to explore the erotic.<br /><br />"To watch the changing of the seasons is to me an erotic act. You go from death in winter and then everything comes alive in spring and mates.<br /><br />"There are similarities between sex with people and the eroticism ecosexuals feel with nature, but they're not the same."<br /><br />Sonja believes everyone is an ecosexual and claims if we recognised it within ourselves it could help solve climate issues. <br /><br />She said: "It's already present in a lot of people. There's a reason we want to go for picnics in parks and hike in nature.<br /><br />"What we fail to notice is that the reason we want this is to tap in to the life force that comes from these things, which is the erotic.<br /><br />"I believe that we could gain from having a more symbiotic rela
