Why Professional Ethics Matter in Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy

 On affordable training, professional responsibility, therapeutic claims, and why becoming a guide begins with developing our own relationship with nature.

As Shinrin-Yoku, forest bathing, and forest therapy continue to gain international recognition, we are witnessing an expanding landscape of guide training programmes, professional certifications, retreats, workshops, and online courses. This growth is encouraging. It suggests that more people are becoming interested in their relationship with the natural world and in understanding how nature may contribute to human well-being and the well-being of nature. However, it also brings questions that cannot be resolved by enthusiasm alone.

What makes someone competent to guide others? How much training is sufficient? Can a short online course prepare someone to manage the physical and emotional responsibilities involved in guiding? Who is responsible when an activity is presented as therapeutic? And how do we preserve the accessibility of Shinrin-Yoku while maintaining meaningful professional standards?

These questions have informed the continuing development of the Shinrin-Yoku Association (SYA) Code of Ethical Conduct for Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy Guides, including its proposed October 2026 revision.

The purpose of the Code is not to make nature-based practice exclusive, complicated, or unnecessarily expensive. Quite the opposite. It is to help ensure that as more people enter this field, professional responsibility, human dignity, scientific integrity, and care for the natural world remain central to what we do.

1. Can Someone Become a Forest Therapy Guide for $99?

Today, it is possible to find introductory courses in forest bathing and nature-based well-being for around USD 99, sometimes less. We should begin by asking what such courses are actually offering. An affordable introduction to the field may be an excellent opportunity for someone who is curious about it . Online education can reach people who live far from training centers, cannot travel internationally, have limited financial resources, or simply wish to explore nature connectedness before committing to professional education. We support this accessibility. There is nothing inherently unethical about offering an inexpensive course, and a higher fee does not automatically guarantee better education. The concern begins when a brief introduction is presented as sufficient preparation for professional responsibility without adequately demonstrating the necessary competencies. Watching videos, reading about mindfulness, and learning a sequence of sensory invitations can provide valuable foundational knowledge. But are these experiences sufficient to establish that someone can safely facilitate a group? Can they assess environmental hazards, adapt activities for someone with limited mobility, respond appropriately when a participant becomes distressed, respect confidentiality, manage difficult group dynamics, and recognise the boundaries of their professional competence? A course’s price cannot determine the answers. They depend on its educational content, practical requirements, assessment methods, and the competence actually demonstrated by its graduates. A course costing USD 99 may provide a meaningful introduction. It may also form one component of a broader educational pathway. But if the course claims to prepare someone for independent professional guiding, the training provider should be able to explain how practical competence and ethical responsibility are assessed. Equally, expensive programmes should be subject to the same scrutiny.

Professional quality cannot be purchased. It must be developed, demonstrated, maintained, and continually reconsidered.

2. Whose Responsibility Is Professional Competence?

There is a tendency to place responsibility entirely on the individual who purchases a training course or joins a guided session. But we believe that responsibility should also be considered at the level of educational organisations. When a provider offers professional certification, what does that certification represent? Does it indicate attendance, theoretical knowledge, practical competence, or independently assessed professional readiness? These are not interchangeable achievements. Training organisations have a responsibility to communicate what their programmes prepare participants to do, how learning is evaluated, and what limitations remain after graduation. Participants, in turn, have a responsibility to engage seriously with their education, reflect on their competence, and recognise when they require further training or support. Professional associations can contribute by establishing ethical expectations, developing competency frameworks, and encouraging transparency. Yet professional associations themselves must also remain open to scrutiny. Their standards should be supported by clear reasoning, constructive feedback, appropriate evidence, and periodic review. No organisation should assume that its preferred training structure is the only legitimate approach. Nor should certification be confused with legal authorization to provide psychotherapy or other regulated healthcare services. Professionalism requires accountability from everyone involved: the training provider, the certifying organization, and the practicing guide.

3. Everyone Should Have the Opportunity to Become a Guide

At The Mindful Tourist® and the Shinrin-Yoku Association, we hold a fundamental position:

No particular academic degree or professional background should be required to begin training as a Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, or Forest Therapy Guide.

You do not need to be a psychologist, medical doctor, botanist, ecologist, or university graduate to begin this journey. People arrive with different forms of knowledge and experience. Some have spent decades working in healthcare or education. Others have worked in hospitality, tourism, agriculture, environmental conservation, or entirely unrelated professions. Others may simply have a profound personal connection with forests and a wish to share this relationship responsibly. All are welcome. What matters to us is the willingness to learn, reflect, engage respectfully with others, and develop a genuine relationship with nature. That relationship may already be well established, or it may begin to develop during training. We do not expect everyone to arrive with the same experience or understanding. However, inclusive admission does not mean automatic certification. Anyone should have the opportunity to learn, but those wishing to guide professionally must develop and demonstrate the necessary knowledge, practical skills, ethical awareness, and responsibility. Accessibility and professional standards need not contradict one another.

4. Why We Do Not Separate Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy into Different Modalities

Another important aspect of our educational philosophy concerns terminology. At The Mindful Tourist®, we do not establish a strict hierarchy between Shinrin-Yoku, forest bathing, and forest therapy as though they necessarily represent separate modalities with progressively greater therapeutic effectiveness. These terms have different historical, linguistic, institutional, and cultural contexts. We recognise these historical developments and the fact that some organisations define their programmes differently. However, we do not believe that the terminology alone establishes that one form of engagement is inherently more therapeutic, scientifically credible, or professionally advanced than another. Instead, we examine what happens within a particular experience: the environment, the activities, the participant’s engagement, the guide’s contribution, and the evidence supporting any claims about outcomes. An important qualification is necessary. Where forest-based interventions form part of clinical healthcare, additional qualifications, legal responsibilities, and treatment requirements may apply. Our recognition of these three terms as substantially overlapping within nonclinical guiding does not erase those distinctions. For us, professional competence should be evaluated through demonstrated knowledge, practical ability, ethical conduct, and appropriate scope of practice, rather than through professional titles alone.

5. Who or What Is the Therapeutic Agent?

This question is closely connected to our recent research article, When Does Nature Become Therapy?, published in the Shinrin-Yoku Journal. Within forest therapy discourse, we sometimes hear the expression that the forest is the therapist. We understand the intention behind this metaphor. It acknowledges that nature may contribute to human well-being independently of professional intervention. However, we must be careful when using such language literally. A forest does not diagnose illness, establish treatment objectives, or assume professional responsibility for participants. At the same time, the forest is not merely a passive backdrop for activities led by a guide. Its ecological processes, sounds, light, vegetation, atmospheric conditions, and other environmental qualities may contribute to a person’s experience. The participant also brings something essential: attention, memories, physical abilities, expectations, emotions, choices, and personal meaning. The guide may contribute preparation, safety, accessible invitations, knowledge, reflection, and opportunities for social engagement. Other participants may influence the experience through companionship, shared attention, or interpersonal relationships. The passage of time, the continuity of nature contact, and the cultural meaning of a particular place may also matter. Rather than assigning the entire therapeutic effect to one agent, our educational approach recognises multiple possible contributors. This does not mean that all contributors have the same responsibilities.

The experience may be relational, but professional accountability remains with the guide for the decisions and services within their control.

A guide cannot promise how someone will feel, what meaning they will discover, or whether a measurable therapeutic outcome will occur. What a guide can do is prepare responsibly, facilitate sensitively, and respect the autonomy of the person participating.

6. Before We Guide Others, We Begin with Ourselves

Perhaps the most important aspect of our training philosophy is also the simplest. Before we begin guiding other people, we must begin by exploring our own relationship with nature. Not because we need to become experts in every tree, bird, or ecological process. And not because we need to experience profound personal transformation. But because professional guiding should grow from experience, attention, familiarity, and respect rather than techniques alone. Someone can memorise a sequence of invitations without developing a meaningful relationship with the forest. They can learn to ask participants to observe the texture of bark, notice the movement of leaves, or listen to birdsong. Yet learning to deliver an invitation is not the same as learning to observe, listen, and be present oneself. Our students are therefore encouraged to spend time in natural environments independently, without always having a professional objective. To observe seasonal changes. To become familiar with places. To notice their own responses. To recognise their assumptions, discomforts, expectations, and limitations. And to appreciate that nature does not exist only for the purpose of improving human well-being. This personal relationship is not a qualification that can be demonstrated through one particular emotional experience. It is an ongoing practice.

7. The TMT® Wellbeing Circle of Influence: Guide, Participants and Forest

Within The Mindful Tourist educational approach, we consider three interconnected dimensions of well-being.

First: the well-being of the guide.

Guides must recognise their physical and emotional limits, maintain appropriate boundaries, continue learning, and care for their own relationship with nature. A guide who is exhausted, distracted, inadequately prepared, or unable to respond appropriately to changing circumstances may compromise their own well-being and the quality or safety of the session. Self-care is therefore not separate from professionalism. It supports responsible professional judgement.

Second: the well-being of participants.

When we begin sharing nature-based experiences with others, we encounter people whose needs, expectations, histories, and abilities may differ significantly from our own. A participant may find silence comforting. Another may find it unsettling. Someone may feel joy in a forest, while another experiences grief, uncertainty, fear, or simply boredom. Not every experience needs to be positive or restorative. Our responsibility is to create conditions in which individuals are treated with dignity, offered meaningful choices, and supported without pressure to experience a predetermined emotional outcome.

Third: the well-being of the forest/nature.

We must also recognise that the forest is a living ecological system with value beyond its usefulness to human beings. The places where we facilitate sessions may be affected by repeated visits, trampling, group size, noise, transport, disturbance to wildlife, or inappropriate collection of natural materials. A successful experience for participants does not automatically mean that the environment has benefited. Respect for nature must therefore become visible in our decisions, not simply in our language.

These three dimensions form the TMT® Wellbeing Circle of Influence.

The framework encourages guides to consider how their decisions affect themselves, the people they accompany, and the environments in which they practise. It is an ethical and educational framework, not a claim that improvements in one dimension automatically produce improvements in the others.

8. Why Physical and Emotional Risk Assessment Matters

The proposed October 2026 revision of the Shinrin-Yoku Association Code of Conduct places particular emphasis on physical and emotional safety. For SYA trainees, the proposed standards require documented physical and emotional risk assessments before each mandatory practical guiding session. The framework also establishes the expectation that certified guides continue conducting and documenting these assessments throughout their professional practice. This responsibility does not end when someone receives a certificate. Physical risk assessment involves understanding the environment, identifying hazards, considering accessibility, evaluating planned activities, and preparing for foreseeable emergencies. Emotional risk assessment is equally important, although it does not constitute a clinical diagnosis or psychological evaluation of participants. Invitations involving silence, meditation, closed eyes, personal memories, reflection, or emotional sharing may affect individuals differently. What one person experiences as calming may be uncomfortable or distressing for another. Guides must therefore learn to communicate clearly, offer alternatives, respect boundaries, and recognise when a situation exceeds their professional competence. Risk assessment should not become paperwork completed simply to satisfy a certification requirement. It should inform the way sessions are prepared, delivered, adapted, and evaluated.

This is one of the reasons why practical experience and meaningful assessment are so important within professional education.

9. Why We Still Need Professional Guides

If the forest contributes to well-being and individuals can develop meaningful relationships with nature independently, why do we need professional guides at all? This is a question worth asking, especially within a growing commercial industry. Our position is not that everyone requires a guide. Many people already experience meaningful, restorative, or personally important moments in nature without professional facilitation. We should not diminish those experiences to justify commercial services. However, guides can make valuable contributions. They may support people who feel uncertain in unfamiliar environments, offer accessible forms of engagement, facilitate group experiences, provide opportunities for reflection, and create organised settings in which individuals can discover new possibilities for relating to nature. Guides can also contribute to environmental education, community initiatives, responsible tourism, and public understanding of nature connectedness. These services require professional competence, preparation, time, and responsibility. But their value should not depend on promising that guided experiences are always superior to independent nature contact. Indeed, one possible sign of meaningful professional work is that participants become more confident in continuing their own relationship with nature. A guide can offer something valuable without creating dependence.

10. Professionalism Is an Ongoing Practice, Not a Final Destination

At The Mindful Tourist®, our guide training pathways combine scientific and theoretical education with personal nature connectedness, practical guiding, ethical reflection, and professional assessment. Students develop their skills through preparation, practice sessions, documentation, self-assessment, and feedback. Our certification requirements include ten practical sessions, five individual and five group, together with relevant session planning, risk assessments, and reflective evaluation. These requirements are not intended to imply that a particular number of hours automatically produces competence. Rather, they provide structured opportunities to practise, encounter difficulties, receive feedback, and demonstrate the ability to make responsible decisions. And even after certification, the learning continues. Professional development should include ongoing engagement with research, practical experience, reflection, environmental awareness, and the willingness to reconsider previously held assumptions. The field itself must remain open to discussion. We should question the quality of scientific evidence, the limitations of professional methods, the influence of commercial interests, and the assumptions embedded in our own educational frameworks. No certificate should place its holder beyond criticism. No organisation should be beyond constructive scrutiny. And no professional should lose the curiosity that brought them into the field in the first place.

11. Keeping Nature Accessible While Protecting Professional Integrity

There is an important tension within the professionalisation of nature-based experiences. If training becomes prohibitively expensive, we risk limiting professional opportunities to those with sufficient financial resources. If certification becomes too easy to obtain without meaningful assessment, we risk weakening professional accountability. Neither outcome is desirable. Our challenge is to develop educational pathways that are accessible without becoming superficial, rigorous without becoming unnecessarily exclusive, and professionally sustainable without commercialising every aspect of human contact with nature. We should also recognise that guide training is only one part of the wider picture. Nature-based well-being should not depend entirely on the availability of commercial services. Public green spaces, accessible forests, community activities, environmental protection, and opportunities for independent nature contact remain essential. Professional guiding and independent engagement should be understood as complementary possibilities, not competing claims over who has the authority to experience nature.

12. An Invitation to Reflect on Our Responsibilities

The Shinrin-Yoku Association’s proposed revised Code of Conduct is an invitation to consider the responsibilities that accompany professional guiding. It invites us to think critically about what we teach, what we promise, what we charge, and what we expect from our graduates. It also asks us to reflect on our own relationship with nature. Are we spending time in forests only because we are preparing sessions? Are we listening to participants, or are we attempting to reproduce our own experiences in them? Are we taking care of our own well-being? Are we protecting the places that make our work possible? And are we continuing to learn after receiving our professional qualifications? For us, these questions belong at the heart of professional ethics.

We begin with ourselves. We develop our relationship with nature. We learn to share that relationship responsibly with others. And through our practice, we become increasingly aware of our responsibility toward the living environments that welcome us.

Professionalism is not about claiming to possess the therapeutic power of nature. It is about understanding the limits and possibilities of our contribution, remaining accountable for our actions, and recognising that nature, participants, and the broader world exist beyond the professional services we provide. Perhaps the question we should continue asking is not simply:

How can we train more forest therapy guides?

But also:

What kind of guides do we want to become, and what kind of relationship with nature do we hope our work will help sustain?