Q&A with Milena: Who Holds the Authority in Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy?

Question 01 / 05

Why Should I Choose The Mindful Tourist® for My Guide Training?

This was one of the questions I particularly appreciated.

My response may have been a little unexpected: we are not here to convince you to choose The Mindful Tourist®.

I believe that by the time someone joins our Q&A session, they have probably already undertaken some research, explored different training providers, and begun considering what they hope to gain from becoming a guide.

Today, there are many organisations offering training in Shinrin-Yoku, forest bathing and forest therapy. Some have been active in the field much longer than we have. Others offer different educational philosophies, training structures, methodologies and professional networks.

I see this diversity as something that can contribute positively to the development of the field, provided that education is responsible, transparent and grounded in appropriate professional standards.

The Mindful Tourist® was not created because I wanted to establish another certification programme or compete with existing organisations.

It emerged from something much more personal: my experiences in forests became so profound and meaningful that they gradually transformed the direction of my life and professional work.

My academic background in chemistry, applied physics and psychology, together with many years spent living in Japan, influenced how I approached these experiences. I became increasingly interested in understanding not only what happens when people spend time in nature, but also why these experiences can be meaningful, how they relate to scientific knowledge, and what responsibilities arise when we begin guiding others.

Over the past six years, this interest has developed into educational programmes, professional collaborations, research, publications and a growing international community.

Our training reflects this journey. It brings together scientific inquiry, Japanese cultural perspectives, reflective learning, personal practice, ethics, risk assessment and the development of professional guiding competencies.

I do not believe that any single training organisation can provide everything or that one methodology should be considered universally superior.

What matters is whether the educational approach aligns with your values, expectations and understanding of professional responsibility.

Research the programmes. Ask questions. Explore the backgrounds of the instructors. Examine what certification actually requires, how competence is assessed, and what professional responsibilities are taught.

And then listen to yourself.

There is an important place for both careful reasoning and personal intuition when making a decision.

The right training is not necessarily the one that promises you the most. It is the one that offers an educational environment in which you can genuinely learn, develop and take responsibility for your future practice.

If that happens to be The Mindful Tourist®, I will be very happy to accompany you on that journey.

If another organisation feels more appropriate, I sincerely hope you will have a meaningful learning experience there.

Ultimately, we are all contributing, in different ways, to a wider relationship between human beings and the natural world.

Question 02 / 05

Who Holds the Authority in Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy?

This is a particularly interesting question, and one that could easily develop into an entire article.

My first response was simple:

For me, nature itself is our greatest teacher.

Before there were professional associations, certification programmes, methodologies or scientific studies of Shinrin-Yoku, there were forests.

And there were human beings living within the natural world, learning from it, depending upon it and developing relationships with it.

The forest does not need our professional titles to exist. It does not require an association to validate its ecological processes or a guide to make human experiences within it meaningful.

We sometimes forget that our field is concerned with something that precedes all the institutions we have created around it.

Human beings are not separate from nature. We are nature.

Of course, there are organisations around the world that establish professional standards, develop curricula, assess competencies and certify guides. Their contribution can be extremely valuable.

Professional education matters. Ethical principles matter. Scientific integrity matters. Competence, safeguarding and responsible practice matter.

These responsibilities cannot simply be delegated to nature.

Yet I think we should distinguish between professional authority over educational standards and the idea of possessing authority over the human experience of nature.

No organisation owns Shinrin-Yoku as a human experience, nor can any professional claim exclusive authority over the meaning that another person discovers in a forest.

Different associations may hold authority within their own certification systems. Healthcare regulators and legal frameworks may also govern particular professional activities or protected titles.

But this does not mean one association automatically possesses authority over the entire international field.

Personally, I prefer to approach this growing community from a perspective of unification rather than separation.

We can recognise different histories, traditions and professional approaches without assuming that difference must lead to competition.

Some organisations have contributed to this field for decades. Others have emerged more recently, introducing different perspectives, research interests and educational models.

There is much we can learn from one another.

I believe the most important question is not who is entitled to call themselves the authority, but rather:

How responsibly are we using the knowledge, trust and influence that our professional roles give us?

An organisation's value should be reflected in its transparency, educational quality, ethical practice and willingness to learn, including its willingness to question its own assumptions.

The forest may be our greatest teacher, but it is our responsibility to become thoughtful students of what it teaches.

Question 03 / 05

What If I Want to Guide Only Children or Only Adults?

Yes, you can develop your professional practice around a particular participant group.

In fact, during our training, you are asked to identify a target group for which you will develop your guiding approach, session protocols, invitations and relevant risk assessments.

This is an important part of learning to become a guide.

People arrive at Shinrin-Yoku training with very different personal and professional backgrounds.

Over the past six years, I have observed that many students naturally gravitate toward participant groups with whom they already have experience or feel a strong connection.

For example, a kindergarten teacher may wish to bring Shinrin-Yoku into early childhood education. Someone working with older adults may be interested in adapting sessions to their needs. Another person might feel particularly drawn to working with families, university students or people experiencing professional stress.

I believe there is often a personal reason behind these choices.

Perhaps you already understand the needs of a particular group. Perhaps your professional experience has shown you opportunities where nature-based activities could be meaningful. Or perhaps your own life experiences have encouraged you to support others in similar circumstances.

Our core training provides a shared foundation for developing guiding competence, but it does not mean that one session protocol will be appropriate for every population.

A session designed for young children may require different invitations, communication, pacing, supervision and safeguarding procedures from a session intended for adults.

Working with older adults, participants with disabilities, or people experiencing psychological difficulties may also introduce additional considerations.

This is where professional responsibility becomes especially important.

Choosing a target group is not simply a matter of personal preference. It requires recognising your existing competencies, identifying where additional preparation may be necessary, and understanding the limits of your qualifications.

For example, wanting to guide children does not automatically qualify someone to undertake every responsibility associated with child safeguarding or specialist educational support. Relevant training, supervision, consent procedures and local legal requirements must also be considered.

Similarly, an interest in working with individuals experiencing psychological distress does not automatically qualify a guide to provide psychotherapy.

Our training encourages you to recognise these distinctions.

You will learn to develop and adapt your sessions thoughtfully, assess physical and emotional risks, respect individual needs and make decisions within your professional scope.

The underlying principles can be applied to many populations, but specialised work may require additional qualifications and experience.

Becoming a guide does not mean becoming an expert in every person you may encounter. It means developing the awareness and responsibility to recognise what each encounter asks of you—and what lies beyond your competence.

Question 04 / 05

Do I Need to Be a Psychotherapist to Become a Forest Therapy Guide?

No. You do not need to be a psychotherapist to become a Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing or Forest Therapy Guide through The Mindful Tourist®.

However, this question raises a much deeper issue: what do we actually mean when we use the word therapy?

A person may experience calm, emotional relief, joy, sadness, reflection or a profound sense of connection while spending time in a forest.

Does this automatically mean that they have received therapy?

Not necessarily.

An experience can be personally therapeutic without constituting formal psychotherapy or a clinical intervention.

We encounter similar questions in other areas of everyday life.

Music can bring comfort. Writing can support personal reflection. Gardening may contribute to wellbeing. Movement, art and social relationships may influence our psychological experiences.

Yet the possibility of benefiting from these activities does not automatically transform everyone facilitating them into a healthcare professional.

The same conceptual distinction applies to Shinrin-Yoku and forest therapy.

A professionally trained guide may create opportunities for meaningful engagement with nature through appropriate session planning, sensory invitations, environmental assessment, attentive facilitation and respect for individual experiences.

But a guide does not thereby become qualified to diagnose a mental health condition, provide psychotherapy, treat trauma or offer medical interventions.

This is why our training places considerable emphasis on ethical boundaries, professional competence, participant autonomy and both physical and emotional safety.

A participant may become emotional during a forest session. They may remember something difficult or experience sadness rather than relaxation.

We should not automatically describe such an experience as healing.

We also should not assume that the guide understands the meaning of that response better than the participant.

Sometimes the most appropriate response is simply to listen respectfully, offer space and choice, or adapt the activity. At other times, circumstances may require support from an appropriately qualified professional.

A psychotherapist who completes guide training may bring additional clinical expertise to their work, but their clinical responsibilities and permissions remain governed by their existing professional qualifications and applicable laws.

The title Forest Therapy Guide is not equivalent to the title psychotherapist.

The distinction deserves careful attention, particularly as nature-based wellbeing practices become more widely promoted.

Question 05 / 05

Why Does The Mindful Tourist® Not Make a Strict Distinction Between Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy?

This question connects directly with the previous one.

It is also a subject I have examined extensively through historical research, scientific literature and my professional experience.

To understand my position, I think we need to return to a fundamental question:

When does nature become therapy?

Does it happen when we enter a forest with the intention of improving our wellbeing?

Does it happen when a professional guide accompanies us?

Does it happen when a forest experience is organised into a structured programme, assessed through scientific measurements, or described using therapeutic terminology?

Or does the potential for a meaningful or restorative experience already exist before any professional framework is introduced?

The history of Shinrin-Yoku is relevant here.

The Japanese term Shinrin-Yoku (森林浴), generally translated as forest bathing, was introduced in Japan in 1982.

Over subsequent decades, growing scientific interest in forest environments, physiological responses and health promotion contributed to the development of related concepts, including Shinrin Therapy (森林セラピー) and forest medicine.

My research into Japanese literature and institutional history has led me to understand these developments as substantially interconnected rather than necessarily representing separate forms of human–forest engagement.

Different organisations have developed their own definitions. Some distinguish forest bathing as an accessible practice that can be undertaken independently, while reserving forest therapy for professionally guided or more structured interventions.

These distinctions may be useful within particular educational, institutional or healthcare frameworks.

I respect their existence.

However, I do not believe that the presence of a guide, or the decision to use the word therapy, automatically transforms a forest experience into a fundamentally different activity.

Consider two people sitting quietly beneath trees.

One is participating in a professionally organised forest therapy session. The other has entered the forest independently, without knowing anything about Shinrin-Yoku.

Both may encounter the same surroundings.

Both may experience changes in attention, emotion or physiological state.

Their experiences will not necessarily be identical, but neither should we assume that one is inherently more therapeutic simply because it has been professionally organised.

A guide may introduce important additional contributions: preparation, accessibility, appropriate invitations, risk assessment, group facilitation and support for participants who might otherwise find it difficult to engage with the environment.

These contributions deserve recognition.

But the professional guide is not necessarily the sole source of whatever beneficial effects emerge.

There is the forest itself, with its complex ecological and sensory conditions.

There is the participant, with their own history, perceptions, emotions, expectations and autonomy.

There may also be other people, whose presence contributes to social connection and shared experience.

The experience emerges through relationships among these elements.

For this reason, at The Mindful Tourist® and within our Shinrin-Yoku Association educational approach, we generally use Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy as closely related and often interchangeable terms when describing our broader practice.

This does not mean that every programme using these names has identical objectives, clinical applications or professional requirements.

Where meaningful differences exist, they should be explained clearly.

My concern is with creating categorical separations based on terminology alone, especially when similar activities and experiences are being described.

We should also be careful not to assume that forest therapy is automatically more advanced, effective or professionally legitimate than forest bathing.

Those claims require more than a difference in name.

This is why I believe that the central question should move beyond terminology:

What happens during the experience, for whom, under which conditions, and with what responsibilities and evidence?

I explore this question in greater detail in my recent research article:

When Does Nature Become Therapy? Reconsidering Therapeutic Experience, Agency, Professional Guidance, and Commercialisation in Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy

The article examines the historical evolution of the terminology, therapeutic potential, professional guidance, scientific evidence, participant agency, ethical responsibilities and commercialisation of nature-based wellbeing practices.

I hope it encourages further discussion rather than providing a final answer.