What is Forest Therapy?
And the benefits I am noticing after just 4 months of practice
What is Forest Therapy?
This is the question I had when a close friend and mentor of mine suggested that I sign up for a course to train as a Certified Forest Therapy Guide, run by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) this past January.
“It seems to me that this would be a very good fit for you right now,” she said.
After reviewing the website for approximately 10 minutes, I agreed and signed up.
After beginning the course on January 22nd, 2022 (four months ago), I started to gain a basic understanding of the objective and origin of Forest Therapy.
This is summarized in the “Introduction for Participants,” I wrote for the first assignment a few weeks into the course:
“You may have heard of the term “forest bathing,” which is a translation from the Japanese term, Shinrin-Yoku. This term originated in Japan when the government started to notice an increase in stress-related illness and suicide from “over-work.” To combat this, investment and research into health benefits from spending time in nature were accelerated. Scientific discoveries included the identification of chemicals produced by conifer trees, termed…
