The delivery of this programme and the evaluation of it will help me to complete my training as a Forest Therapy Practitioner with The Forest Therapy Hub. It will be a pilot mixed-methods study - including qualitative and quantitive evaluation - of the benefits of a Nature-Based Wellbeing Programme delivered to adults experiencing anxiety, stress or depression.

The objective of the study is to evaluate improvements in your mood and increase in resiliences that you experience, exploring what parts of the programme you find beneficial.

The programme is designed to help you to reduce and manage stress and anxiety; improve your mood (research has reported that Forest Bathing and similar nature-connection activities can have a significant positive effect on mental health, especially in those experiencing depression); improve your sleep; and improve your concentration, attention-span and focus.

You can read more about the potential benefits here.

My name is Hugh Asher and I became particularly interested in the potential for improving peoples’ health and wellbeing through increased connection with nature in 2020 during the Coronavirus restrictions.

I have a background in supporting people experiencing poor mental and emotional health and I decided to train as a Forest Bathing Guide at this time. I also run a ‘Social Croft’ (like a Scottish version of a Care Farm) and I am a firm believer in the potential for ‘green health’ activities such as Forest Bathing and Social Crofting to be ‘socially prescribed’ by healthcare professionals. I am proud to be the Lochaber Green Health Champion.

I have Professional Indemnity and Public Liability Insurance, am qualified in Outdoor First Aid (just in case), have undertaken Mental Health First Aid training and I am a Disclosure Scotland Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme member.

Forest Therapy is a nature-based intervention that considers the specific needs of individuals and the natural and social environment in which they live. It views the health and wellbeing of people as the result of an adaptive process of them to their physical and social environment. Forest Therapy aims to promote positive mental health states, enhance physical and social health by enhancing nature connectedness, interpersonal relationships and social cohesion.

Forest Therapy is based on a multidisciplinary approach from fields such as planetary health, forest medicine, sociology, psychology, social work, emotional ecology, ecology and forestry, among others. Supported by this multidisciplinary approach, Forest Therapy can complement other treatment promoting improved health and wellbeing in people experiencing specific mental and physical illnesses.

My role as a Forest Bathing Guide is to help you to slow down, both physically and mentally, and to help you to relax and let go of stress by offering structured nature-connection activities, known as Forest Bathing ‘Invitations’, in a carefully designed sequence to create an experience that enhances nature connection and boosts the therapeutic and restorative effects of nature for health and well-being for you.

A Forest Therapy walk usually lasts between two and three hours, but in this time you will rarely walk more than a mile. Forest Therapy is about taking in your surroundings through all your senses, noticing what you can see, feel, hear, smell and sometimes taste in nature (you are often encouraged to take in scents through your mouth and nose at the same time). To help with this, as your guide, I will usually offer a sequence of nature-connection invitations.

Slowing Down

The purpose of Forest Therapy is to slow down both physically and mentally, but you will need to give yourself time to let go of your thoughts and really tune in to your surroundings. Physically slowing down and walking at a pace that is much slower than normal can be the hardest part for many people, but we really do see things from a different perspective when we truly slow down. Slowing down in this way is also important to gain the most physical and psychological benefits, such as lowering cortisol levels (the hormone released when we are stressed), lowering blood pressure, increasing heart rate variability and boosting your immune system.

Nature Connection Invitations

On a guided Forest Therapy walk, your guide might invite you to take part in nature connection activities known as ‘Invitations’. These invitations are offered in a carefully designed sequence to create an experience that enhances nature-connection and boosts the therapeutic and restorative effects of nature for health and well-being. However, these are only ever recommended activities to try and there is never any pressure to engage in activity that you do not wish to, although it sometimes good for you to go a little outside your comfort zone (maybe try hugging a tree!). These invitations are not things to be ‘achieved’ in order to feel that the Forest Therapy activity was ‘successful’ though.

Invitations may last anywhere between about 5 minutes and half an hour and could include:

Sitting by a stream or lake and noticing how the water makes you feel

Exploring a tree with your hands and your eyes, feeling the texture, swaying in harmony with the tree or gazing up into the canopy

Looking for features of nature that are moving, as you walk slowly along a path to through the woods

Sharing Circles

Following completion of these nature-connection invitations, you might be invited share what you noticed in a ‘Sharing Circle’. It is common to use a piece of wood, a feather or a pine cone as a ‘talking piece’ and the guide may offer a suggested prompt such as “I noticed that the water was …..” or “Inside I am noticing …..”, “Outside I am noticing ….”. Members of the group are free to follow these suggestion or not and are free to share through silence, to share through movement or expressive dance, to express themselves in way they would like, or to remain silent and still.

A Sharing Circle offers (or should offer!) the opportunity to talk uninterrupted and to be listened to non-judgmentally and for each person's voice and experiences to be heard, valued and respected. Other members of the Sharing Circle just listen and learn, they do not comment or provide their opinion on what the person sharing their experience says, other than to sometimes thank them for sharing. As well as deepening nature-connection and improving our understanding of nature, Sharing Circle can increase inter-personal connection, empathy and a better understanding of each other.

Other than during Sharing Circles, Forest Therapy Walks tends to be a fairly silent activity in which you mindfully notice detail in your surroundings.