Forest Therapy is Pilates for Your Mind
Written by Juna Ting-Wei Chang, Forest Therapy Guide
Juna Ting-Wei Chang is a forest therapy guide and founder of Shinrin-Yoku Taiwan, specialising in evidence-based forest therapy and Shinrin-yoku. She supports individuals and organisations in slowing down and gently returning their attention to themselves and the more-than-human world through nature.
Nobody expects one Pilates class to fix a lifetime of posture. So why do we expect one forest walk to fix a year of stress? Here is why regular practice matters, and what repeated forest therapy builds in us.
Imagine going to the gym once, lifting a few weights, and then waiting for the results. We would laugh. Yet that is often how we treat our minds: one holiday, one retreat, one lovely walk, and then back to the grind.
I would like to suggest a different way of seeing relational forest therapy: not as a treat, but as training. Something closer to Pilates than to a day out.
What is relational forest therapy?
Relational forest therapy is the approach taught by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT). Its idea is simple: the forest is the therapist, and the guide opens the door.
Instead of leading activities or explaining the forest, a guide offers gentle invitations to slow down and notice, then steps back. We collaborate with the forest as a partner, not just use it as a setting, and the healing comes from that relationship.
Pilates for the body, forest therapy for the mind
Pilates is a mind-body method developed by Joseph Pilates in the early twentieth century, originally called Contrology, built on precise, conscious, controlled movement (PilatesAnytime, n.d.). It doesn’t shout. It asks you to slow down, breathe, and pay attention to how your body moves. Over time, that quiet attention becomes strength.
Relational forest therapy works in a similar spirit, but for the mind. It trains our ability to slow down, notice, and let our attention rest. The “core” it strengthens is not a muscle but a mind.
Two kinds of quiet training
Pilates trains breath and control. Forest therapy trains slowness and presence.
Pilates builds awareness of the body. Forest therapy builds awareness of our senses, our feelings, and the living world around us.
Both look easy from the outside, feel surprisingly demanding at first, and become natural with practice.
Do people come back?
It is a question I am asked often, and one of my favorites. Many people wonder whether participants will feel bored if we keep doing the same standard sequence of relational forest therapy every time.
Here is my answer: A forest is never the same twice. The weather changes, the season changes, and so do we. Like a Pilates class, the structure may be familiar, but each time we meet it with a different body and a different mind, so there is always something new to notice, to practice, or to strengthen.
What repeated practice builds
What regular relational forest therapy builds
Slowing down gets easier. The first walk can feel strange. By the fifth, many of us find the pause waiting for us the moment we step under the trees.
The relationship deepens. In an experiment with 92 adults, noticing three good things in nature each day for five days led to sustained increases in nature connectedness compared with a control group, with the increases still visible at a two-month follow-up (Richardson & Sheffield, 2017). In relational forest therapy, the forest is a partner, and like any relationship it grows through returning.
The skill travels. The ability to pause, breathe, and notice follows us back to the desk, the commute, and the kitchen table.
Rest becomes a habit, not a rescue. Instead of waiting until we are exhausted, we learn to restore a little at a time.
Make it a habit, not a chore
You don’t need a daily forest. Think of it like a gym membership with a home routine: an occasional guided walk to learn the ropes and deepen your practice, and small, regular visits of your own in between. A weekly total of around two hours, in one visit or several, is a reasonable place to aim, based on the study above. Visit the same place through the seasons if you can, and notice what changes in it, and in you.
Strength is built by returning.
Read more from Juna Ting-Wei Chang
Juna Ting-Wei Chang, Forest Therapy Guide
Juna Ting-Wei Chang is a forest therapy guide and founder of Shinrin-Yoku Taiwan, now part of Green Shower. She is the first Taiwanese guide certified by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) and also holds the Taiwan Forest Therapist Certificate. With a background in languages, cross-cultural experience, and landscape and recreation management, Juna brings science, tradition, and lived experience together in a warm, grounded way. Her work supports individuals, organisations, and international groups in cultivating emotional resilience, presence, and sustainable wellbeing through nature-based practices.
References:
PilatesAnytime. (n.d.). What is Pilates?
Richardson, M., & Sheffield, D. (2017). Three good things in nature: Noticing nearby nature brings sustained increases in connection with nature. PsyEcology, 8(1), 1-32.
