Aquafolium: forest bathing helps carers deal with their worries in woodland

Participants are invited to awaken all of their senses to nature by breathing more deeply, smelling the trees and even, if a kettle is on hand, to taste the forest by making tea with the leaves

(Courtesy Photo)

When Camilla de Bernhardt Lane started offering forest bathing sessions to carers in Devon, she had to reassure participants that they didn’t have to take off their clothes.

In fact, the art of forest bathing comes from Japan, where the words “shirin”, or tree, and “yoku”, or bathing, are behind the awkward translation. The practice combines mindfulness with being among trees and in nature. Participants are invited to awaken all of their senses to nature by breathing more deeply, smelling the trees and even, if a kettle is on hand, to taste the forest by making tea with the leaves.

“We take people out in forest in Devon and for a couple of hours and we do a number of exercises designed to practice mindfulness by tuning up senses,” de Bernhardt Lane says. “If you are walking a dog there might be a green blur, so it’s about slowing down and noticing that this bit of green smells like watermelon, or pineapple. Then we make a tea so you can taste it, and we touch the bark and practice slowing down.”

Forest bathing is taking off, with meetups available across the UK. Campers can glamp at eco-retreats ​with special shinrin-yoku woodland sites by Canopy & Stars in Wales. Centre Parcs has incorporated forest bathing into its Aqua Sana forest spa in Sherwood Forest, providing a special area for guests to “absorb the natural forest environment” and “reap the benefits of this calming Japanese trend”.

On the surface, forest bathing sounds like another wellness trend, like hygge, the Scandinavian import for making your environment more cosy, or matcha tea. But de Bernhardt Lane believes there is more to forest bathing beyond forest-themed attractions at spas and campsites.

“Going for a walk calms us all down, it’s so positive for our mental health and wellbeing,” de Bernhardt Lane says. “There are so many ways that we are disconnected with nature in society at the moment, that connecting with nature can be very helpful.”

She has gathered a wealth of scientific evidence about the benefits of forest bathing that show that it can lower stress levels and blood pressure, improve mood and help people to sleep. The most compelling evidence comes from the Japanese Government, which introduced forest bathing as a national health programme in 1982 and has spent millions of dollars monitoring its health benefits in the years since.

This research found that phytoncides, a chemical released by trees, can have an anti-microbial effect on the human body, boosting the immune system. A separate, psychological study showed that subjects had reduced hostility and depression after exposure to trees.

Aquafolium, the social enterprise formed by de Bernhardt Lane and her husband Mark, has been doing its own research with carers in Devon, measuring the therapeutic effects of the practice.

Research found that a chemical released by trees can boost the immune system. (Selena Hoy)

De Bernhardt Lane approached Mary Nisbett, the chief executive of health and care agency West Bank, about working with carers. Nisbett had never heard of forest bathing before, so she arranged a session for staff to try it out.

“I live locally and I’ve walked in those forests, but I don’t think I’d ever experienced the forest in that way,” Nisbett says. “It’s very restorative, actually. I’ve done it twice now and the second time we ended with the hammock, watching the sun through the leaves.”

Nisbett felt instinctively that young carers might benefit from forest bathing: “Because of the stress that carers have on their lives it felt like this would be a real opportunity.”

West Bank helped facilitate the sessions by arranging respite care for the cared-for person and transport for the carer, who could be a family member or a friend, or the child of someone with a mental health issue.

Aquafolium monitored the blood pressure of participants and asked them how they felt at the start and end of sessions. While the results are still anecdotal, they have noticed that blood pressure dropped after a session, while concentration improved. Nisbett has encouraged the practice to build relationships among carers while they immerse themselves in an experience that releases them from the day-to-day.

De Bernhardt Lane has always been interested in the outdoors. But she discovered forest bathing relatively recently. Her husband Mark had experience as a wilderness guide, taking groups into nature and teaching them how to make fire by friction. The pair started working together running retreats for veterans.

“These are people used to dealing with quite high-level challenges, people who were used to being outside. We did a series of sensory awareness activities, bringing in mindfulness in nature. We were doing things that weren’t necessarily from a wellbeing perspective but people said they felt much better. That started us on a journey to where we are now.”

The couple decided to start Aquafolium after attending a course run by Otto Sharmer, an MIT professor, called Theory U, which aims to help people with unproductive patterns of behaviour make more effective decisions. “We went on [the course] asking what to do with our lives and as part of it we remembered that we like doing this,” de Bernhardt Lane says. “It suddenly knitted together a lot of strands.”

Aquafolium started in August 2017. Alongside forest bathing, the company works in Memory Cafes for people suffering with dementia, bringing photographs, birdsong and plant materials from the woodland to those unable to get outside. It is also working with the Woodland Trust to run two forest bathing sessions for Dartmoor Walking Week. It has been supported with £3,000 from Transform Ageing, a lottery-funded programme to create design-led approaches to improve the experience of ageing.

Nisbett says forest bathing can help carers and the cared for forget the pressure and strains of the day-to-day for a moment. She remembers her first experience in the forest, when De Berndhardt Lane asked her to pick up a stone and put all her worries onto the stone. “I jokingly said, ‘I need a boulder!’” she says. “But after the session we were told we could pick up the stone or leave the worries in the forest. I found that really effective. It makes you think about how much of those things you needed to be worrying about."