Abstract

This article explores scaffolding as a guiding principle in forest therapy and Shinrin-Yoku practice by examining its relationship to learner-centred pedagogy and participant-centred experience. Building on the argument that the effects of forest exposure depend not only on the environment itself but also on how the experience is structured, paced, and supported, the article considers how guidance can create conditions in which restoration, connection, and personal meaning are more likely to emerge. Rather than treating the guide as a controller of outcomes, the discussion frames guiding as a process of holding structure in service of the participant’s unfolding experience.

Drawing on educational theory, the article argues that guided forest therapy shares with learner-centred pedagogy a central challenge: how to accommodate individual differences while preserving coherence, safety, and intention. This question is examined through The Mindful Tourist’s Scaffolded Model of Engagement, which is presented as a participant-centred adaptation of learner-centred principles to guided Shinrin-Yoku and forest therapy sessions. The model is based on gradual release, whereby external structure is progressively softened and participants are given increasing freedom in how they relate to the forest, the invitations, and their own inner experience.

The article suggests that scaffolding in forest therapy is not a means of limiting freedom, but of making meaningful freedom possible. By offering a progression from more structured sensory and relational support toward greater openness and autonomy, the scaffolded approach helps participants enter the experience with confidence, settle into the environment, and engage the forest in a way that is both safe and personally significant. In this sense, scaffolding is understood as a practical and relational bridge between theory and practice, showing how guided forest therapy may support participant agency, depth of experience, and therapeutic presence without reducing the encounter to a fixed protocol.