Abstract

The need for forest therapy guides may be understood through the intersection of evolutionary history, environmental transformation, and contemporary mental health burden. Humans evolved in close and continuous relationship with natural environments, yet the past several centuries have seen a progressive shift from nature-embedded living toward agricultural, industrial, and urbanized forms of habitation. This long process of separation has culminated in a modern condition in which many individuals spend their daily lives in built environments characterized by overstimulation, pollution, social fragmentation, and limited access to green space. Concurrently, mental health is increasingly recognized as shaped by complex interactions among biological, psychological, social, and environmental determinants. Rising prevalence of depression, anxiety, burnout, loneliness, and other stress-related conditions suggests that the mental health crisis is not solely clinical in nature, but also ecological and structural. In this framework, forest therapy guides may be viewed as facilitators of guided re-engagement with restorative natural environments. Their role is to support safe, intentional, and context-sensitive encounters with forests that may foster sensory awareness, regulation, reflection, and reconnection. Forest therapy guiding is therefore proposed as a relevant response to the combined effects of environmental disconnection and modern mental health vulnerability.