Code of Ethical Conduct for Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing & Forest Therapy Guides

The Shinrin-Yoku Association (SYA) is committed to promoting ethical, responsible, inclusive, environmentally conscious, and professionally competent practices in Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, and Forest Therapy. This Code of Ethical Conduct establishes the principles, professional responsibilities, and behavioural standards expected of guides who facilitate structured experiences in forests and other natural environments.

Shinrin-Yoku (森林浴), commonly translated as forest bathing, originated in Japan and has subsequently developed through public health initiatives, scientific investigation, educational programmes, and international professional practices. The expressions Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, and Forest Therapy are used within different cultural, historical, institutional, and professional contexts. Although distinctions may exist among particular programmes, the SYA recognises their substantial conceptual and practical overlap.

For the purposes of this Code, the term Guide refers collectively to professionals facilitating Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, or Forest Therapy experiences. The use of the term therapy does not, by itself, imply clinical treatment, psychotherapy, medical diagnosis, or entitlement to practise within a regulated healthcare profession.

The SYA recognises that experiences in nature may contribute to physical, psychological, emotional, and social well-being. However, the occurrence of such benefits cannot be guaranteed, nor can they be attributed exclusively to the intervention of a professional guide. Meaningful experiences may emerge through interactions among natural environments, individual perceptions, personal histories, cultural contexts, social relationships, and professional facilitation.

The professional responsibility of a guide is not to produce predetermined therapeutic outcomes, but to prepare, facilitate, and maintain appropriate conditions for safe, respectful, informed, and meaningful engagement with nature.

The Association further recognises that a guide's responsibility extends beyond the duration of a session. Ethical professional practice includes adequate preparation, physical and emotional risk assessment, informed consent, appropriate documentation, ecological responsibility, reflective evaluation, and continuing professional development.

This Code is founded upon respect for human dignity, participant autonomy, ecological integrity, professional accountability, scientific responsibility, and an ethics of care. The standards apply to individual and group sessions, whether delivered commercially, voluntarily, or within institutional, educational, or community settings. They apply to guides undergoing professional training and, where relevant to their status and activities, continue after graduation and certification.

1.1. Respect for Human Dignity

Every participant possesses inherent dignity, irrespective of age, nationality, cultural background, language, gender, disability, health status, socioeconomic circumstances, religion, personal beliefs, or previous experience with nature.

Guides shall treat all participants with fairness, courtesy, sensitivity, and respect. Discrimination, humiliation, intimidation, harassment, coercion, and exploitative behaviour are incompatible with professional guiding.

Respect for dignity also requires recognising participants as individuals capable of forming their own experiences, interpretations, and relationships with nature. Guides shall not assume that participants share identical values, cultural understandings, emotional needs, expectations, or perceptions of natural environments.

1.2. Respect for Autonomy

Participation in Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, and Forest Therapy shall be based on informed and voluntary engagement.

Guides shall respect participants' rights to accept, modify, or decline invitations, remain silent, refrain from sharing personal experiences, or withdraw from an activity. The guide's responsibility is to provide appropriate information, offer meaningful choices, and support participants in exercising their autonomy without unnecessary pressure or judgement.

Autonomy does not extend to disregarding reasonable safety instructions or placing others at foreseeable risk. Where necessary, guides must exercise professional judgement and take appropriate action to protect participants, themselves, and the surrounding environment.

1.3. Respect for Nature

Natural environments are living ecological systems with significance beyond their potential benefits to human health and well-being. Guides shall approach forests and other natural environments with care, ecological awareness, and respect for the organisms, habitats, and processes that sustain them.

Natural environments shall not be treated merely as commercial resources, therapeutic instruments, or settings to be altered for participants' convenience.

1.4. Integrity and Accountability

Guides shall conduct their professional activities honestly, transparently, and responsibly. They must recognise the limits of their knowledge, competencies, qualifications, and professional authority.

Ethical practice requires more than good intentions. It involves preparation, informed decision-making, appropriate documentation, reflection, and a willingness to acknowledge and correct mistakes.

Guides remain accountable for their professional conduct even when experiences are described as collaborative, participant-centred, spontaneous, or nature-led.

2.1. The Guide as Facilitator

A Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, or Forest Therapy Guide facilitates opportunities for people to engage with natural environments through appropriate guidance, observation, sensory awareness, reflection, mindful presence, and other activities within the guide's competence.

The guide may structure a session, introduce invitations, support participants' attention, facilitate group interaction, and respond to emerging circumstances. However, the guide does not possess exclusive authority over the significance, meaning, or potential benefits of the participant's experience.

Guides must recognise the difference between facilitating an experience and determining its outcome.

2.2. Professional Boundaries and Clinical Practice

Certification as a Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, or Forest Therapy Guide does not automatically confer qualifications in medicine, psychotherapy, psychology, counselling, physiotherapy, or any other regulated healthcare profession.

Unless independently qualified and legally authorised, guides shall not diagnose conditions, prescribe treatment, conduct psychotherapy, provide clinical interventions, or advise participants to modify or discontinue prescribed medical care.

Guides may acknowledge that participants experience nature as restorative, supportive, or therapeutic. Nevertheless, they shall not present ordinary guided forest experiences as clinically validated treatments for specific disorders without an appropriate evidential and professional basis.

Where a guide also holds a recognised healthcare qualification, the distinction between their guiding role and any clinical service must be communicated clearly, with the relevant professional standards, consent arrangements, and legal requirements observed.

2.3. Recognition of Professional Limitations

Guides shall recognise when a participant's circumstances, requests, or needs exceed their professional competence. Where appropriate, they should recommend that the participant seek assistance from a suitably qualified professional rather than attempting to provide services for which they are not trained.

Referring a participant to another professional should be understood as a responsible exercise of professional judgement rather than a failure of guiding competence.

The SYA recognises three interconnected ethical and pedagogical principles developed within The Mindful Tourist educational approach: Co-creation, Co-responsibility, and Co-being. These principles provide an orientation for professional conduct and participant-centred facilitation. They are not presented as independently validated therapeutic mechanisms.

3.1. Co-creation

A guided experience develops through interactions among participants, the guide, environmental conditions, and, when present, other group members. Guides shall recognise that participants actively contribute to their experiences through attention, perception, choices, personal history, and interpretation.

The principle of co-creation encourages guides to prepare sessions thoughtfully while remaining responsive to circumstances that cannot be fully anticipated. It does not imply that professional planning is unnecessary or that all participants must experience the same outcomes.

3.2. Co-responsibility

Co-responsibility recognises the importance of informed participation, communication, mutual respect, and awareness of personal and collective needs. Participants are encouraged to communicate their preferences, limitations, discomfort, or concerns whenever possible.

However, shared participation does not mean equal professional responsibility.

The guide retains responsibility for appropriate planning, physical and emotional risk assessment, safeguarding, professional boundaries, safety-related instructions, and decisions made within the scope of the guided service. The principle of co-responsibility shall never be used to transfer a guide's professional duties to participants.

3.3. Co-being

Co-being recognises that people may share a natural environment without needing to demonstrate the same emotional responses, interpretations, or levels of engagement.

Guides shall respect the legitimacy of silence, observation, contemplation, personal reflection, and nonparticipation in specific invitations. Participants shall not be required to demonstrate relaxation, gratitude, happiness, emotional transformation, or a particular sense of connection with nature.

The guide creates conditions in which different experiences may coexist without judgement or pressure to conform to a predetermined ideal.

4.1. Information Before Participation

Before a session, guides shall provide participants with clear and accessible information concerning the nature, purpose, approximate duration, location, expected physical demands, environmental conditions, planned activities, and foreseeable risks.

Participants shall also receive appropriate information about accessibility, clothing and equipment, available facilities, emergency arrangements, fees, booking conditions, cancellation policies, and relevant limitations of the service. The information provided must allow participants to make a reasonably informed decision about whether the session is appropriate for them.

4.2. Voluntary and Continuing Consent

Consent is an ongoing process rather than a single administrative action. Participants shall be informed that they may decline individual invitations, request reasonable modifications, or withdraw from participation, subject to arrangements necessary for a safe departure.

Guides must seek explicit permission before any activity involving intentional physical contact, photography, audio or video recording, or other actions that may affect personal boundaries. Consent to attend a session shall not be interpreted as consent to all activities subsequently proposed.

4.3. Registration and Consent Documentation

Guides shall use registration and consent procedures appropriate to the nature of their services and applicable law. These procedures should obtain information genuinely necessary for safe and appropriate participation without requiring unnecessary disclosure of sensitive personal information.

Consent forms, liability notices, and terms and conditions must be accurate, understandable, and consistent with applicable legal requirements. They shall not be used to mislead participants about their rights or to suggest that the guide has no responsibility for professional negligence or misconduct.

5.1. Professional Duty of Care

Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, and Forest Therapy Guides have a professional responsibility to take reasonable and proportionate measures to protect the physical safety and well-being of participants during guided activities.

Although natural environments are inherently dynamic and not entirely predictable, guides must not regard environmental uncertainty as justification for inadequate preparation or insufficient risk management.

The professional responsibility of a guide includes anticipating reasonably foreseeable hazards, evaluating their potential consequences, implementing appropriate preventive measures, and responding effectively when circumstances change.

Risk assessment is not merely an administrative requirement. It is an ongoing process of observation, professional judgement, and responsible decision-making before, during, and, where necessary, after a session.

5.2. Mandatory Physical Risk Assessment

Guides shall conduct and document a physical risk assessment appropriate to each session, taking into consideration the selected location, planned activities, environmental conditions, group composition, and individual accessibility requirements.

A physical risk assessment shall identify reasonably foreseeable hazards, evaluate the likelihood and potential severity of harm, and establish measures to eliminate or reduce risks to an acceptable level.

Risk assessment shall consider, where relevant, terrain and elevation, walking distances, unstable surfaces, weather conditions, temperature, sunlight exposure, falling branches, water features, wildlife, insects, potentially hazardous vegetation, environmental contamination, and restrictions affecting access to the location.

Guides must also consider risks arising from the activities themselves, including prolonged standing, sitting on uneven ground, closing the eyes, walking with reduced visual attention, touching natural materials, or undertaking other sensory invitations.

The appropriateness of an activity must be determined in relation to actual conditions rather than assumptions that activities commonly associated with Shinrin-Yoku are inherently safe.

5.3. Participant-Specific Physical Considerations

Physical risk assessment must account for the diversity of participants' physical capabilities, accessibility needs, and relevant circumstances.

Guides shall communicate the physical demands of a session before participation and provide an appropriate opportunity for participants to disclose information necessary for reasonable safety adjustments. Participants shall not be required to disclose diagnoses or medical histories that are unnecessary for participation or safety planning.

Where relevant, guides should consider mobility restrictions, balance difficulties, fatigue, sensory impairments, allergies, temperature sensitivity, and other circumstances that may affect safe participation.

Where reasonable adjustments cannot adequately address significant risks, guides must communicate the limitations of the proposed activity and consider suitable alternatives.

5.4. Risk Assessment of Individual Invitations

Guides shall assess the safety implications of the invitations and activities included in a session, rather than relying exclusively on a general assessment of the route or location.

For example, an invitation encouraging participants to close their eyes may require consideration of balance, proximity to hazards, personal comfort, and the availability of stable seating. An invitation involving contact with vegetation must account for possible allergies, irritation, ecological restrictions, and species-related risks.

Guides shall not introduce activities that unnecessarily expose participants to physical harm for the purpose of intensifying sensory awareness, emotional engagement, or perceived therapeutic effects. Every invitation should permit reasonable adaptation or an alternative form of participation.

5.5. Emergency Preparedness and Response

Guides shall establish emergency procedures appropriate to the location, activities, environmental conditions, and participant group. These procedures should include access to emergency communication, location identification, suitable first-aid supplies, evacuation considerations, and access to emergency services.

Guides shall maintain first-aid competence appropriate to their professional activities and any applicable organisational or legal requirements.

In the event of injury, illness, or another physical emergency, guides must prioritise immediate safety, provide assistance within their competence, and obtain additional professional support when necessary. Relevant incidents and responses shall be documented appropriately.

5.6. Dynamic Physical Risk Assessment

A written assessment completed before a session cannot account for every circumstance that may emerge during its delivery.

Guides shall continuously observe environmental changes, participant responses, group movement, and the suitability of planned activities. When conditions change, guides must be prepared to modify invitations, adjust the route, introduce rest periods, suspend activities, or terminate the session.

A guide shall not continue an activity solely because it was included in the original session protocol.

5.7. Documentation and Review

Physical risk assessments shall be documented in a manner proportionate to the session and retained according to applicable professional and legal requirements.

Where an existing assessment is reused, the guide must verify its continued relevance and update it for the specific session. Following incidents, significant environmental changes, or newly identified hazards, guides shall review their assessments and revise preventive measures where appropriate.

The absence of previous accidents shall not be treated as evidence that a session or activity presents no foreseeable risks.

6.1. Recognition of Emotional and Psychological Diversity

Experiences in natural environments may evoke a wide range of psychological and emotional responses. These may include relaxation, curiosity, joy, attentiveness, uncertainty, sadness, fear, frustration, vulnerability, or the recollection of personal experiences.

Such responses are influenced by individual circumstances, previous experiences, social relationships, personal expectations, environmental conditions, and the manner in which activities are facilitated.

Guides must not assume that exposure to nature or participation in Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, or Forest Therapy will necessarily produce positive emotions or psychological well-being.

Equally, the emergence of sadness, discomfort, or other challenging emotions does not automatically constitute psychological harm or indicate that a session has been conducted inappropriately. Professional ethical responsibility requires distinguishing between ordinary variations in emotional experience and circumstances involving foreseeable or emerging risks of psychological harm.

6.2. Mandatory Emotional and Psychological Risk Assessment

Guides shall conduct and document an emotional and psychological risk assessment appropriate to each session, considering the proposed activities, facilitation methods, group composition, and reasonably foreseeable sources of emotional distress.

This assessment concerns the potential risks created or increased by the session's design, environment, and professional facilitation. It does not constitute a clinical assessment, psychological diagnosis, or evaluation of participants' mental health.

The assessment should consider whether invitations could create unnecessary emotional pressure, sensory overwhelm, feelings of exclusion, loss of perceived control, distressing personal recollections, interpersonal conflict, or unwanted exposure of personal information.

Particular attention should be given to activities involving prolonged silence, closed-eye practices, guided meditation, personal reflection, autobiographical writing, symbolic exercises, interpersonal sharing, or invitations that may be experienced as emotionally intensive.

The likelihood and potential severity of foreseeable harms shall be evaluated, and proportionate preventive measures shall be established. Guides shall not assume that an activity is emotionally safe merely because it is described as mindful, natural, restorative, or therapeutic.

6.3. Prevention Through Session Design

Emotional and psychological risk management begins with the design of a session and the language through which invitations are communicated.

Guides shall structure activities to support autonomy, predictability where appropriate, personal boundaries, and freedom of response. Participants should understand that they may modify or decline invitations, keep their eyes open, choose comfortable positions, refrain from personal disclosure, and request reasonable adjustments.

Guides shall avoid language implying that participants are expected to reach a particular emotional state, experience personal transformation, disclose difficult memories, or demonstrate a prescribed level of nature connectedness.

Activities should be designed with sufficient flexibility to accommodate different emotional responses without singling out or stigmatising individual participants.

6.4. Emotional Risk Associated with Meditation and Reflective Practices

Guides must recognise that mindfulness, meditation, sensory attention, and reflective exercises are not universally experienced as calming or beneficial.

For some individuals, sustained inward attention, silence, breath-focused exercises, or reduced external stimulation may be associated with discomfort, anxiety, or heightened awareness of difficult thoughts and emotions.

Guides shall therefore explain such practices in accessible language, offer alternatives when appropriate, and avoid coercive instructions.

Exercises involving intensive emotional exploration, trauma processing, or psychotherapeutic techniques must not be introduced unless the guide possesses the necessary professional qualifications and is operating within an appropriate legal and clinical framework. The incorporation of meditation or reflective practice into a nature-based session does not remove these professional boundaries.

6.5. Emotional Safety in Group Settings

Group sessions introduce additional considerations related to interpersonal relationships, perceived social expectations, confidentiality, and the distribution of attention and influence.

Guides shall assess foreseeable risks associated with group sharing, interpersonal exercises, unwanted attention, exclusion, intimidation, or pressure to participate.

Participants must not be required to speak about private experiences, explain emotional reactions, or respond to questions that they consider intrusive.

Guides should establish expectations concerning respectful listening, non-judgemental communication, and confidentiality, while making clear that absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed among group participants.

The guide is responsible for managing the facilitated group process and responding appropriately to behaviour that compromises participants' dignity or safety.

6.6. Responding to Emotional Distress

When a participant exhibits or communicates significant emotional distress, the guide shall respond with respect, sensitivity, and awareness of professional limitations.

Appropriate responses may include pausing an activity, offering the participant choices, reducing sensory or social demands, helping the participant orient to their immediate surroundings, or arranging additional support.

Guides shall not interpret distress as proof of psychological healing, emotional release, spiritual transformation, or the effectiveness of the session. They must not attempt to diagnose the participant, analyse their personal history, or initiate therapeutic interventions beyond their qualifications.

Where a participant appears to require psychological or medical assistance, the guide shall seek appropriate professional support in accordance with the circumstances, the participant's wishes where practicable, and applicable safeguarding or emergency obligations.

6.7. Individual Vulnerability and Professional Boundaries

Guides should recognise that emotional vulnerability may be temporary, situational, or influenced by personal circumstances not disclosed before a session.

Participants shall not be required to provide detailed psychological histories as a routine condition of joining an ordinary guided nature experience.

Where additional information is reasonably necessary to determine the appropriateness of participation or possible accommodations, it should be requested sensitively, with due regard for confidentiality, data minimisation, and consent.

Guides must not assume that they are qualified to determine a participant's psychological fitness for participation through informal screening or subjective observation.

When available information indicates that a proposed activity may fall outside the guide's competence or create risks that cannot reasonably be managed, the guide should consider modifying the activity, discussing suitable alternatives, or recommending appropriately qualified professional support.

6.8. Dynamic Emotional Risk Assessment

Emotional and psychological risk assessment shall continue throughout a session.

Guides should remain attentive to verbal and non-verbal indications of discomfort, withdrawal, interpersonal tension, or distress while recognising that such observations cannot establish a participant's psychological condition.

Guides should provide opportunities for participants to communicate their needs without placing them under pressure to explain private experiences. When necessary, invitations, group arrangements, session pacing, or the overall programme shall be modified to reduce foreseeable harm.

A guide's responsibility is not to prevent every uncomfortable emotion, but to avoid unnecessary psychological risk, respect participants' boundaries, and respond competently when concerns arise.

6.9. Post-Session Considerations and Documentation

Where significant emotional distress, boundary concerns, interpersonal conflict, or other relevant incidents occur, guides shall document the circumstances and their professional responses in an appropriate and confidential manner.

Records should contain only information necessary for professional accountability, safeguarding, or lawful operational purposes, and should avoid speculative psychological interpretations or unnecessary sensitive details.

Where appropriate and agreed with the participant, guides may provide information about suitable support resources or professional services.

Guides shall not create expectations of ongoing emotional counselling or psychological support unless such services are separately offered within an appropriate professional scope. Review of emotional risk assessments should inform improvements in session planning, communication, and professional competence.

6.10. Integration of Physical and Emotional Risk Assessment

Although physical and emotional risk assessments address different dimensions of participant safety, they shall not be treated as entirely independent processes.

Physical circumstances may influence emotional experiences, while psychological or emotional responses may affect physical safety. For example, fear of uneven terrain may alter a participant's movement, while unexpected emotional distress may affect attention, communication, or the capacity to navigate an unfamiliar environment.

Guides should therefore consider the interaction between environmental hazards, participant circumstances, activity design, group dynamics, and emotional responses.

The SYA requires a proportionate approach to risk management that recognises these interactions without reducing participants to categories of physical or psychological vulnerability.

Every guided session shall be supported by appropriate physical and emotional risk assessment, with documented preventive measures, clearly defined professional responsibilities, and procedures for responding to changing circumstances.

The purpose of risk assessment is not to eliminate uncertainty, control individual experiences, or prevent meaningful engagement with nature. Its purpose is to support responsible professional facilitation in which participant autonomy, safety, dignity, and environmental respect remain central.

6.11. Mandatory Risk Assessment During Professional Training

The Shinrin-Yoku Association considers physical and emotional risk assessment an essential professional competency that must be demonstrated during guide training and maintained throughout subsequent professional practice.

All trainees enrolled in an SYA Shinrin-Yoku Guide Training programme are required to complete and submit two separate risk assessment forms before conducting each mandatory practical guiding session:

Physical Risk Assessment Form. This document identifies foreseeable environmental, physical, accessibility-related, and activity-specific hazards, together with their potential consequences, preventive measures, and appropriate emergency procedures.

Emotional and Psychological Risk Assessment Form. This document identifies foreseeable risks associated with invitations, meditation, sensory activities, group dynamics, participant autonomy, emotional boundaries, personal disclosure, and other relevant aspects of psychological safety.

Both forms must be prepared and submitted before each practical guiding session, whether conducted individually or with a group. They constitute mandatory elements of practical training documentation and professional competency assessment.

Risk assessments must reflect the actual circumstances of the planned session, including its location, participant group, environmental conditions, and activities. They must not be completed merely as generic administrative exercises.

The completion and submission of risk assessment forms do not remove the trainee's responsibility to reassess conditions and respond appropriately throughout the session.

6.12. Continuing Risk Assessment Obligations After Graduation and Certification

Successful completion of SYA training and the award of professional certification do not remove or reduce a guide's responsibility to assess physical and emotional risks.

Following graduation, certified guides are required to continue conducting and documenting both physical and emotional risk assessments before every professional guiding session, regardless of whether the session is offered commercially, voluntarily, individually, or in a group setting.

Where existing assessments are reused, guides must review and adapt them to the particular location, environmental conditions, activities, and participant group. Identified risks and preventive measures must remain relevant to the actual session.

Risk assessment also continues throughout the session through ongoing observation, appropriate adaptations, and professional decision-making. Significant incidents, newly identified risks, or relevant changes in circumstances should inform subsequent assessments.

After certification, guides are responsible for maintaining their own professional risk assessment records in accordance with applicable legislation and confidentiality requirements. Routine submission of these records to the SYA is not required unless separately established by an applicable Association procedure.

Risk assessment is not simply a requirement for obtaining certification. It is a continuing ethical obligation and an integral component of professional guiding practice throughout a guide's career.

The SYA regards the ability to identify, evaluate, minimise, and respond to foreseeable physical and emotional risks as a fundamental professional competency that must be demonstrated during training and maintained thereafter.

7.1. Trust and Professional Conduct

Professional relationships shall be based on mutual respect, appropriate boundaries, reliability, and transparency. Guides shall not exploit the trust, vulnerability, personal disclosures, or dependency of participants for personal, financial, emotional, sexual, or other advantage.

7.2. Power and Influence

Although guiding may be presented as a collaborative practice, the professional relationship is not entirely equal. Guides may influence the selection of environments, the structure of activities, access to information, and expectations concerning participation.

They must recognise this influence and avoid using professional authority to impose their personal values, beliefs, worldview, or preferred emotional interpretations.

7.3. Physical Contact and Personal Boundaries

Physical contact shall not be assumed to be an ordinary or necessary component of Shinrin-Yoku. When physical assistance is appropriate, guides should explain its purpose and seek permission whenever circumstances allow.

Unnecessary, unwanted, or inappropriate physical contact is prohibited.

7.4. Prohibited Conduct

Harassment, intimidation, discriminatory conduct, sexual misconduct, exploitation, retaliation, and deliberate violations of consent are incompatible with SYA ethical standards.

Guides shall maintain professional boundaries in person, online, and in communications following a session.

8.1. Respect for Personal Information

Guides shall treat personal information obtained through registration, correspondence, participation, and post-session communication with appropriate confidentiality.

Information concerning health, personal history, emotional experiences, or individual circumstances must not be disclosed without a valid legal basis or appropriate consent, except where disclosure is legally required or otherwise justified by applicable safeguarding obligations.

8.2. Confidentiality in Group Sessions

Guides shall establish expectations concerning respectful listening and the privacy of personal experiences shared during group reflections. Participants should be encouraged not to disclose another person's personal information outside the group.

However, guides must not guarantee absolute confidentiality in group settings because they cannot control the subsequent actions of other participants.

8.3. Photography, Recording, and Public Communication

Photographs, recordings, written testimonies, and identifiable descriptions of participants shall not be published without appropriate, specific permission.

Participation in a session does not automatically authorise the use of a participant's image or personal experience for advertising, education, research, or social media.

Consent to photography or publicity shall be separate from consent to participate in the session, and refusal shall not result in disadvantage.

8.4. Data Management

Guides shall collect only information reasonably necessary for their professional activities, store it securely, restrict access, and retain or delete it in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws.

Digital platforms, artificial intelligence systems, and third-party services must not be used in ways that compromise participants' privacy or confidentiality.

9.1. Equal Respect and Non-Discrimination

Guides shall strive to create environments where participants feel welcomed, respected, and able to engage according to their individual circumstances. Guides must not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics or irrelevant personal differences.

9.2. Accessibility and Reasonable Accommodation

Guides should consider accessibility during the planning of locations, routes, invitations, communication, and session structure.

Reasonable adjustments should be offered where practicable, taking account of both participant needs and environmental limitations. Accessibility does not require every session to be suitable for every individual.

Where a particular activity cannot be delivered safely or appropriately, guides should communicate its limitations honestly and consider suitable alternatives.

9.3. Cultural and Spiritual Respect

Guides shall respect different cultural understandings of nature, mindfulness, silence, personal space, spiritual traditions, and human relationships with the environment.

They shall not require participants to adopt specific religious, spiritual, philosophical, or metaphysical beliefs.

Cultural practices, ceremonies, symbols, and traditional knowledge must be represented accurately and respectfully, with appropriate acknowledgement of their origins and communities.

10.1. Minimising Environmental Impact

Guides shall minimise the ecological disturbance associated with their professional activities. This includes respecting vegetation, soil, water systems, wildlife, habitats, and natural processes.

Activities must comply with local environmental regulations and land-use requirements.

10.2. Responsible Invitations

Invitations shall be assessed not only for their potential experiential value but also for their possible ecological consequences.

Activities involving collecting, moving, cutting, damaging, or otherwise disturbing natural materials must be avoided unless explicitly permitted and ecologically appropriate.

Guides shall not encourage participants to taste plants, fungi, or other natural substances without appropriate expertise and safety safeguards.

10.3. Respect for Wildlife

Participants shall not be encouraged to approach, feed, disturb, capture, or interfere with wild animals for the purpose of producing a particular experience.

Guides shall respect nesting areas, sensitive habitats, seasonal restrictions, and other circumstances in which human presence may create harm.

10.4. Environmental Care Beyond Symbolic Gestures

Expressing gratitude or connection with nature may be meaningful for some participants. However, symbolic actions must not result in environmental degradation.

Guides shall not leave food, non-native materials, objects, decorations, or other offerings in natural environments where doing so is prohibited or could cause ecological harm.

Environmental care should be demonstrated through responsible action rather than assumed from the emotional or symbolic meaning of an activity.

10.5. Responsibility to Local Communities

Guides shall respect landowners, Indigenous peoples, local communities, protected-area authorities, and other legitimate stakeholders associated with the locations where they work.

Commercial use of natural environments must not disregard local access rights, cultural heritage, conservation needs, or established land-management rules.

11.1. Practising Within Competence

Guides shall offer services consistent with their education, practical experience, assessment, and demonstrated competencies. They must not misrepresent their qualifications or undertake activities requiring specialised knowledge or professional authority they do not possess.

11.2. Continuing Professional Development

Guides should maintain and develop their competence through continued learning, relevant education, scientific reading, reflective practice, practical experience, peer discussion, and appropriate supervision or mentoring.

Professional development should encompass ethical conduct, participant care, environmental understanding, communication, physical and emotional risk management, and relevant research.

11.3. Self-Awareness and Personal Readiness

Guides shall remain aware of their own physical, psychological, and emotional capacity to facilitate sessions responsibly.

They must not conduct activities when illness, exhaustion, impairment, substance use, or other circumstances substantially compromise their ability to make sound professional decisions or safeguard participants.

11.4. Reflective Practice

Guides should regularly evaluate their professional decisions, participant feedback, adaptations, incidents, and areas for improvement.

Reflection should include consideration of unintended consequences, assumptions about participants, personal biases, and the relationship between guiding intentions and actual experiences.

11.5. Maintenance of Risk Assessment Competence

Physical and emotional risk assessment competence shall be maintained after completion of professional training.

Certified guides are expected to continue applying the assessment principles established during their SYA education, adapting them to new environments, participant groups, activities, and professional circumstances.

Guides should review their methods when new evidence, professional guidance, incidents, or changes in their practice indicate that improvements are necessary.

The obligation to complete and document both forms before professional sessions, as established in Sections 6.11 and 6.12, forms part of this continuing responsibility.

12.1. Thoughtful Preparation

Every session shall be designed with consideration for its purpose, participants, environmental characteristics, duration, accessibility, safety requirements, and intended form of engagement.

Guides should prepare a coherent sequence of activities while remaining able to adapt it to changing conditions. Preparation does not require controlling participants' experiences or predetermining emotional outcomes.

12.2. Opening and Orientation

The opening of a session should establish an appropriate framework for informed participation.

Guides shall explain relevant safety instructions, boundaries, the nature of the experience, and the voluntary character of invitations. The opening should provide opportunities for questions and appropriate communication of participant needs.

12.3. Invitations and Sensory Engagement

Invitations should be communicated clearly, respectfully, and without coercion. Guides shall avoid presenting one way of perceiving, interpreting, or interacting with nature as inherently correct or superior.

Activities may support observation, movement, stillness, sensory awareness, reflection, or interpersonal connection, but participants must retain appropriate freedom in how they respond.

12.4. Adaptive Facilitation

Guides should remain attentive to the environment, participants, group dynamics, and changing circumstances. Where appropriate, they may adapt the pace, language, structure, duration, route, or content of invitations.

Such adaptations must preserve the session's professional boundaries and safety requirements.

12.5. Balance Between Guidance and Independence

Guides shall recognise that professional facilitation is one possible means of supporting nature engagement, not a prerequisite for every meaningful or beneficial encounter.

They should encourage participants' capacity for independent awareness and engagement rather than fostering unnecessary dependence on guided experiences.

12.6. Closing and Integration

Sessions should conclude in a manner that supports an appropriate transition from the guided experience to participants' ordinary activities.

Guides may offer opportunities for reflection, sharing, silence, or personal integration. No participant shall be pressured to provide a positive evaluation, disclose private experiences, or describe a particular benefit.

Any necessary follow-up should remain within the professional boundaries and scope of the guiding service.

13.1. Clear and Respectful Communication

Guides shall communicate in a manner that is understandable, respectful, and appropriate to the participants and setting. They should listen attentively, avoid unnecessary technical language, and remain open to questions, uncertainty, and different viewpoints.

13.2. Non-Judgemental Presence

Guides shall not judge participants according to their perceived mindfulness, emotional expression, spiritual orientation, capacity for concentration, or relationship with nature.

They must avoid assigning meanings to participants' experiences without their agreement.

13.3. Group Dynamics

Guides shall remain attentive to interpersonal dynamics that may affect participants' dignity, inclusion, or sense of safety.

They should facilitate opportunities for respectful interaction while recognising that not every participant seeks social connection or group disclosure. Guides must respond appropriately to bullying, harassment, exclusion, persistent disruption, or other behaviours that compromise group safety.

13.4. Freedom from Imposed Interpretation

Guides shall not present personal intuition, subjective interpretation, or spiritual speculation as established facts about another person's psychological condition or emotional experience.

A participant's own interpretation of an experience should be respected unless it presents a clear safety concern requiring appropriate professional action.

14.1. Evidence-Informed Practice

Guides should develop an informed understanding of research relevant to Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, Forest Therapy, nature connectedness, environmental psychology, and human well-being.

Scientific evidence must be represented accurately, including its methodological limitations and uncertainty.

14.2. Avoidance of Unsupported Claims

Guides shall not guarantee that participation will reduce stress, improve immunity, lower blood pressure, treat psychological conditions, or produce other specific health outcomes.

When communicating scientific findings, guides should distinguish between associations, experimentally observed changes, proposed mechanisms, clinical effectiveness, and individual experiences.

14.3. Responsible Communication of Forest-Related Mechanisms

Discussions of phytoncides, forest volatile organic compounds, sensory exposure, attention, physiological responses, or other proposed mechanisms shall reflect the current limitations of scientific evidence.

Guides must not imply that the presence of particular natural substances guarantees health benefits or that proposed mechanisms have been conclusively demonstrated in every practical context.

14.4. Respect for Uncertainty

Guides shall acknowledge uncertainty where evidence is incomplete, contradictory, or context-dependent.

Personal experience, traditional knowledge, scientific research, and philosophical interpretations may each contribute to understanding, but they should not be presented as equivalent forms of empirical evidence.

15.1. Honest Description of Services

Guides shall represent their sessions accurately, including their nature, aims, duration, fees, limitations, and professional scope.

Promotional communication must not exploit fear, health concerns, emotional vulnerability, or unrealistic expectations of healing.

15.2. Fairness and Transparency

Guides shall communicate fees, payment requirements, cancellation arrangements, and relevant contractual terms before registration or payment.

Commercial arrangements must comply with applicable consumer protection and business laws.

15.3. Credentials and Professional Titles

Guides shall use professional titles and credentials accurately and only when entitled to do so.

Completion of a course, participation in training, professional membership, certification, and regulated healthcare qualifications shall not be presented as interchangeable forms of recognition.

Affiliation with the Shinrin-Yoku Association shall not be used to imply endorsement of activities, products, or services beyond the scope of any authorisation granted.

15.4. Ethical Positioning of Guided Experiences

Guides shall not claim that guided experiences are inherently superior to independent experiences in nature or that access to well-being through nature requires professional payment.

The value of guided services may lie in preparation, accessibility, structure, professional facilitation, group opportunities, and other legitimate contributions.

Such value should be communicated without diminishing participants' capacity to experience nature independently.

15.5. Conflicts of Interest

Actual or potential conflicts of interest that could materially affect professional judgement or participant decisions should be disclosed and managed appropriately.

Guides shall not recommend products, services, referrals, or additional sessions primarily for undisclosed financial benefit.

16.1. Collegial Respect

Guides shall treat colleagues, educators, researchers, other professional associations, and related practitioners with fairness and respect.

Professional disagreements should be addressed through reasoned discussion, evidence, and constructive criticism rather than personal attacks, intimidation, or intentional misrepresentation.

16.2. Respect for Different Approaches

The SYA recognises that Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, and Forest Therapy are practised through different methods, educational traditions, and institutional frameworks.

Guides should remain open to methodological diversity while critically evaluating professional claims and ethical implications. The existence of different guiding approaches does not automatically establish the superiority or inferiority of any particular method.

16.3. Intellectual Property and Attribution

Guides shall respect copyright, intellectual property, authorship, and the legitimate contributions of other practitioners and researchers.

When using identifiable frameworks, educational materials, research findings, or methods developed by others, guides shall provide appropriate attribution and comply with applicable permissions.

16.4. Contribution to Professional Development

Guides are encouraged to contribute to the responsible development of the field through reflective practice, professional dialogue, ecological engagement, appropriate research participation, and the sharing of knowledge.

17.1. Special Responsibilities

When facilitating sessions involving children, young people, or adults who may require additional support, guides shall apply appropriate safeguarding procedures.

They must operate within their competencies and comply with relevant legal requirements relating to supervision, consent, child protection, and safeguarding.

17.2. Adaptation and Supervision

Activities, environmental conditions, communication, and supervision arrangements must be appropriate to participants' needs and circumstances.

Where legally required or otherwise appropriate, consent from a parent, legal guardian, or authorised representative must be obtained.

17.3. Responding to Safeguarding Concerns

Concerns relating to abuse, neglect, exploitation, or immediate danger shall be addressed according to applicable safeguarding duties and legal requirements.

Guides shall not attempt to investigate allegations beyond their competence or replace the responsibilities of authorised professionals and institutions.

18.1. Responsibility to Uphold the Code

Guides who adopt this Code are expected to understand and apply its principles consistently.

Ethical responsibilities extend to session preparation, participant communication, delivery of services, professional relationships, risk assessment, record management, and relevant post-session conduct.

18.2. Openness to Feedback

Guides shall provide reasonable opportunities for participants to communicate concerns or feedback regarding their experiences. Complaints must be treated respectfully and without retaliation.

Guides should seek to understand concerns, acknowledge mistakes where appropriate, and take reasonable corrective action.

18.3. Reporting Ethical Concerns

Allegations of serious misconduct, breaches of professional standards, or practices placing participants at risk should be referred through the relevant complaints or safeguarding procedures.

Guides shall cooperate with appropriate review processes while respecting confidentiality, fairness, and procedural rights.

18.4. SYA Professional Accountability

Where a guide holds SYA certification or professional membership, concerns regarding conduct may be considered under the Association's applicable ethical review, membership, and certification procedures.

Any professional consequences must be determined through established processes that provide appropriate notice, impartial consideration, proportionality, and an opportunity to respond.

18.5. Periodic Review

This Code should be reviewed periodically to reflect developments in scientific understanding, professional practice, safeguarding, environmental responsibility, legislation, and ethical reasoning.

Revisions should consider feedback from guides, participants, researchers, and other relevant stakeholders.

Ethical questions cannot always be resolved through fixed procedures. Guides may encounter situations involving competing priorities, uncertain risks, participant preferences, environmental restrictions, or circumstances not explicitly addressed in this Code.

In such situations, guides shall exercise professional judgement with reference to the following considerations:

1. Human dignity: Does the proposed action respect the rights, boundaries, and circumstances of those involved?
2. Participant autonomy: Are individuals appropriately informed and able to make meaningful choices?
3. Professional competence: Is the action within the guide's knowledge, experience, and authorised scope of practice?
4. Physical safety: Have reasonably foreseeable environmental, activity-related, and participant-specific physical risks been assessed and addressed?
5. Emotional and psychological safety: Have foreseeable emotional risks, participant boundaries, group dynamics, and possible responses to distress been considered?
6. Safeguarding: Have applicable duties concerning children, vulnerable individuals, and other persons requiring additional protection been observed?
7. Ecological responsibility: Could the action unnecessarily harm organisms, habitats, or natural processes?
8. Integrity and transparency: Can the guide explain the decision honestly, including its limitations and uncertainties?
9. Accountability: Is the guide prepared to accept responsibility for the professional decisions and conduct involved?

Where these considerations conflict, guides should prioritise applicable legal obligations, the prevention of serious harm, and the protection of human dignity while seeking the least restrictive and most proportionate response available.

Professional ethical judgement requires reflection and, where appropriate, consultation with suitably qualified colleagues or other professionals.

The Shinrin-Yoku Association recognises that the quality of a guided experience cannot be judged solely by participants' satisfaction, reported emotional changes, or perceived therapeutic benefits.

An experience may be meaningful without being pleasant. It may be restorative without professional intervention. It may be carefully facilitated without producing the outcomes originally anticipated.

The ethical quality of professional guiding must therefore be considered in relation to the conditions under which an experience was organised and delivered: the competence of the guide, the adequacy of preparation, respect for autonomy, assessment of physical and emotional risks, management of foreseeable hazards, appropriateness of communication, maintenance of professional boundaries, and care for the environment.

Guides are responsible for their professional actions, not for controlling the private meanings that participants derive from their encounters with nature.

The responsibility to assess physical and emotional risks begins during professional training and continues after certification. It is an ongoing expression of professional competence, care, and accountability.

The SYA encourages guides to approach their work with humility, compassion, curiosity, responsibility, and an ongoing willingness to learn.

A guide does not own the forest, does not own the participant's experience, and cannot guarantee its outcome. The guide is responsible for the professional care, integrity, and conditions through which the encounter is facilitated.

As a Shinrin-Yoku, Forest Bathing, or Forest Therapy Guide committed to the ethical principles of the Shinrin-Yoku Association, I recognise my responsibilities towards participants, natural environments, professional colleagues, and the wider community.

I commit to respecting human dignity and autonomy, maintaining appropriate professional boundaries, practising within my competence, preparing responsibly, communicating honestly, protecting confidentiality, and reducing foreseeable risks.

I recognise that physical and emotional risk assessment constitutes an essential and continuing component of responsible professional practice.

I understand that, during SYA professional training, I am required to complete and submit both forms of risk assessment before each mandatory practical guiding session, and that after certification I remain responsible for conducting and documenting both assessments before my professional sessions.

I recognise that meaningful experiences in nature may develop through relationships and circumstances beyond my direct control, while my professional decisions remain my responsibility.

I will respect the ecological integrity of the environments in which I work, acknowledge the limitations of my knowledge, remain open to professional learning, and strive to conduct my practice with care, integrity, and accountability.

My role is to facilitate with responsibility, accompany with respect, and recognise the freedom of every individual to experience nature in their own way.