Effects of Shinrin-Yoku Retreat on Mental Health: A Pilot Study in Fukushima, Japan

Abstract

Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) is a cost-effective healing practice, and has attracted the interest of scientists. Recently, its effects on mental health has been increasingly reported. Japanese university students suffer from high rates of mental health problems, and the number of suicides remain high, despite the total number of suicides in Japan has been decreasing. Effective mental health approaches are sought after for Japanese students, however healthful treatment has not been identified to date. Accordingly, this pre-post pilot study evaluated the levels of mental wellbeing, self-compassion, and loneliness among 25 Japanese undergraduate students who participated in a three-day shinrin-yoku retreat in Fukushima, before, straight after and two weeks after the retreat. The mean scores of mental wellbeing increased significantly from pre-retreat to post-retreat; self-compassion and common humanity increased significantly from pre-retreat to follow-up; and mindfulness increased significantly from pre-retreat to post-retreat, and from pre-retreat to follow-up. The mean scores of loneliness did not make any significant changes. As self-compassion has been found strongly associated with mental health of university students, shinrin-yoku retreat should be evaluated with a larger sample and in a shorter time frame.

Forest Manners Exchange: Forest as a Place to Remedy Risky Behaviour of Adolescents: Mixed Methods Approach

“…Furuyashi [ 57 ] conducted a more extensive study with 155 participants classified into two groups: those with and without depressive tendencies. Shinrin-yoku therapy’s length also varied: three-day retreat [ 64 ], six times a day for 15 min [ 55 ]. Before and after forest therapies, reduced items related to psychopathology, irritability, restlessness, emotional instability, egocentrism, relativity, and negativism were evaluated.…”

“…It is a therapeutic method that can be used to prevent the treatment and rehabilitation of stress disorders and civilisation diseases and help treat mental disorders such as anxiety-depressive disorders [ 53 ]. Kotera and Fido [ 63 , 64 ] demonstrated that the mean scores for mental well-being, self-compassion, common humanity, and mindfulness had increased significantly from pre-retreat to post-retreat.…”

The impact of restorative green environment on mental health of big cities and the role of mental health professionals

“…In these studies, the authors reported a wide range of research methodologies to examine the effect of forest on mental health including the number of visits to the forest which ranged from just a single session [19,25,29 ▪▪ ] to multiple sessions over several few weeks [23 ▪ ,24 ▪▪ ,26,28 ▪ ,30]. The duration for each visit also varies ranging from 10 [31 ▪ ] to 15 min [18 ▪ ,32 ▪ ] or up to 300 min [28 ▪ ,33].…”