Clinical Forest Therapy as a structured treatment component for preventive and rehabilitation clinics

Clinical Forest Therapy is considered “therapy” in the clinical sense when – like other therapeutic services – it is indicated, standardized, dosable, and delivered with quality assurance. This includes clear goals, defined responsibilities, a safety framework, and documentation. In this way, the forest becomes a therapeutic setting – plannable, safe, and traceable in everyday clinical practice.

The Clinical Forest Therapy Path  is a central component of Clinical Forest Therapy – a site-specific pathway developed with station logic and standardized measures. It is designed to fit your clinic’s treatment priorities, patient profiles, workflows, and resources.

Forest therapy qualifies as clinical therapy when it is goal-directed and dosable – measures are planned in terms of duration, intensity, and load level and adjusted as needed. In addition, there are clear responsibilities, a safety framework, and documentation and quality assurance. This is how the forest becomes a therapeutic setting – plannable, safe, and traceable in routine clinical practice.

For clinics that want to integrate nature-based interventions as an indication-guided therapy component – configured for the specific site and documentable for reimbursement purposes. Key requirements include a usable outdoor area and clearly defined team roles – entry typically takes place via a pilot phase.

Forest bathing is a valuable starting point. Clinical Forest Therapy adds the clinical framework – indication-guided structure, standards, safety, and documentation. This develops an existing forest bathing offer into a consistent, team-ready therapy component in everyday clinical practice.

You receive a site-specific Clinical Forest Therapy Path design, the implementation framework, team training, and guided piloting – including role logic, a safety framework, and documentation and feedback structures. Auditing and (re)certification take place within the quality process according to the IWSI/INFOM reference and certification framework.

In four phases – needs and site assessment, Clinical Forest Therapy Path design and structure, team training and piloting, and integration including quality audit and (re)certification.

Clinical Forest Therapy can be documented for reimbursement because the Clinical Forest Therapy Path is designed from the outset to include defined roles, standardized procedures, and a consistent documentation logic. This supports integration into routine clinical workflows and quality assurance – and helps meet documentation requirements of health insurers and other payers.

Implementation is reviewed through a quality audit – structure, roles, safety, and documentation must be implemented consistently. On this basis, certification or recertification takes place according to the IWSI/INFOM quality framework. Details on criteria, scope, and timeline are clarified site-specifically in a consultation.

In Germany’s statutory rehabilitation quality assurance (DRV), rehabilitation clinics document therapeutic services using KTL codes – from 01/01/2027, codes from KTL version 2025 will be used. In the KTL 2025 guidance, “forest bathing” is explicitly mentioned as an example.

The underlying principle is transferable – in a clinical context, a nature-based measure becomes “therapy” when it is indicated, structured/standardized, delivered with clear responsibility, and documentable. In Germany, KTL maps this logic through codes and associated quality characteristics. In other countries, analogous reimbursement or reporting frameworks may apply – our program is designed to support clinics in aligning documentation and workflows with their local requirements.