Is forest therapy regulated in Slovenia, and do guides need a licence?

Forest therapy guiding is not a licensed profession in Slovenia. An accredited upgrade programme called Izvajalec/izvajalka gozdnih terapij exists, adopted by the national vocational education council on 21 October 2022 and worth 21 ECTS credits over 456 hours, but Slovenian law states that a programme of this type does not confer a protected professional title. No public register controls who may work as a forest therapy guide, so training, session structure and how a guide talks about benefits are what you assess instead.

What qualifications should a forest therapy guide have?

Look for completion of a structured programme with a named school, a method and assessment. In Slovenia that is the Izvajalec/izvajalka gozdnih terapij programme, which requires prior higher education in a related field plus at least a year of work experience before enrolment and ends with a qualification exam. Internationally, the best-known route is the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, whose certification comes only through their own six-month training and a four-day in-person immersion. A weekend course with no assessment is not equivalent to either.

Should I avoid a guide whose certification is still in progress?

Precise wording about credentials is usually a better signal than a confident claim. Forest therapy training programmes involve practical hours and a final exam, so guides finish the taught part before the qualification is formally awarded, and describing that stage accurately is honest rather than evasive. A vague claim of being certified with no school named and nothing to verify deserves more scepticism than a guide who tells you exactly where they are in the process.

How long should a forest therapy session be, and how big should the group be?

A forest therapy session usually runs two to three hours over less than a kilometre, in a group small enough that everyone can hear each other in a circle. A meta-analysis of 21 studies with 2,270 participants found that forest sessions of at least around twenty minutes produced stronger effects on blood pressure and cortisol than shorter ones (Qiu et al., 2022), so a very short session is a compromise rather than the practice. Group size above roughly a dozen people makes circle sharing difficult.

Can I join a forest therapy walk with limited mobility or a health condition?

Often yes, because forest therapy covers very little ground and involves more sitting and standing than walking. Tell the guide before you book: a competent guide chooses a mostly level, well-maintained trail with resting spots and emergency access, and will adapt the route or say honestly that a particular location will not work for you. Forest therapy may support relaxation and wellbeing, but it does not replace medical or psychological care, so keep your doctor in the loop for anything clinical.

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How to Choose a Forest Therapy Guide

7 September 2026

Choose a forest therapy guide by four things: where they trained, whether they understand that they facilitate rather than treat, how they structure a session, and how they talk about benefits. A good guide keeps the group small, walks slowly, picks a safe and accessible trail, and says plainly that forest therapy may support relaxation and wellbeing without replacing medical or psychological care. Anyone promising to cure your anxiety, fix your sleep or detox your body in one afternoon has already told you what you need to know.

Slovenia has an accredited forest therapy programme but no protected professional title. The national vocational education council adopted the upgrade programme Izvajalec/izvajalka gozdnih terapij (forest therapy practitioner) on 21 October 2022; the programme runs 456 hours, carries 21 ECTS credits, includes 240 hours of practical training with an employer, and ends with a qualification exam (CPI, 2022). Slovenian law states that an upgrade programme of this kind does not confer a professional title, and no public register decides who may call themselves a forest therapy guide. You are judging a person, not checking a licence.

I have facilitated people in nature since 2019 and completed that programme at the Višja strokovna šola za kozmetiko in velnes in Ljubljana (training completed, certification in progress). This article is written the way I answer the question when someone asks me at the end of a walk how they would find a guide in their own town, or in another country.

What a forest therapy guide does, and what they do not

A forest therapy guide facilitates a walk; a guide does not diagnose, treat, or teach natural science. The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy states the principle as “The Forest is the Therapist, the Guide opens the Doors,” and is explicit that guides are not therapists (Clifford & Page, 2019). The guide's work is to hold an unhurried, safe space and to offer invitations, which are simple sensory prompts with no prescribed outcome.

Listen to how a guide describes results. Grounded wording sounds like may support, can help, participants often report. If you hear cures, guarantees, or detoxification, look elsewhere. In my own sessions I say the limit out loud before anyone books, because a promise the evidence cannot carry only buys one visit.

One more distinction saves disappointment: forest therapy is not a hike. If you are weighing the two, the difference between forest therapy and hiking is worth five minutes before you book anything.

Training: what counts, and what to ask

Training is the clearest signal available, because no Slovenian authority licenses forest therapy guides. The Slovenian programme is demanding on entry: candidates need prior higher vocational or university education in a related field such as wellness, cosmetics, forestry, tourism, sport, physiotherapy, healthcare, psychology or education, plus at least one year of work experience, before they may enrol (CPI, 2022). A guide who completed it has done 456 hours of assessed work, not a weekend.

Internationally, the best-known lineage is ANFT, whose certification comes only through their own six-month training plus a four-day in-person immersion. A guide trained through ANFT and a guide trained through the Slovenian programme are both legitimate; they are simply different schools. What matters is that a real programme with a real method sits behind the person, rather than an existing yoga or hiking offer renamed as forest therapy.

Precise wording about credentials is a better sign than a confident badge. In a field this young, a guide who writes training completed, certification in progress is telling you exactly where they stand. A vague claim of being certified, with no school named and nothing to check, tells you less. Ask which school, which year, and what the training involved; the answer takes a guide ten seconds and tells you a great deal.

Slovenia now also has a professional association. Guides who had been working together informally for years founded the Slovensko združenje za gozdno terapijo (Slovenian Association for Forest Therapy) in May 2025; it presents its member guides on a shared website, publishes their events, and accepts new guide members. Membership is not a licence and not every good guide belongs to it, but the member list is a sensible place to start looking if you are not sure where else to search.

How a real session is structured

A forest therapy session usually runs two to three hours and covers less than a kilometre, because the practice is built around presence rather than distance. Ask a guide to describe the shape of a walk before you book. Sessions built on the sequence taught in the Slovenian programme follow a recognisable arc: a welcome and orientation covering the location, safety and what will happen; a first gentle invitation that opens the senses; a longer middle section of invitations, each followed by a short circle sharing where anyone who wants to speaks and nobody has to; and a closing forest tea ceremony made from a local plant.

If the whole plan is that you will go for a walk and breathe, that is thinner than the craft deserves. A guide who can describe the arc without notes has run it many times. If you want to know what those hours feel like from the inside, here is what happens at a first session.

Group size, pace, and the trail

Small groups are part of the method rather than a scheduling detail. A circle sharing works when everyone can hear each other and nobody feels watched, which stops being true somewhere above a dozen people. Ask how many participants a guide usually takes, and ask about pace. The right answer involves a lot of stopping.

Trail selection is a skill the Slovenian programme assesses. A well-chosen trail is mostly level and well maintained, has resting spots, offers at least a few places where a group can gather in a circle and one suitable for the tea ceremony, gives safe access to water if water is part of the walk, and can be reached by emergency services. No trail scores full marks on every criterion, and the training itself says as much: no trail is perfect, and every place where you guide is as it should be. What matters is whether the guide considered safety and comfort at all.

Length has some evidence behind it. A meta-analysis of 21 blood-pressure studies covering 2,270 participants found that forest sessions of at least around twenty minutes outperformed shorter exposures against urban controls (Qiu et al., 2022), and the field experiments across 24 Japanese forests that anchor this research measured lower cortisol, pulse and blood pressure after forest time compared with a city (Park et al., 2010). A guide offering a forty-minute express version is selling convenience, not the practice.

Five questions worth asking before you book

You do not need to interview anyone. Five short questions give you an accurate read, and any guide worth booking will enjoy answering them.

Where did you train, and what did the training involve? You want a named school, a year, and a method.

How long is a session and how many people come? Two to three hours and a small group is the shape of the practice.

What actually happens during those hours? You are listening for structure and invitations rather than a walk with commentary.

Is this suitable for me, given my health or mobility? A good guide answers honestly, adapts the route, or refers you on.

How do you describe the benefits? Careful wording is a sign of someone who has read the research; miracle claims are a sign of someone who has not.

Why the person matters more than the badge here

Slovenia is 58 percent forest and third in the European Union for forest cover, behind Sweden and Finland (Slovenia Forest Service). For a reader arriving from abroad, that means a guided session is rarely more than a short drive from wherever you are staying, including central Ljubljana. Forest therapy in Slovenia is nonetheless a small field: the guides working actively know of each other, and no public directory lists them all, which is exactly why the questions above do more work than any certificate would.

Forest Compass holds itself to the standard on this page. I completed the Izvajalec gozdnih terapij programme at VSŠKV in Ljubljana, I have been facilitating people in nature since 2019, and my wording is training completed, certification in progress until the qualification exam is behind me. You can see our sessions and prices, read more about how Forest Compass works, or start with what forest therapy actually is if you are still deciding whether it is for you.

Forest therapy may support relaxation and wellbeing. It is not a substitute for medical or psychological care.

Common questions

Is forest therapy regulated in Slovenia, and do guides need a licence?: Forest therapy guiding is not a licensed profession in Slovenia. An accredited upgrade programme called Izvajalec/izvajalka gozdnih terapij exists, adopted by the national vocational education council on 21 October 2022 and worth 21 ECTS credits over 456 hours, but Slovenian law states that a programme of this type does not confer a protected professional title. No public register controls who may work as a forest therapy guide, so training, session structure and how a guide talks about benefits are what you assess instead.
What qualifications should a forest therapy guide have?: Look for completion of a structured programme with a named school, a method and assessment. In Slovenia that is the Izvajalec/izvajalka gozdnih terapij programme, which requires prior higher education in a related field plus at least a year of work experience before enrolment and ends with a qualification exam. Internationally, the best-known route is the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, whose certification comes only through their own six-month training and a four-day in-person immersion. A weekend course with no assessment is not equivalent to either.
Should I avoid a guide whose certification is still in progress?: Precise wording about credentials is usually a better signal than a confident claim. Forest therapy training programmes involve practical hours and a final exam, so guides finish the taught part before the qualification is formally awarded, and describing that stage accurately is honest rather than evasive. A vague claim of being certified with no school named and nothing to verify deserves more scepticism than a guide who tells you exactly where they are in the process.
How long should a forest therapy session be, and how big should the group be?: A forest therapy session usually runs two to three hours over less than a kilometre, in a group small enough that everyone can hear each other in a circle. A meta-analysis of 21 studies with 2,270 participants found that forest sessions of at least around twenty minutes produced stronger effects on blood pressure and cortisol than shorter ones (Qiu et al., 2022), so a very short session is a compromise rather than the practice. Group size above roughly a dozen people makes circle sharing difficult.
Can I join a forest therapy walk with limited mobility or a health condition?: Often yes, because forest therapy covers very little ground and involves more sitting and standing than walking. Tell the guide before you book: a competent guide chooses a mostly level, well-maintained trail with resting spots and emergency access, and will adapt the route or say honestly that a particular location will not work for you. Forest therapy may support relaxation and wellbeing, but it does not replace medical or psychological care, so keep your doctor in the loop for anything clinical.