Spending Time in the Forest: Modalities of Engagement, Connection, and Care

This chapter continues and expands the discussion initiated in Guziak’s (2025) article, Spending Time in the Forest: Modalities of Engagement, Connection, and Care, by further examining the diverse ways in which human beings engage with forest environments and how such engagement may evolve from a single experience into an ongoing practice of restoration, connection, and care. The chapter argues that spending time in the forest should not be reduced to a single activity or therapeutic model, but understood instead as a continuum of modalities that differ in structure, intention, depth, and personal meaning. These modalities include time in the forest as a free and accessible resource, guided forest therapy sessions as a mindfulness modality, guided forest therapy as a pathway to nature connectedness, and time in the forest as a nature-based intervention. A central concern of the chapter is the distinction between transient forest experiences and sustained forest practice. While even brief or passive exposure to forest environments may support physiological regulation, cognitive restoration, emotional balance, and a sense of relief, not every encounter becomes integrated into everyday life. The chapter therefore explores the variables that influence whether forest engagement becomes an enduring practice, including repetition, accessibility, perceived benefit, subjective meaning, guidance, routine, and the development of emotional attachment to place. Drawing on research from environmental psychology, mindfulness studies, nature connectedness scholarship, and forest-therapy literature, the chapter suggests that the therapeutic and transformative potential of forest engagement depends not only on exposure itself, but on the quality, continuity, and integration of that exposure into lived experience. In doing so, it offers a nuanced framework for understanding how forests may function simultaneously as settings of passive restoration, relational encounter, contemplative practice, and preventive or supportive intervention. Ultimately, the chapter proposes that spending time in the forest is not merely an activity undertaken in nature, but a potentially meaningful mode of being that can deepen self-regulation, reconnection, and care across personal, social, and ecological dimensions.