Nature as a mentor: Shinrin-yoku in Youth Work Practices

Nature as a Mentor: Shinrin-yoku in Youth Work Practices is an Erasmus+ training course that will take place in Dobczyce, Poland, from 12 to 19 July 2026 and will bring together 24 youth workers from partner countries. The activity responds to the growing need for more holistic, accessible, and preventive approaches to well-being in youth work. Across Europe, many young people experience stress, uncertainty, eco-anxiety, and low resilience, while youth workers often lack practical methods that can be safely used in everyday non-formal education settings.

The training introduces shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) as an innovative, low-cost, and inclusive youth work approach. Participants will explore how nature-based methods can support well-being, self-awareness, reflection, relaxation, and healthy routines, while remaining clearly within the educational scope of youth work. The programme combines outdoor learning, guided forest immersion, sensory exercises, breathing and body-awareness practices, gentle yoga-inspired movement, journaling, reflection, group sharing, and facilitation practice. It also includes sessions on inclusion, adaptation of methods, outdoor safety, risk awareness, and the use of digital tools for documentation and dissemination.

A strong focus of the training is on helping participants transfer what they learn into their own organisations and communities. During the activity, participants will design and test their own short nature-based sessions, receive peer feedback, and co-create a multilingual digital Forest Toolkit containing methods, facilitation tips, safety guidance, and inclusion adaptations. They will also prepare local pilot activities and peer-to-peer sharing plans to continue the project’s impact after the mobility.

Importantly, this activity is not mental health training and does not provide therapy, diagnosis, treatment, or clinical interventions. It does not prepare participants to act as therapists or mental health professionals. Instead, it equips youth workers with safe, evidence-informed, nature-based educational tools that can strengthen the quality of youth work and support young people in a non-clinical, preventive, and empowering way.