12 Forest Therapy & Nature Connection Books Worth Reading

Forest therapy has grown far beyond a niche practice, and the number of books devoted to forests, trees and our relationship with the plant world has grown with it. If you are just discovering the subject, the choice can feel almost as dense as a forest: should you begin with science, practical exercises, ecology, a spiritual approach, or simply a beautiful book that makes you want to go outside?

A small language note before we begin: in France, the word sylvotherapy is widely used. In English, you will more often encounter forest therapy and forest bathing. The practices overlap, but the books below intentionally cover a wider territory: health, forest ecology, sensory experience, personal growth and spiritual connection with trees.

If you are considering professional training, you may also want to read my guide to choosing a forest therapy training course. And if you are simply curious about the experience itself, here is what to expect during a forest therapy walk.

This English edition has been adapted in November 2026. When an official English edition exists, I use its English title. Some of the books I recommend are French-language titles, because this list is also personal: it reflects the books that genuinely shaped my own path with trees.

1. Forest Bathing — Dr Qing Li

Forest Bathing is one of the best places to start. Dr Qing Li is a Japanese physician and a leading figure in forest medicine, and his work has played an important role in bringing shinrin-yoku — literally “forest bathing” — to an international audience.

What I love about this book is the balance between accessibility and research. It is beautifully illustrated, easy to read, and explains how intentional time in forests can influence stress, mood and several physiological markers. If you want to explore one of the mechanisms often discussed in forest-health research, you can also read my article on phytoncides and forest health.

The book also offers practical guidance for bringing forest bathing into everyday life and introduces tools for observing changes in psychological state before and after time in nature. As a forest therapy guide and trainer, I owe a great deal to the researchers who helped give this field a scientific foundation. My intuition drew me to trees long before I could explain why — but research gave me the confidence to turn that relationship into a professional practice.

2. Your Guide to Forest Bathing — M. Amos Clifford

If you want to move from theory into practice, this is one of the most useful English-language books to own. Amos Clifford, founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, approaches forest bathing through sensory invitations rather than performance or achievement. Publisher / book page

I particularly appreciate this idea of invitation: the forest is not a backdrop for an exercise, but a living environment with which we enter into relationship. The book is practical, gentle and easy to use whether you are discovering forest bathing for yourself or already guiding others.

3. Nature and the Mind — Marc Berman

For readers who want a strong scientific foundation, this recent book is an excellent place to start. Environmental neuroscientist Marc Berman explores how contact with nature interacts with attention, cognition, physical health and social well-being. Publisher / book page

What I like about this book is that it helps us understand why nature can restore us without turning that relationship into something simplistic or magical. It gives scientific depth to an intuition many of us already carry: our nervous systems did not evolve apart from the living world.

4. Good Nature — Kathy Willis

Kathy Willis, professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford and former science director at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, examines the growing evidence linking exposure to nature with human health. Publisher / book page

This is a particularly useful complement to forest therapy because it broadens the lens beyond forests alone: plants, biodiversity, green environments and sensory contact with nature all matter. It is rigorous without becoming inaccessible, and it shows how rapidly this field of research is developing.

5. The Nature Fix — Florence Williams

Science journalist Florence Williams travelled across several countries to investigate what researchers are discovering about nature, stress, mood, creativity and health. The result is lively, curious and very readable. Publisher / book page

I would recommend it to anyone who wants the science without reading an academic textbook. It also reminds us that the benefits of nature are not restricted to remote wilderness: parks, trees and everyday green spaces can already change the quality of our attention and our experience.

6. Finding the Mother Tree — Suzanne Simard

Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard blends memoir and science to tell the story of decades spent studying the relationships between trees, fungi and forest ecosystems. Her work changed the way many people understand cooperation and resource exchange in forests. Publisher / book page

This book is deeply moving because the scientific journey and the human journey are inseparable. It invites us to see a forest not as a collection of isolated trees, but as a complex community of relationships.

7. Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she brings scientific knowledge into conversation with Indigenous ways of knowing, reciprocity, gratitude and our responsibilities toward the living world. Publisher / book page

This is not a forest-therapy manual, and that is precisely why it belongs here. It asks a deeper question: what kind of relationship do we want to have with plants, land and the more-than-human world? It is one of those books that can quietly change the way you walk through a forest afterwards.

8. Entangled Life — Merlin Sheldrake

Merlin Sheldrake takes us underground, into the extraordinary world of fungi and mycorrhizal relationships. The book is scientifically grounded, playful and full of wonder. Publisher / book page

For anyone interested in trees, it is difficult to look at a forest in the same way after reading it. Trees do not live alone: fungi are part of the exchanges, cycles and relationships that make forest life possible. This is science that restores a sense of mystery rather than removing it.

9. Tree Wisdom: A Year of Healing Among the Trees — Vincent Karche

Vincent Karche is a former forester, singer and forest-therapy guide. In this English edition of his work, he follows the rhythm of the seasons and uses the life of trees as an invitation to presence, resilience, breathing and connection. Publisher / book page

I have a particular affection for Vincent's approach because it is embodied and poetic. His experience of forests is never merely intellectual: it is something to be lived, listened to and felt.

10. The Tree Book — Michael Scott OBE, Ross Bayton, Andrew Mikolajski and Keith Rushforth

The French edition I read is called Le beau livre des arbres, but the original English title is The Tree Book. This is the large, gorgeous reference book of the selection: rich in photographs, botanical illustrations, stories and facts about tree species from around the world.

It explores tree structure and life processes, gymnosperms, flowering trees, evolution, reproduction and forests, while also making room for cultural stories and extraordinary botanical adaptations. It is the sort of book you leave on a table and reopen again and again — sometimes for information, sometimes simply for the pleasure of looking.

11. Talking with Nature and Journey into Nature — Michael J. Roads

Michael J. Roads’ Talking with Nature and Journey into Nature are available together in English. These are among the most overtly mystical books in this selection. Roads describes experiences of communication with nature and states of consciousness in which the boundary between the human self and the living world seems to become porous.

I do not read these books as scientific claims. I read them as spiritual testimony — and for me, they have often acted as a light during moments of doubt. They ask a profound question: what changes when we stop looking at nature only as an object outside ourselves and begin to experience relationship, reciprocity and presence?

If that kind of relationship speaks to you, you may also enjoy my article on why people hug trees and what we can actually say about the experience.

12. Entering the Secret World of Nature — Michael J. Roads

To end this selection, I wanted to return to Michael J. Roads, but through a book that is currently easy to find in English. Roads writes from a metaphysical and spiritual perspective, drawing on decades of experiences of connection and communication with Nature. Publisher / book page

This is clearly a different register from the scientific books above: it should be read as a spiritual testimony and an invitation to explore one's own relationship with Nature, not as scientific evidence. I value it precisely for that reason. A living relationship with the world can involve knowledge, sensation, intuition, wonder and mystery — provided we remain clear about which language we are speaking.

Which forest therapy book should you start with?

If you want a practical introduction to forest bathing, begin with Dr Qing Li or M. Amos Clifford. If you want the strongest scientific perspective on our relationship with nature, choose Marc Berman, Kathy Willis or Florence Williams. If forests themselves fascinate you, Suzanne Simard, Merlin Sheldrake and The Tree Book will deepen your ecological understanding. For a more relational, poetic or spiritual approach, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Vincent Karche and Michael J. Roads open other doors.

These books do not all make the same claims, and I do not read them in the same way. Some are grounded in experimental science, others in ecology, cultural knowledge, personal experience or spirituality. For me, their richness lies precisely in this diversity — as long as we keep those different levels of knowledge distinct.

Go further with forest therapy

Books can open a door, but the forest is ultimately experienced with the body, the senses and time. If you would like to go further, discover my 5-day immersive forest therapy training in France, held from 2027 in a private woodland between Nantes and Angers.

Note: this selection is independent. I do not receive a commission from the publishers or booksellers mentioned here.