Ph.D. student receives $10K forest therapy grant

Forest therapy doctoral student Hsuan Hsieh (pronounced “shen shi”) Ph.D. ’25 witnessed the healing power of nature at a young age, so she’s dedicated herself to bringing that magic to others. 

Hsieh grew up in Taoyuan, Taiwan, less than an hour from the subtropical forests and mountains that fill the country. When Hsieh was 7 years old, her mother, Jui-Mei Lee, was diagnosed with breast cancer. The anxiety of living with the disease weighed heavily on the whole family. To escape it, they started taking weekend trips into the mountains. Hsieh remembers watching the pressure lift off her parents’ shoulders when they left the city.

“In the city, my mom and dad were very focused on her health issues, so there was a lot of worry and depression,” she said. “But when we went into the mountains, she’d start smiling. I saw her face get its color back. That was my first experience witnessing for myself how nature can help people.”

Hsieh said doctors told the family her mother might only have five years to live, but she lived for 10. She attributed that extra time to the regular family mountain trips.

As Hsieh was preparing to graduate from high school, she saw a TV show advertising National Chung Hsing University’s forestry department in Taiwan. It seemed like the perfect fit for her. She enrolled and found herself in the university’s experimental forest on a regular basis for class work and internships.

“Those were my best times as an undergrad,” she said. “We’d go into the forest for a week and have to identify 100 species of trees every day. It was so beautiful.”

“Forests release compounds called ‘phytoncides’ that are beneficial for your health, so the original thought was very simple: Go into the forest and bathe yourself in all these good compounds.”

Hsuan Hsieh

During her junior year, she saw a poster on a bulletin board advertising a speech by renowned Japanese professor Iwao Uehara about forest therapy. After listening to him, she knew what she wanted to do next. She earned a master’s degree in forest therapy from National Taiwan University, and her professor, Simon Yu, encouraged her to pursue a doctorate from the internationally known Ph.D. program at Clemson University’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management.

Last year, Hsieh arrived at Clemson and was excited to discover the Experimental Forest and the South Carolina Botanical Garden. This year, she was awarded a $10,000 grant from the REI Cooperative Action Fund, which supports research demonstrating the importance of nature for individual and community health and well-being. With this grant, Hsieh is evaluating guided forest therapy at the Garden and comparing it to the effects of indoor meditation classes on students’ mental health, social interactions, nature connectedness and pro-environmental behaviors. “In Japan, it’s called ‘Shinrin-yoku,’ which translates in English to ‘forest bathing,’” said Hsieh.

“Hug a tree, walk barefoot, do some meditating, cut some wood — there are a lot of different things you can do to connect with a forest that helps your health and well-being.” 


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