Claudio Vasquez has spent more than a decade pioneering Forest Bathing in Chile, and is now applying that experience to a new kind of space: the therapeutic garden.
For Claudio Vasquez, the journey from occupational safety and forest management to Forest Bathing and therapeutic landscapes has never really been a change of direction. Rather, it has been a process of exploring the same question from different angles: How can we protect life while helping people and ecosystems thrive?
Today, Claudio brings these perspectives together through his work in Chile. For more than a decade, he has promoted Forest Bathing, worked with protected areas, supported urban forest restoration, and developed therapeutic landscapes.
“My technical training in risk prevention and forest management taught me the importance of caring for both people and ecosystems,” Claudio explains. “Over the years, I came to understand that forests not only need protection, they can also be a source of health and wellbeing.” That realization led him to combine his technical expertise with international training in Forest Bathing and to promote experiences in Chile that bring together safety, nature, and public wellbeing.
Pioneering Forest Bathing in Chile
“Introducing Forest Bathing in Chile was both a challenge and a unique opportunity,” he recalls. “When I started, the concept was virtually unknown in the country.” There was curiosity, but also some distance and uncertainty. For Claudio, his technical background proved to be an important asset, allowing him to introduce Forest Bathing as a practice grounded in scientific knowledge.
In the early days, much of his work involved raising awareness and opening conversations with institutions, local communities, and professionals. But eventually, something more powerful began to happen: people experienced Forest Bathing for themselves. “Little by little, guided experiences built trust,” he says. “People could feel the effects of sensory immersion in the forest for themselves. That direct experience was key.”
More than a decade later, Claudio looks back on his pioneering work through the metaphor of planting a seed. “Being a pioneer meant planting in fertile ground,” he says. The native forests of southern Chile provided the ideal setting, while his role was to create “a bridge between technical knowledge, nature, and human wellbeing.” That bridge has helped Forest Bathing evolve from an unfamiliar concept into a practice that is increasingly recognized and valued in Chile. Claudio’s work as an advisor to Chile’s National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) added another dimension to this vision. It showed him that protected areas are not only places for ecological conservation, but can also play an important role in human wellbeing and environmental education.
Why Urban Forests Matter for Wellbeing
Claudio’s work with Bosques Para Ti and the “Un guía de Baños de Bosque, un árbol” project in Valdivia grew from a simple but powerful idea: access to nature-based wellbeing should not be limited to people who can travel to remote wilderness areas. “Urban forests are strategic spaces for bringing nature into people’s everyday lives,” he says. Unlike remote forests, urban green spaces are easily accessible to students, families, and local communities. That accessibility makes them especially valuable.
For Claudio, restoring an urban forest is therefore about much more than planting trees. It is about democratizing access to the benefits of nature. These spaces can regenerate ecosystems, regulate the climate, capture carbon, and provide habitat for biodiversity. At the same time, they can become places for learning, connection, and healing. “In Valdivia, integrating Forest Bathing into an urban environment is a way of showing that nature is not a distant luxury, but something close at hand and part of everyday life,” Claudio explains.
That philosophy came together in the development of Valdivia’s El Bosque Urban Park as a therapeutic forest, taking into account both the ecological characteristics of the site and its potential to support public wellbeing.
The idea reflects an important shift in the way we understand green spaces. A forest can be protected for its ecological value while also being recognized for the ways it can contribute to human health and wellbeing. And this is where Claudio’s work begins to extend beyond the forest itself.
From Forest Bathing to Therapeutic Gardens
After years of working as a Forest Bathing guide, Claudio began developing a therapeutic garden at Universidad San Sebastián in Valdivia. For him, the garden represents another milestone in nature-based education.“Designing a therapeutic garden meant bringing the experience into an urban university setting,” he says. “Nature becomes a living, accessible classroom for students and teachers”
But a therapeutic garden is not simply a small forest. “The main difference is that, while Forest Bathing takes place in diverse, often wild ecosystems, a therapeutic garden requires intentional design,” Claudio explains. This means carefully selecting plants, arranging pathways, creating sensory experiences, and considering how people will move through and interact with the space. The landscape is deliberately designed to engage the senses. In this way, the therapeutic garden is not an escape from everyday life, but an integral part of the university environment.
Designing Therapeutic Gardens with a Sense of Place
Claudio’s experience in the forests around Valdivia has also shaped his approach to selecting plants for the garden. Native species such as the arrayán offer more than visual beauty. “These species not only contribute beauty and fragrance, but also carry the cultural and ecological memory of the territory,” he says. That sense of place matters. A therapeutic landscape does not need to look the same everywhere. In fact, Claudio’s approach suggests the opposite: the most meaningful therapeutic landscapes are those that reflect the ecology, culture, and identity of the places where they are created.
His background in forest management also influences the way he approaches garden design. “Forest management taught me to value the resilience of ecosystems,” he says. In a therapeutic garden, the goal is not simply to create a beautiful space, but to create an environment that helps people learn, connect with nature, and develop a deeper relationship with their surroundings. Claudio sees the university project as a model that could potentially be adapted elsewhere, bringing therapeutic landscapes into educational settings and creating new connections between wellbeing and environmental education.
One Thread Connecting Everything
Looking back on his career—from risk prevention and forest management to Forest Bathing, ecological restoration, and therapeutic landscapes—Claudio does not see a collection of unrelated disciplines. Instead, he sees a single, continuous thread. “My path is an integration of different dimensions that, although they may seem separate, are actually connected,” he says.
Risk prevention and forest management gave him the technical foundation to understand ecosystems and protect them. Forest Bathing revealed another dimension: trees and landscapes are not only resources that need to be protected, but also sources of wellbeing, restoration, and health. Ecological restoration brought these perspectives together once again. By restoring ecosystems and strengthening biodiversity, it is also possible to create places where people can gather, reconnect with nature, and experience their own sense of restoration.
Ultimately, Claudio sees all of these areas as serving the same purpose: caring for life in its many forms, protecting the places that sustain us, and building resilience in both nature and people. For him, the future of therapeutic landscapes is about transforming the places where people already live, learn, and spend their everyday lives. A forest can be therapeutic. A garden can be therapeutic. And with thoughtful design, the spaces in between can become part of the same larger system of care.
Ready to take the next step? The FTHub Therapeutic Landscapes Consultant accreditation trains professionals to evaluate existing natural spaces for their therapeutic potential, design new or improved landscapes that support nature-based health interventions, and certify therapeutic spaces on behalf of FTHub.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a therapeutic garden, and how is it different from forest bathing? A therapeutic garden is an intentionally designed space, planned around plant choice, pathways, and sensory experience, unlike Forest Bathing, which happens within a broad, wild ecosystem. Both aim to support wellbeing, but a garden requires deliberate composition rather than an existing natural setting.
Who is Claudio Vasquez? Claudio Vasquez is a Chilean Therapeutic Landscapes Consultant accredited by FTHub. He has spent more than a decade promoting Forest Bathing in Chile, working with protected areas, urban forest restoration, and, most recently, designing therapeutic gardens.
Why did Claudio Vasquez focus on urban forests? He sees urban forests as accessible ways to bring nature into daily life for students, families, and local residents, without requiring travel to remote wilderness. This thinking shaped Valdivia’s El Bosque Urban Park, designated a therapeutic forest.
What plants are used in the Universidad San Sebastián therapeutic garden? The garden uses native species from the Valdivian temperate rainforest, including the arrayán, alongside other aromatic plants. Claudio chose them for their sensory qualities and for carrying the ecological and cultural memory of the region.
