Data Brief · Course Name Research

Demand & competitive landscape for two candidate course names

ANFT Prepared 8 June 2026 Method: public-data only (Google Trends, SERP, Reddit)

1 · Google Trends — worldwide interest, last 5 years

Search interest is normalised 0–100 against the highest-volume term in the comparison set.

Candidate names vs. category benchmark

Term (exact match)	Average interest	Trend
`"Nature and Forest Therapy Guide"`	Flatline ≈ 0	No measurable activity
`"Relational Nature Immersion Guide"`	Flatline ≈ 0	No measurable activity
`"forest bathing"` (reference)	~30–50 baseline, peaks 75–100	Strong growth ↑

Broader category — what people actually search for

Term	Relative volume	Trend
`"forest bathing"`	100 (dominant)	Strong growth, last 12 months ↑
`"shinrin yoku"`	~25	Stable
`"forest therapy"`	~15	Stable
`"nature immersion"`	~8	Slight growth ↑

Observation: “forest bathing” is the dominant query the public uses to describe the practice — by a wide margin. “Shinrin yoku” remains a secondary keyword. “Nature immersion” has low absolute volume but is the only adjacent term showing slight upward movement.

2 · SERP analysis — competitive landscape on Google

Exact-match phrase queries on google.com, excluding ANFT properties where relevant.

Who uses `"nature and forest therapy guide"` today

The phrase appears as a descriptor on multiple competitor and partner sites — it is treated as a generic industry term, not a unique product name:

ecowisdom.ca — "Nature Guide Training" page
parkcitynaturetherapy.com — "Forest Therapy Guide Training"
forestwithyou.com (Youmin Yap, ANFT trainer)
infta.net — International Nature & Forest Therapy Alliance
theforesttherapyschool.com
heartwoodschoolforesttherapy.com
FTHub — "Certified Forest Therapy Practitioner Programme"

Who uses `"relational nature immersion"` today

The phrase is virtually uncontested on the open web:

1 Instagram profile (Jackie Kuang, Prescott, AZ) — personal practice
Zero courses, programmes or institutions use the phrase

Adjacent results when searched: BBC article on "immersion in nature", Flow Magazine on shinrin-yoku, and Focuskeeper's productivity glossary defining "nature immersion".

Related signal worth flagging

Two existing market entities use "Relational" in their naming:

ANFT itself — anft.earth — currently offers a "Relational Forest Therapy Course"
Relational Ecotherapy Institute — appears as a competitor in SERP for the term

3 · Reddit — frequency of community use

Exact-match phrase queries restricted to reddit.com via Google.

Query	Results found	Where it appears
`"nature and forest therapy guide"`	~3	Local community subreddits (r/nova, r/tulsa, r/cedarrapids) — not in topic-relevant discussion
`"relational nature immersion"`	0	No usage anywhere on Reddit
`"forest therapy guide"`	Abundant	Dedicated subreddit r/ForestBathing; recurring career questions, training comparisons
`"nature immersion"`	Sparse	Mostly VR / consumer tech context (Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest 2) — semantic mismatch with intended audience
`"forest bathing"`	Abundant	r/ForestBathing, r/therapists, mainstream wellness threads — the term the community uses to talk about the practice

Observation: the community standard term is “forest bathing” for the practice and “forest therapy guide” for the profession. “Nature immersion” carries strong semantic overlap with VR/consumer-tech contexts, which may be a positioning consideration.