Physiological and psychological effects of forest healing focused on plant fragrance therapy for maladjusted soldiers

Abstract

Background and objective This study verified the physiological and psychological effects of plant fragrance therapy to analyze whether the therapy has a forest healing effect on maladjusted soldiers. Methods This study was conducted from March 14 to May 31, 2020 according to the Green Camp curriculum for 2 weeks per recruit class. Thus, plant fragrance therapy was implemented twice each for three recruit classes. Each session of the program was carried out for 4 hours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The venue was the garden within the camp and the forest nearby. Forest healing activities using plant fragrances were led by 1 forest education specialist and 1 assistant. The effects of plant fragrance therapy for maladjusted soldiers were analzed analyzed by quantifying physiological and psychological changes through measuring brain waves and stress levels before and after the therapy. Results As a result of analyzing BRQ and SQ to determine the physiological and psychological healing effect of plant fragrance therapy, both the left and right brain showed higher BRQ and SQ after the therapy with statistical significance. This indicates that plant fragrance therapy on maladjusted soldiers helped positively stabilize their negative psychological and behavioral dispositions, and stabilization of brain waves lowered physical and mental stress and improved self-regulation and immunity. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in ATO. This is the result of analyzing the stress-coping mechanism. Troubleshooting (t = −2.702, df = 61, p = .009), emotional remission (t = −2.173, df = 61, p = .034), pursuit of help (t = −3.286), df = 61, p = .002), and wishful thinking (t = −3.714, df = 61, p < .001) showed statistically significant results. Conclusion Applying plant fragrance therapy to maladjusted soldiers positively stabilized their negative psychological and behavioral dispositions and helped their self-regulation. Thus, plant fragrance therapy has psychological and physical forest healing effect on maladjusted soldiers.