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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1509419
This article is part of the Research Topic Connecting the Dots in Physiotherapy: Reframing the Role of the Profession in the Anthropocene View all 7 articles

Challenges in Nature-Based Health and Therapy Research and Critical Considerations for Application in Musculoskeletal Health

Provisionally accepted
Richard Doran-Sherlock Richard Doran-Sherlock 1Payal Sood Payal Sood 2Nicole Anne Struthers Nicole Anne Struthers 3Filip Maric Filip Maric 4*
  • 1 Richard Doran-Sherlock Osteopathy, Dublin, Ireland
  • 2 Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom
  • 3 Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
  • 4 UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Troms, Norway

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Nature-based health and therapy (NBHT) is a term incorporating a broad suite of practices that focus on engagement with the natural world and nature-rich spaces for potential physical and mental health benefits. As healthcare professions such as physiotherapy and osteopathy move away from biomedical/reductionist models of care for complex conditions towards approaches which take into account social and environmental determinants of health, NBHT may become part of clinical interventions and public health messaging. However, there are multiple challenges in aspects of NBHT research and application, from methodological issues in the primary research base, to questions of environmental injustice and access inequalities in many areas. In addition, engaging with natural environments which are vulnerable to the entwinned threats of climate change and biodiversity collapse requires consideration of the effects of ecological disturbance and the underlying anthropocentric/utilitarian view of the natural world. In this perspective, we outline a critique of NBHT literature and offer positive suggestions for how better-quality research can be conducted and implemented by focusing on local environmental, social, and political factors. We conclude by outlining a set of critical considerations that healthcare professionals might use to develop and implement NBHT programmes in their specific regional contexts.

    Keywords: Nature-based therapy, nature-based interventions, Planetary health, physical health, Musculoskeletal Health Word count: Max: 3, 000 CURRENT: 3000 (Perspective paper) Language Style: British English

    Received: 10 Oct 2024; Accepted: 03 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Doran-Sherlock, Sood, Struthers and Maric. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Filip Maric, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, 9019, Troms, Norway

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.