Profiles of Depression and Restoration in Nature-Based Group Therapy

Objective: This study focuses on a nature-based group treatment ( Flow with Nature treatment, FWN) for working-age adults diagnosed with clinical depression. We searched for different subgroups of depression and restoration levels to see who, in particular, benefits from FWN treatment. Method: In total, 108 people participated in the study at various locations in Finland. The participants were 44.8 years old on average (range = 19–64), and most were female (81.5%). We used Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify different profiles of level and change in depression and restoration in the participants of FWN treatment to investigate who particularly benefits from it. Results: We found three different profiles of depression level and observed a significant reduction of depression scores in the group with the lowest depression level. In addition, two different profiles of restoration were identified and depression symptoms were significantly alleviated in the group with higher restoration, whereas no such change was observed in the group with lower restoration. Conclusions: FWN can be especially beneficial as a low-threshold treatment for mild depression in addition to treatment-as-usual. Furthermore, the results suggest it is advisable to purposively support restoration by nature-based treatments for depression.