Dr. Gisela Immich leads the forest therapy & nature-based interventions research at the Department for Integrative Healthcare and Prevention. As a senior researcher, she has extensive expertise in the use of green and blue landscapes for health promotion, prevention and therapy. Her research focuses on forest and nature therapy with various nature-based interventions in prevention and therapy, the development of cure- and healing-forests, and nature-based mind-body methods. In addition, she played a key role in developing the criteria for cure- and healing-forests in Bavaria, which led to the normative establishment of two new health resort resort designations in Bavaria (‘forest healing resort’ or ‘town with forest recreation activities´).

Dr. Immich is a biologist, health scientist, certified forest therapy guide (ANFT), INFOM forest medicine expert, climate therapist (LMU Munich), medical practitioner (German: Heilpraktiker) and founding member of the Competence Centre for Forest Medicine and Nature Therapy in Bad Wörishofen. Since 2019, she has been training lay people and therapists in preventive and therapeutic continuing education formats for forest therapy. She has established a strong scientific network, collaborating with renowned forest therapists and researchers from around the world. Her research contributions have been published in internationally recognized scientific journals. Furthermore, she has co-authored a book on forest therapy that has gained national and international attention.