Taking psychology outside the consulting room
What does psychology training look like when you take it out of the classroom and into the natural world?
This year NatureFix worked with final-year psychology students from Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, as part of their Australian study program with Global Education Designs.
Visiting psychology students from Lewis & Clark College, Oregon
They invited us to deliver a one-day intensive in nature connection, ecopsychology and green prescribing at Wild Mountains, an environmental education centre in the Border Ranges overlooking Mt Barney.
Across the day, students moved between evidence and experience. We looked at the growing research around nature and mental health, explored green prescribing and NatureFix's 5 Steps to Connect, and then headed outside to put those ideas into practice.
Students moved from evidence to experience
It's what we like about this kind of training. It's practical and evidence-informed, but individuals also get outside and experience the practices themselves. It works just as well as professional development for health and wellbeing teams.
For students approaching the end of their psychology degrees, it also opened up some important questions.
What if the places where we support wellbeing extend beyond the consulting room? How can psychologists use nature practically and responsibly as another resource for wellbeing? And what about equity and access to nature?
Nature connection isn't a replacement for psychology or clinical care. But there is a growing opportunity to give future practitioners practical ways of drawing on the natural world as part of their work.
A big thank you to Global Education Designs for inviting us, and to Wild Mountains for providing such an extraordinary classroom.
NatureFix is committed to our work with mainstream health, we look forward to Australia having and national green prescribing framework that makes nature a regular part of care.
Same practices now available in your own pocket via the NatureFix app