The Wild Minds Podcast

In this episode I'm looking back on our Circle of Life Rediscovery 'Green Health Virtual Gathering, Embedding Nature in Practice – From Vision to Delivery'. It brought together psychiatrists, a GP, psychotherapists, nurses and NHS teams to explore one idea: nature is a co-healer alongside people, and the healing happens in relationship, with each other and with the land.
Topics include:
• Reflection on the gathering and what happens within the Health service!
• Why "just go outside" isn't enough. The outdoors isn't the intervention; it's a partner in it.
• Person-centred practice built on invitations rather than prescriptions, and why no two sessions should look the same.
• Dr Hannah Sherbersky on how we already are nature, and why the work has to respect people's different histories with the land.
• Contributions from Dr Shuo Zhang!
• Roger Duncan's three gateways to deep nature connection, and his warning against the "green pill".
• Can relational, person-centred work be evaluated? (Yes. Here's how.)
Find out more about the speakers
Dr Hannah Sherbersky, family and systemic psychotherapist, University of Exeter:
https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/therapist/Hannah-Sherbersky-iAgk6AAC
Hannah and Roger's programme at Exeter:
https://store.exeter.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/faculty-of-health-and-life-sciences/psychology/cedar-create-eco-systemic-psychotherapy-deep-nature-connection
Dr Shuo Zhang, child and adolescent psychiatrist, King's College London:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/clinic-to-research-tackling-mental-health-disparities
https://www.acamh.org/author/dr-shuo-zhang/
Dr Ralph Mortimer Roome, Brighton GP:
https://www.greenerpractice.co.uk/

Show Notes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/nature-as-healer-in-health-and-care/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.

In this episode, Marina looks back at the questions that came up at the *Outside for Everyone* webinar and asks why we adults find it so hard to take learning outdoors, and what we can do about it.
In this episode:
Why experiential learning sticks, and why we still find it so hard to take education outside
"Backlinking": Juliet Robertson's idea of offering hands-on outdoor activities and linking them to the curriculum afterwards
How outdoor learning fits the early years, primary and secondary curriculum, from mud kitchens and story stones to measuring trees with trigonometry
Climate education in practice: soil tests, watching the weather with the Beaufort scale, plant surveys and growing food
Tool use, vocational skills and confidence, and why hands-on skills matter for future careers
Contribution as a core part of belonging and wellbeing
What research on autistic children at Forest School tells us: the adults' attitudes can make or break a session
Why our practice is about relationship, not activity: consent-based practice, mutual dignity and humility
Do you need a qualification to take learning outdoors? (No, but you do need to be competent, reflect on your practice and carry out risk-benefit assessments)
Worried about losing control? How routines, rituals and clear boundaries help, and how to help children explain their thinking
Shaping the session around the learner, not the learner around the session, with nature as the "third actor"
Starting small with five-minute activities, managing large class ratios and giving teenagers real-life experiences (including the new Natural History GCSE)

Show Notes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-101-the-children-are-ready-are-we
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.

In this 100th episode of The Wild Minds Podcast, I'm in discussion with Michael James and Stefania Donzelli. We explore what Forest School and autism can teach us about difference, belonging, relationship and the ways we create environments where people can genuinely be themselves.
We discuss:
Why autism is far more than a diagnostic category, and what changes when we listen to autistic people’s own experiences and perspectives.
Moving beyond the deficit model and questioning the assumptions of neuro-normativity.
Forest School as a micro-community where relationships, trust, autonomy and belonging can create different possibilities.
The triangle of trust between practitioner, participant and environment and why all three matter.
The social model of disability and how barriers can sometimes sit in our environments, communication and expectations rather than in the individual.
Sensory differences and the outdoor environment, including why nature itself may need to be adapted rather than treated as something fixed and untouchable.
The importance of flexibility, communication and listening - recognising that the participant may be the greatest expert in their own experience.
Power and authority in Forest School, and what happens when we create spaces where people can question, negotiate and do things differently.
Intersectionality and Universal Design for Learning, and the value of anticipating different ways of participating, communicating and expressing ourselves.
Nature as an active participant, including a beautiful story about a non-speaking child, a wisteria and the possibility of seeing behaviour differently.
The importance of place, repeated encounters and embodied experience, and what the woods can offer beyond a prescribed programme of activities.
Curiosity, disagreement and connection in a polarised world, and why sometimes the answer might be to go to the woods, light a fire, have a cuppa and talk.

Show Notes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-100-forest-school-and-autism/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.

Welcome to episode 99 which was recorded in the middle of a sleepless night.
A quiet, unscripted reflection on gratitude, grief, wildness and the autumn question of what needs pruning and what is ready to be harvested.
In this episode:
Begins with a gratitude practice for the stillness of the night, for time, and for simply being present.
Reads Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese and reflects on letting “the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”
Marina sits with grief and unease about the climate crisis, noticing dry ground, stressed trees and early leaf-drop in the woods.
Explores the autumn equinox as a moment of balance between light and dark, and what that might mirror in our own lives.
Shares a simple woodland practice using rowan berries to notice where life feels in balance and where it does not.
Reflects on grounding through the senses, including getting to know the soil while imagining a future forest garden.
Uses the image of pruning an apple tree to ask what habits, patterns or inherited ways of being may need cutting back.
Considers wildness not as chaos, but as something that can liberate us while still asking for care, attention and tending.
Looks ahead to Episode 100, a conversation with Michael and Stefania on inclusion, neurodivergence and autism in Forest School practice.

Show Notes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-99-what-needs-pruning/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Ralph Mortimer-Roome, a GP based in Brighton and Chair of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex regional group of Greener Practice.
We discuss what changes when we stop seeing health as something that sits only inside the individual body, and begin to include climate, community, relationship and the living world in how we understand healing.
In this episode, we explore:
Why the climate crisis is also a health crisis — and why solutions for planetary health can also support human health.
What older medical traditions can teach us about health as balance, rather than simply the absence of disease.
The idea that illness has not only biological causes, but also social, political and environmental dimensions.
The tension between the transactional and relational sides of medicine — treating illness while also helping people feel heard and understood.
David Abram’s influence on Ralph’s thinking, particularly the idea of the healer as an intermediary between the human and more-than-human world.
Why mental distress can be understood through multiple lenses — biomedical, psychological, social, trauma-informed and spiritual.
How loneliness and social isolation can contribute to ill health, and whether nature disconnection may operate in a similar way.
Why doctors may need to recognise their own relationship with nature before they can notice nature disconnection in others.
What a green prescription can actually look like — from signposting and access to green spaces, to walking groups and supported outdoor care.
Why simply moving healthcare outdoors is not enough — and the difference between being outside and developing a relationship with nature.
What a more embedded nature-based care pathway in Sussex could look like, including outdoor consultations, local sites, social prescribing and primary care.
Ralph’s closing idea of nature as a gift rather than something to consume — rooted in reciprocity, care and the possibility of healing.

Show Notes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-98-what-if-nature-is-part-of-medicine/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.