Nature Facilitation Training

What is the course?

Our facilitation training course is designed for anyone looking to start or deepen their experience of leading groups in nature to bring about enhanced wellbeing and catalyse positive change. The course combines theory and practice, and fosters a supportive learning environment that will enhance your confidence and nurture your personal and professional growth.

Why?

Experiences in nature can act as powerful catalysts for deep and profound personal transformation, which is an essential part of the change we need in the world. The science is now proving what we all know instinctively – that connecting with nature is good for us. Studies show that it enhances our wellbeing, creativity, vitality, positivity, generosity and sense of purpose, while reducing depression, anxiety and attentional fatigue.

Who is it for?

Anyone looking to harness the incredible potential of nature to enhance wellbeing and create positive change in people’s lives. We’ve found that people from a wide variety of professional backgrounds join this programme and all of them find creative ways of applying the learning to their work and personal lives. For example, on our 2019 programme we had a scientific researcher; a poet; a university lecturer; a social worker who supports vulnerable women, refugees, and adults with learning difficulties; a business coach; a mindfulness practitioner; a baker who worked with adults recovering from mental health crises; a climate change policy strategist; and an entrepreneurial events manager.

What will you come away with?

Tools, techniques, knowledge, skills, support and the confidence to make a difference. With an emphasis on practice, you will be gaining experience of facilitation and be supported by a community of fellow learners and doers. Rekindling your own connection with nature and community will also deepen your sense of purpose and resource you to feel more alive in these challenging times.

What can you do after it has finished?

You will leave this course feeling more equipped and empowered to set off in a new direction, or to take your existing work out into a natural setting. The course will enable you to join a growing movement of activists, businesses, charities, public sector organisations, schools, social prescribers and leadership practitioners who are turning towards nature to help make people feel better and create positive change (for example, the Government’s commitment to nature-based support for mental health care in England, HSBC’s nature-based sustainability training and Extinction Rebellion’s emphasis on nature connection as part of creating a regenerative culture).

What support is there going forwards?

You will be part of a growing movement and invited to join the alumnni of over 150 people who have completed this course and who connect regularly to support, co-create and collaborate together so that you do not feel you have to take things forward all on your own. This includes invitations to:

• A monthly online workshop facilitated by past participants to connect with others and deepen knowledge and skills.
• An annual in-person gathering.
• Opportunities to meet up in-person with local people who have completed the course.
• Explore the possibility to collaborate with others (many participants both within and across cohorts have led workshops and nature camps together).

Course Programme and Objectives

The programme is comprised of a six day intensive course in nature, complemented with distance learning for two months afterwards.

In addition to any personal learning objectives, you will develop:

• Group facilitation and leadership skills
• Knowledge and experience of powerful group and community-building processes
• Ability to design programmes, drawing upon a number of different change models and frameworks
• A varied toolkit of nature connection practices
• Communication skills to engage your audience, as well as deep listening skills and techniques (to both the human and more-than-human world)
• More clarity on personal goals and objectives - such as how to make this relevant to your field/context and what you might want to offer to others
• A deeper personal connection with nature
• Some practical nature skills, with options to experience fire-making, fire cooking and setting up a group space
• The confidence to keep growing as a facilitator through practice, support and feedback

After our physical time together, you will be invited to facilitate two group practices or taster sessions for people within your personal or professional community. This provides experience in a real life context, and is an opportunity to put what you have learnt into practice. The cohort then provide a valuable forum for feedback and group learning. You will also receive inspiration and support through a buddy system and more intimate learning groups. An online folder and WhatsApp group is used for discussions, sharing resources, joint learning, posting questions and exploring emerging themes.

Our Impact

We have now run ten Nature Facilitation Courses since 2019 - training over 150 participants over that time. We are really pleased with the impact, and this is why…

• 95% gained in confidence to lead groups
• 95% felt ready and comfortable to apply new facilitation models in practice
• 93% felt they had built a strong, supportive learning community
• 93% deepened their own connection to nature
• 92% experienced a significant improvement in their personal wellbeing
• 85% found clarity about what they wanted to offer others