Held Outside
Nature Connection Experiences
Held Outside Nature Connection Experiences
How does being outside feel?
Held Outside provides guided nature connection experiences to support you to develop your relationships with nature.
These experiences include nature and forest therapy (also known as forest bathing and Shinrin Yoku), simple nature journaling, wild tending, events and rituals.
Held Outside is based on Gubbi Gubbi/Kabi Kabi land (Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia) and offers programs to adults, families and children. Read more about programs
What is guided nature & forest therapy?
Guided nature and forest therapy is an intentional practice of slowing the body and mind, awakening the senses and developing one’s relationship with nature.
It’s growing in popularity because research shows it’s healing and many are looking for ways to return to nature.
Amos Clifford, founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, says “The forest is the therapist, the guide just opens the doors”.
Connecting with nature can be done anywhere, for any length of time, but a guided nature therapy session will help you commit to nature, develop techniques, learn from and connect with others.
This video provides a quick summary of forest therapy, why it’s beneficial and what happens on a forest therapy walk with me.
You can also view a walk as filmed by Channel 7’s Weekender program.
Still curious? Read more on the blog or frequently asked questions pages or send me an email: heldoutside@gmail.com
Events
Go to Events to learn more about the kinds of events I offer,
or visit Held Outside | Humanitix for upcoming event dates
Private walks, remote nature therapy, nature journaling and nature connection courses available on request or buy a gift card to treat someone to a walk!
G’day, I’m Jay.
I’ve been a nature and forest therapy guided since 2020. I’ve always believed that we each have the simple responsibility to leave the world in a better way than we found it.
I have been a science educator for ten years, driven by the idea that the better informed we are as a society, the better decisions we’ll make about how we treat each other and our Earth. I’ve come to realise that for most of us, what we feel and what we know have become so separated that they no longer inform our actions. Because of this disconnect, every living thing on Earth is threatened.
For humans, nature connection can bring about or increase feelings of clarity, ease, solace, belonging and respect for all life. It helps us work through grief, digest and relate to big problems. I think most of us are looking for this, and that the rest of Earth’s inhabitants would welcome humans doing more of it too.
Certified guide
I completed my training with ANFT (the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides & Programs) cohort #52 in September 2020 and continue to be a professional member.
The association teaches a system of relational nature therapy. It brings together the practice of Shinrin Yoku (Japanese ‘forest bathing’), recommendations from the field of environmental psychology and traditional practices from our ancestors around the globe. It is underpinned by the scientific research that demonstrates physiological and psychological benefits of spending time in natural settings.
You can read about the research into nature therapy on the questions page and I also recommend a visit to Nature Wellbeing Australia.
More than just for individual benefit, the ANFT system looks to the capacity to benefit the more-than-human world when we develop our human-nature relationships. Perhaps nature therapy can help us evolve a more sustainable human culture.
Subscribe
Held Outside newsletters are my way to let you know about upcoming offerings, latest research and ideas to try nature bathing on your own.
Qualifications, permits & registrations
Current First Aid and CPR
Blue Card (Working With Children Check) 317101/5
NDIS Worker Screening Clearance 3273961
Sunshine Coast Regional Council land permits CUL21/0040 & CUL21/0005
Public liability insurance to $ 20,000,000
ANFT certified guide & professional membership (2020)
Graduate Diploma Science Communication (2009)
Bachelor of Science & Education, QUT (2008)
Contact
I’m keen to support people from all walks of life strengthen their relationships with nature.
I’m experienced in working with children, coordinating events and facilitating groups of adults and families.
Please email me if you have an idea or question, or subscribe to my newsletter or Facebook page for some inspiration!
heldoutside@gmail.com
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Feel held, outside.
© 2021 Held Outside
Buderim, Qld.
I acknowledge that this area of the Sunshine Coast (Australia) is the unceded lands of the Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi people and that a sentence on a website is not enough. I do my best to respect country and the elders and teachers past, present and emerging through how I live, speak and work.
May we all tread gently.
