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In short: My journey to creating Wild N’ Well Outdoors

Writer's picture: Luke BlackhamLuke Blackham

As a counsellor working with young people I often felt constrained working inside. The rooms I was given could be stuffy, cramped or just plain.. it wouldn't do forever!


Eventually, I became more confident in my skills and learning to manage confidentiality outside the room, I would take young people on walks around the school grounds I worked in. We would find ourselves on a bench, sitting under or in a tree in or simply walking around a field. This added a new layer of therapy for me and I soon found my myself I conciously using the affordances of the environment to support therapeutic dialogue. A tree in the breeze does wonders for meditation by the way.



The key turning point for me was when I found myself in a Forest School with one young person, I didn't know it at the time but the little human I was supporting requested that we use the site for our sessions. They told me what Forest School was and what they did ,such as lighting fires, exploring the natural world and connecting with each other. I was intrigued and was able to speak further to the schools Forest school lead who just inspired me even for, as soon as I had chance I was qualified!


My qualification in Forest School coincided with my appointment as a junior schools wellbeing coordinator. Here I offered outdoor interventions for 1:1, and group work support. I worked with SEMH, SEND and behavioural needs but also offfered universal sessions for all the children in the school. This work was the focus of my masters dissertation which was eventually published https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729679.2021.1984964


For the COVID pandemic Forest School was a refudge and a place of serenity.


After my time at that wonderful school I decided to move on and work four days a week at a youth charity and started setting up Wild N' Well Outdoors. Wild n' We'll would see me combine all I love into one approach; counselling, youth work and outdoor education. Since starting I have offered home education programmes, adventure therapies and one to one nature-based counselling.



I love working with people and am never happier when doing this outdoors!


Luke Wild N' Well

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