BRADLEY WILLIAMS: ADVENTURING INTO NATURE-BASED THERAPY

 

Bradley Williams is an occupational therapist in Adelaide, Australia. His fabulous business, Naturally Gathered, offers pop-up nature playgroups for children and families. Brad is also venturing into offering nature-based occupational therapy services for children, and he had some questions he wanted to ask me about business start-up of a nature-based OT practice. So OF COURSE I asked him to come on the podcast! And he graciously agreed. You’ll hear about Brad’s nature-based practice, and then we turned the tables and he asked me a bunch of questions. I hope our conversation may help all of YOU who are interested in nature-based therapy!

Here’s the rundown of some of what we covered!

• The three goals of Brad’s nature-based business, Naturally Gathered

• How to slowly start your business on the side of your current work

• How to focus in your nature-based therapy work

• Why you need a theoretical framework for nature-based therapy

• Tips for screening kids for group placement in nature-based therapy groups

• Why a mix of kids with different needs in a group is best. (Look up Pamela Wolfberg’s research on Integrated Playgroups for children with autism.)

• I again mention Occupational Adaptation theory...my favorite OT theory because it applies to all of LIFE!

• The assessment and intake process at Outdoor Kids OT

• Why you need to focus on 1-2 goals for children who are in nature-based OT small-groups

• Goal-attainment scaling- why it helps you focus on the ONE most important thing you’re addressing in therapy

• Liability insurance for nature-based therapy (it’s a “community setting” everyone!)

• How to help parents understand healthy risk-taking in nature play

• Why training is valuable when starting out in nature-based therapy 

• How to get awesome, engaged volunteers to help you with your nature-based therapy groups

• Brad recommends Seth Godin’s books on marketing- focusing on the customer and offering VALUE to them. (Why it isn’t bad to make money while serving people!)

• Last tip: I highly recommend Meet Edgar for social media management. It frees up SO much time as a business owner, especially in the early days of managing it all on your own! Use this referral link to get $10 off of Meet Edgar.

Go learn about Naturally Gathered and read Brad’s blog- good stuff there! www.naturallygathered.com.au

You can also connect with Brad on Facebook and Instagram @naturallygathered

🌿P.S. IF YOU WANT SPECIALIZED TRAINING TO BEGIN OFFERING NATURE-BASED THERAPY IN YOUR PRACTICE WITH CHILDREN, JOIN US AT THE INAUGURAL THERAPY IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS TRAINING RETREAT, NOV. 2-5, 2019 IN SOQUEL, CA. $100 OFF EARLY REGISTRATION UNTIL JULY 15 WITH CODE EARLYBIRD. 🐦