Therapy in the Great Outdoors: The Business & Practice of Nature-Based Pediatric Therapy

I'm really excited because today's guest is the first one who isn't in the field of occupational therapy. Carolyn Parker is a speech therapist from the Mount Pleasant, Michigan area who grew up loving the outdoors, but actually came to nature-based therapy slowly and unintentionally by incorporating outdoor time and natural materials into her therapy.

In today's episode, Carolyn shares how she started her practice, what exactly nature-based speech therapy entails, especially for the children she works with who have complex communication needs, and the need for more research on the benefits of nature and speech therapy. We also discuss our vision for the future of nature-based therapy and what interdisciplinary collaboration between OT, PT, SLP, and mental health fields could do for the future of pediatric therapy.

Carolyn's passion for nature and making it accessible to her patients is wonderful to see and I can't wait to witness how she grows her practice and what her contributions to her field will be going forward.

We'll discuss:

• [01:42] Carolyn's background in speech therapy and how she came to the idea to take speech therapy outdoors
• [06:27] The dismissiveness and confusion Carolyn has faced from other colleagues about doing therapy outside
• [11:13] How Carolyn runs her speech therapy practice and why having a small practice works for her stage of life
• [20:10] What a nature-based speech therapy session entails, especially with children who have complex communication needs
• [29:14] Why having good clinical reasoning skills and being able to reflect and pivot is important in a therapy practice
• [40:10] How nature-based speech therapy is a small, but growing field
• [47:26] The value in collaborating and co-treating across the SLP, OT, PT, and mental health fields

Connect with Carolyn:

Stepping Stones Speech Therapy, PLLC

Follow Carolyn on Instagram

Follow Carolyn on Facebook

About Stepping Stones Speech Therapy:

Stepping Stones Speech Therapy, PLLC offers in-home speech and language therapy for pediatric clients within the Central Michigan area. Carolyn has over 10 years of experience working with children and specializes in the areas of speech sound disorders, early language acquisition, and augmentation/alternative communication (AAC). Stepping Stones prioritizes nature-based learning and time outside as a therapeutic tool for language learning. We also offer parent education, play groups, and educational consulting.

Responding to nature: Natural environments improve parent-child communication

The importance of play in natural environments for children's language development: an explorative study in early childhood education

The Impact of Time Spent in Natural Outdoor Spaces on Children's Language, Communication and Social Skills: A Systematic Review Protocol (This is a published protocol for a systematic review that is likely being conducted at time of this podcast publication. May want to check back on the author's names in the future by using scholar.google.com to read the systematic review when it is eventually published.)

Nature-Based Therapy: Its Potential as a Complementary Approach to Treating Communication Disorders

🌎 Join the Therapy in the Great Outdoors (TGO) Community to get free support as a nature-based pediatric therapist.

🥾 Download my free guide The Nature-Based Practice ROADMAP to help you start or grow your nature-based pediatric therapy practice.

🌈 Join the waitlist for the ConTiGO Approach Online Course if you want to be an expert in nature-based pediatric therapy (+ get mentoring from expert nature-based therapists & free marketing of your practice on our ConTiGO Certified® directory of practitioners).

🐝 Join the waitlist for the TGO Business Hive if you want help starting and growing your nature-based BUSINESS.

Today's episode is a little bit different! I'm writing a book on nature-based pediatric therapy and after reviewing the outline, I realized I'd love to know what YOU would like to see in this book. What are the things that would help you the most if you're interested in this topic or in running a nature-based practice?

In the episode, I share a little history on how and why I'm writing this book, but I mainly want some feedback from you. I'll be focusing on my ConTiGO approach and my ECO-Therapy model (from my dissertation research). The intended audience will be occupational, physical, and speech therapists, and also mental health counselors and social workers.

I'm really looking forward to your comments and I'm excited to get this book written and out into the world.

We'll discuss:

• [00:00] My request for your feedback and a little background on my publishing journey so far
• [03:55] What the book will be about and my rough outline
• [07:08] The ConTiGO approach I developed in 2019 and my eco therapy model
• [08:41] Who this book is primarily geared towards
• [10:36] My desire for this book to be equal parts practice and business and why

Resources from this episode:

• Book: Nature-Based Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide to Working Outdoors with Children, Youth, and Families by Nevin Harper, Kathryn Rose, David Segal
• Book: Nature-Based Allied Health Practice: Creative and Evidence-Based Strategies by Amy Wagenfeld and Shannon Marder (Oct 2023)

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? Join the waitlist for the ConTiGO Approach Online Course.

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join the free TGO community, a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners to support you as you start or grow a nature-based practice or program.

Download my free guide The Nature-Based Practice ROADMAP to help you start or grow your nature-based pediatric therapy practice.

If you're serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive.

Today's guest is an occupational therapy masters student who has already made waves by applying her OT lens in a unique way. Inspired by a life full of nature and travel with her family as well as her siblings who have disabilities, Ashlyn Southard recognized the lack of accessibility in the national parks system and wanted to do something about it.

In today's episode, she's sharing how she landed a paid internship working at Grand Teton, the resources she created both for families visiting and for staff to be more informed on accessibility, and how therapists can offer support to families specific to their vacations.

Ashlyn's passion for bringing more awareness and accessibility into the national parks is something that is so needed. I can't wait to see what Ashlyn contributes to the nature-based therapy space in the future and hope that her work in the national parks system lives on.

We'll discuss:

• The nonprofit process I'm starting to help fund and support children attending nature-based therapy services
• How Ashlyn's siblings with intellectual developmental disabilities and her family's affinity for travel (particularly to national parks) influenced her interest in nature-based therapy
• How Ashlyn pitched her OT services to the National Park Service and got a job working for the Grand Teton Association
• How she helped prepare parents for the sensory experiences to expect when visiting the park with their kids as well as learning opportunities she created for kids
• Barriers that parks and outdoor spaces have when it comes to disabilities and the environment
• How therapists can support families with children who have special needs that are going on vacation/interacting with nature
• Ashlyn's passion for sibling support, and the importance of groups and community in this work

Resources from this episode:

Connect with Ashlyn on LinkedIn

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? Join the waitlist for the ConTiGO Approach Online Course.

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join the free TGO community, a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners to support you as you start or grow a nature based practice or program.

Download my free guide The Nature-Based Practice ROADMAP to help you start or grow your nature-based pediatric therapy practice.

If you're serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive.

My 10-Minute Takeaway series is back, and I'm diving into a recently published article on the effect of using nature-based rehabilitation on adults. While my practice is primarily for pediatrics, seeing an article like this in a major journal is so exciting, because it might mean that nature-based therapy is becoming more mainstream.

In today's episode, I'm diving into this article and sharing my biggest take-aways including further affirmation for the theory of nature-based therapy, previous studies down laying the ground-work for incorporating nature into therapy, and why we need a solid framework to inform our practice, especially in pediatric-nature based therapy.

We'll discuss:

• Why I'm so excited to see a new nature-based therapy study
• Previous articles which explored adding nature into the therapy process
• How nature can help clients on four different dimensions related to OT
• How time in nature led to clients enjoying therapy more than previous sessions
• Why it's so important to have a therapeutic rationale and framework in nature-based work and especially for pediatric clients
• Why I'm so passionate about my nature-based framework and why more frameworks are needed

Resources from this episode:

Article from this episode: Occupational therapists and physiotherapists experiences of using nature-based rehabilitation

Ulrich article: View through a window may influence recovery from surgery

Ronan Berger's article: Theory and Practice of Nature Therapy

Wilcock & Hocking (2015) An Occupational Perspective of Health, 3rd edition. Published by SLACK.

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? Join the waitlist for the ConTiGO Approach Online Course.

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join the free TGO community, a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners to support you as you start or grow a nature based practice or program.

Download my free guide The Nature-Based Practice ROADMAP to help you start or grow your nature-based pediatric therapy practice.

If you're serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive.

Homeschooling, unfortunately, comes with a lot of stigmas from those who aren't familiar with it. On the flip side, it's also becoming more and more common as parents want to find more individualized ways of learning for their kids.

In today's episode, I'm chatting with Sarah Collins of Homeschool OT, who provides consultation services for occupational therapists and homeschoolers. She's sharing practical ideas for both homeschoolers and OTs, best practices for OTs on how to approach conversations with homeschoolers, and three homeschooling philosophies and how they're beneficial to nature-based therapy.

Nature-based therapy practitioners can benefit from understanding the ecosystem of homeschooling, and homeschoolers can benefit from integrating nature-based OT practices into their daily lives. I hope this episode inspires you to learn more about how you can work with homeschooling communities as an OT.

We'll discuss:

• How homeschooling her kids led Sarah to transition to specifically working with homeschool communities/parents and occupational therapists as a homeschool consultant with OT experience
• What to say and what not to say as an OT working with homeschool parents and communities, and debunking stigmas about homeschooling
• Finding the balance between letting homeschool kids develop at their own pace and catching any needs early so they can be addressed, and how to approach providing support to homeschool communities as an OT
• The Charlotte Mason method of education; the beauty and importance of living books; how the science of relations works in narration, and how it teaches us to listen
• How unschooling lends itself to nature-based therapy, how traditional school subjects are innately built into the learning, and how you can build therapy into the child's interests
• How COVID gave a lot of people the confidence to homeschool
• The Waldorf philosophy, and how form drawing can be beneficial in nature-based therapy

Connect with Sarah:

Homeschool OT website

Follow Sarah on Instagram

Join Homeschool Therapy Ideas Facebook group

Resources from this episode:

Perspectives of Homeschool Educators on Occupational Therapy: A Pilot Study

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (a great example of a living book for middle schoolers!)

Simply Charlotte Mason podcast episode: How to Spot a Great Picture Book

Karla the UNschooling Mama

John Holt, unschooling proponent

National Home Education Research Institute

Coastal Connections Pediatric Therapy

Angela Lord's book on form drawing

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join our free Therapy in the Great Outdoors Community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com. The TGO community is a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners. We have loads of resources there to support you as you start or grow a nature based practice or program.

Download my free guide The Nature-Based Practice ROADMAP to help you focus (and avoid costly mistakes!) as you start or grow your nature-based pediatric therapy practice.

If you're serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive. You'll get clarity & confidence to grow a profitable and personally fulfilling business that runs on auto-pilot as much as possible.

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? The ConTiGO Approach Online Course will open for registration soon: visit www.ConTiGOapproach.com to join the waitlist.

When growing your nature-based therapy practice, it's important to think of all the ways that you can connect with parents and teachers in your community. Partnering with schools is a great way to connect with families that could benefit from your services. Even better: if there are forest schools in your town, that's an obvious environment to build long-lasting relationships.

In today's episode, I'm doing a live coaching call with Erin Wilke, who is a member of the TGO Business Hive. She's sharing how she has connected with the forest schools in her area to cultivate relationships that can bring forth new clients. She has great ideas on how to fill her daytime hours, and I'm sharing some ways that she can expand on her ideas and make them a reality.

The benefit of having a coach means that you can have brainstorming sessions, such as this one, that help you to understand your options, gain insight from an experienced mentor, and build the confidence to grow your business in a way that works for you.

We'll discuss:

• Erin's ideas for how to fill the daytime hours in her business, including screening or in-services that could lead to new patients
• The benefits to having outdoor and indoor space for your practice
• How an O.T. can be helpful in a forest school
• How you can use free or low-cost services as marketing tools for long-term business
• My advice for how Erin can add benefits to her services, and how she can build out her offerings into a system
• Things to consider when setting your prices, including setting expectations
• Erin reminds us not be afraid to put yourself out there
• The support Erin has found in the TGO Business Hive, why she joined, and why she thinks others should join

Resources from this episode:

N/A

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join our free Therapy in the Great Outdoors Community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com. The TGO community is a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners. We have loads of resources there to support you as you start or grow a nature based practice or program.

Download my free guide The Nature-Based Practice ROADMAP to help you focus (and avoid costly mistakes!) as you start or grow your nature-based pediatric therapy practice.

If you're serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive. You'll get clarity & confidence to grow a profitable and personally fulfilling business that runs on auto-pilot as much as possible.

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? The ConTiGO Approach Online Course will open for registration soon: visit www.ConTiGOapproach.com to join the waitlist.

A nature-based practice that embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion, that is accessible, and that is representative of all kinds of people and abilities—this is how to make sure that nature is available to everyone.

In today's episode, I'm talking with Mya Zavaleta about the importance of DEI (or IDEAR, as she refers to it) within nature-based practices, ways to increase social accessibility, being open and honest about being inclusive in your practice, and how to engage with communities of a socioeconomic status who might not be able to afford your services.

When it comes to IDEAR, one of the most important things you can do, especially as a white person, is truly listen to people in communities that are not your own. Take the time to understand their needs, their history, their desires. Taking small steps to help people feel like they belong in nature yields big rewards.

We'll discuss:

• What diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) means, why representation is important, and why Mya emphasizes inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA)
• Considering social accessibility when it comes to nature-based therapy, and ways to introduce nature to kids who aren't familiar it and get them comfortable in the environment
• The importance of land acknowledgment (honoring the land and the Native Americans who inhabited it) and inclusive images on your website if you desire to be more inclusive
• Mya's perspective on the difficulty of socioeconomic inclusion when running a cash-based business, and other ways that she engages with broader communities who are not her clients
• Why Mya focuses on the resilient promoting aspect of her services
• The importance of observing, listening, and asking questions as a white person working in communities of color and taking the time to build a relationship of trust

Connect with Mya:

Mya's website

Follow Mya on Instagram

Resources from this episode:

The Nature Gap: Confronting Racial and Economic Disparities in the Destruction and Protection of Nature in America

Birding as a Therapeutic Tool for All Children with Freya McGregor

Children & Nature Network Research Digest: Inequitable Access to Nature—Awareness and Action

Resource for writing a land acknowledgment statement

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join our free Therapy in the Great Outdoors Community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com. The TGO community is a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners. We have loads of resources there to support you as you start or grow a nature based practice or program.

Download my free guide The Nature-Based Practice ROADMAP to help you focus (and avoid costly mistakes!) as you start or grow your nature-based pediatric therapy practice.

If you're serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive. You'll get clarity & confidence to grow a profitable and personally fulfilling business that runs on auto-pilot as much as possible.

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? The ConTiGO Approach Online Course will open for registration soon: visit www.ConTiGOapproach.com to join the waitlist.

When it comes to hiring, you have to make sure that potential employees are the right fit for your business. It takes time to know what you're looking for and to find them, but it's worth it in the long run to have systems in place that help make hiring a smooth process.

In today's episode, I share five practices I use in my business to hire great people. Building a team that aligns with the values of your business is crucial to the success of the business. When you have that alignment, you know that your team is carrying out those values, supporting your approach to nature-based practice, and delivering consistent services to the families you serve.

I hope that the tips in this episode help you to get clear on what you want in an employee. And if you're looking for more in-depth business coaching and a supportive community, the doors to TGO Business Hive open at the end of this month. We'd love to have you.

In this episode, we'll discuss:

• An update on my business numbers from last episode, and the importance of asking questions of your accountant to better understand your numbers
• Choosing 3-4 business values so that you know who you are looking for when you hire, plus what my business value are and how they inform my hiring process
• Writing your application and interview guide in alignment with your business values, and why you want job applicants to pay attention to details and reply thoughtfully
• How asking for work samples can help you further investigate the quality of an applicant's work
• How doing a working interview allows you (or your employees) to see that person in their true work environment
• The importance of relying on your therapists and employees to give you honest feedback about potential hires
• Details on the TGO Business Hive—our year-long group coaching program for nature-based business owenrs. The doors are opening next week if you're looking for community and a business coach to help you grow your practice—and the outcomes you can expect from the program.

Resources from this episode:

Sandy York - Fit Money Coach (my accountant)

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join our free Therapy in the Great Outdoors Community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com. The TGO community is a private space just for nature-based pediatric practitioners. We have loads of resources there to support you as you start or grow a nature-based practice or program.

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? The ConTiGO Approach Online Course will open for registration soon: visit www.ConTiGOapproach.com to join the waitlist.

If you're serious about starting and growing your own nature-based business, join The TGO Business Hive. You'll get clarity & confidence to grow a profitable and personally fulfilling nature-based business that runs on auto-pilot as much as possible.

It's a new year, and you know what that means: it's time for a year-end review. Each year, I sit down and do my best to be transparent with you about how my business did. From the outside, it might seem like my business is huge and thriving – and it is doing well, but I learned some hard lessons too.

And even though I'm ending the year with over $50k in my business accounts, my profit margins for 2022 have been really slim. Instead of being a year of major financial growth, 2022 ended up being a reorganization year. I spent some money in places that I probably shouldn't have, but I also made some investments that are going to set my businesses up for future success.

So in today's episode, I'm breaking down how I reorganized my businesses, how and why I spent some much money in the businesses this year, and my big goals for next year. Even if some of my numbers feel a little embarrassing, sitting down to reflect on the year helped me to appreciate the small and big wins and get clarity on my plans for next year, and I encourage you to take time to do the same.

We'll discuss:

• Why I officially separated my two businesses and how that's clarified my business finances
• The wins from last year for both TGO and Outdoor Kids OT
• How my team has grown and how I'm working on company culture this year
• I finally finished my dissertation! (And I'm writing a book)
• How I'm learning to celebrate all moments, big and small
• How last year was about reorganizing and creating new products, and why this year is about maintaining stability
• My business revenue and profits from 2022, and financial lessons I've learned about managing and analyzing your numbers
• My goals for 2023, and how I'm continuing to build on and structure my businesses to be more streamlined

Resources from this episode:

Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat by Michael Masterson

Grab my FREE e-book: The Nature-Based Practice ROADMAP

Join the waitlist for the ConTiGO course

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join our free Therapy in the Great Outdoors Community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com. The TGO community is a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners. We have loads of resources there to support you as you start or grow a nature based practice or program.

If you're serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive. You'll get clarity & confidence to grow a profitable and personally fulfilling business that runs on auto-pilot as much as possible.

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? The ConTiGO Approach Online Course will open for registration soon: visit www.ConTiGOapproach.com to join the waitlist.

Kids (adults, too) are attracted to the magic of birds—they can be colorful, they make different sounds, they hop, they fly. Birds connect people to nature in fascinating and varying ways. Seeing the same birds in your environment and learning about them can help form a deeper understanding and relationship with the natural world.

In today's episode, I'm chatting with Freya McGregor, an O.T. and disabled birder, about how birding is a beautifully accessible activity that you can add as a tool to your nature-based therapy practice. She shares how to use it as a mindfulness tool, how to adapt birding activities to different needs, and why it's truly accessible, even if it doesn't appear that way at first glance.

This is a delightful and exciting conversation that I hope will leave you with lots of ideas and inspiration for incorporating birding into your nature-based therapy practice.

We'll discuss:

• Freya's experience as an O.T., her nonprofit Birdability, her new organization, Access Birding, and a sneak peak of what's going to be in her upcoming book
• How vast and individual and detailed the world of birding is
• How birding can be used as a mindfulness tool
• Different styles of birding that can be used in nature-based therapy, and how to adapt the styles to different children's needs
• How learning about the birds that you see regularly in your environment is the first step to exploring and understanding differences in other bird species
• How therapists could partner with Audubon or ornithological societies
• Social and cultural barriers into birding, and why you don't need equipment to be a birder

Connect with Freya:

Follow Freya on Instagram

Follow Access Birding on Instagram

Freya's website

Access Birding website

Resources from this episode:

Ornitherapy by Holly Merker

Meg Proctor's Instagram

Merlin Bird ID app

If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join our free Therapy in the Great Outdoors Community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com. The TGO community is a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners. We have loads of resources there to support you as you start or grow a nature based practice or program.

If you're serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive. You'll get clarity & confidence to grow a profitable and personally fulfilling business that runs on auto-pilot as much as possible.

Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? The ConTiGO Approach Online Course will open for registration soon: visit www.ConTiGOapproach.com to join the waitlist.