Nature-based OT

Many of us feel the benefits of spending time in nature. But, these outdoor experiences often seem pretty far removed from our traditional occupational therapy work.

There’s a good chance you’ve already heard of nature-based occupational therapy, as it is a hot topic in the OT world. However, you might not be aware of the breadth of research available on this topic—and you might be pleasantly surprised by how well nature-based therapy aligns with your OT practice.

In this episode, we’ll explore a paper looking at the effects of horticulture group therapy on adults with mental health diagnoses. We’ll use this research to springboard into a broader discussion on the types of nature-based therapy, the research supporting this type of therapy, and the potential impact it might have on your practice.

To guide us through this topic, we’ll be joined by nature-based occupational therapist, Laura Park Figueroa, whose enthusiasm for the topic will certainly leave you eager to learn more!

Supplemental Materials

Theories discussed:

• Occupational Adaptation

• Attention Restoration Theory

• Place Integration (Malcolm Cutchin)

• Biophilia Hypothesis

Research discussed:

• View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery (Roger Ulrich)

• Nature’s role in outdoor therapies: An umbrella review

• Nature prescriptions for health: A review of evidence and research opportunities

Research that informed our conversation on the benefits of nature:

• The cognitive benefits of interacting with nature

• Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation

• The relationship between nature connectedness and happiness: A meta-analysis

• Benefits of nature contact for children

• The psychological and social benefits of a nature experience for children: A preliminary investigation

• Could exposure to everyday green spaces help treat ADHD? Evidence from children’s play settings

• Nature-based occupational therapy for children with developmental disabilities

• A review of the health benefits of greenness

• The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework

• Mental, physical and social health benefits of immersive nature-experience for children and adolescents: A systematic review and quality assessment of the evidence

• Physiological effects of Shinrin-Yoku (taking in the atmosphere of the forest)—using salivary cortisol and cerebral activity as indicators

• The relationship between nature connectedness and eudaimonic well-being: A meta-analysis

• Are young children’s utterances affected by characteristics of their learning environments? a multiple case study

Assessments:

• Connection to Nature Index (CNI)

Books:

• Nature-Based Therapy: A Practitioner’s Guide to Working Outdoors with Children, Youth, and Families

1. You will be able to identify the types of nature-based therapy in which OTs can be involved.

2. You will be able to describe ways that nature-based therapy research could impact occupational therapy delivery in traditional settings.

• Intro

• Breakdown and analysis of journal article

  • What is nature-based therapy?

  • Why was this paper written?

  • What were the authors’ methods?

  • What were the results?

  • Authors’ conclusion and recommendations

  • Takeaways for OT practitioners

• Discussion on practical implications for OTs (with guest Laura Park Figueroa)

  • What were your initial impressions of the research?

  • I really wanted to know more about the overall research behind the benefits of nature-based therapy. Can you speak to that?

  • Is there one area of nature-based therapy that is trailblazing the way in research?

  • When it comes to nature-based therapy, which assessments are you most excited about?

  • Do you think OTs in traditional settings (outpatient or SNF) should be tweaking their practice, based on the research we are seeing on nature-based therapy?

  • If someone was interested in diving further into nature-based therapy, where would you direct them?

  • What can the general population (and OTs, for that matter) take away from nature-based therapy research?

Primary:

• Nature based solution for improving mental health and well-being in urban areas

Additional:

• Nature’s role in outdoor therapies: An umbrella review

• Nature prescriptions for health: A review of evidence and research opportunities

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

OT Potential pays guest speakers an honorarium for their participation, either directly or to an institution of the speaker's choosing at their request. We invite guests whose expertise often comes from practices, programs, or building products in their field. Where a speaker has a financial interest in the subject of a course, we disclose it below so you can weigh it for yourself.

OT Potential's interest in this topic: We have no financial stake in nature-based therapy.

Speaker interests: Laura Park Figueroa is the founder of Outdoor Kids OT and the creator of the ConTiGO Approach, a paid training program for therapists who want to practice outdoors.