How do you manage risk outdoors? What strategies can be used to ensure the safety of yourself and your clients?

The greatest risks when working outdoors are physical. This course explores how to evaluate and manage them to ensure the safety of yourself and your clients. It also provides insights into dealing with emergencies should something go wrong despite your best efforts.

The course includes practical risk management tools and pro-froma downloads to help you meet standards of best practice outdoors. 

This course provides essential learning for anyone who wants to work outdoors as a professional ecotherapy practitioner.

Learn to:

  • Explore how to assess risk in a variety of outdoor environments;

  • Learn a framework for formally evaluating risk when planning an outdoor programme;

  • Explore where the greatests risks lie when working therapeutically outdoors;

  • Discover stratagies for assessing and mitigating risk in real-time, while outdoors with your clients.

  • Learn how to prepare an emergency plan should anything go wrong.

Course Contents

    1. Welcome!

    2. Topics

      FREE PREVIEW

    3. Course Instructions

    4. Touching Ground

    1. Introduction

    2. NOTES: Risk Management Overview

    1. Risk Planning & Preparation

    2. NOTES: Risk Planning & Preparation

    1. Likelihood & Consequence

    2. NOTES: Likelihood & Consequence

    1. Risk Management Tips

    2. Summary

Ecotherapy Risk Management

  • 12 lessons
  • 5 notional study hours
  • Webinar podcasts
  • Pro-forma & sample form downloads

Instructor(s)

Course Director David Key

Dave co-led the post-graduate ecopsychology programme at the University of Strathclyde for seven years. He also taught ecopsychology at Schumacher College and as a lecturer at Universities including Edinburgh, Stirling, Plymouth, Exeter, Anglia Ruskin and Ashridge Business School.

Dave holds an MSc (Dist.) in Human Ecology and is a Fellow of the Centre for Human Ecology. He has over 25 years of practical experience facilitating transformative outdoor experiences and is an internationally qualified outdoor leader. He has published numerous papers, articles and chapters. His first book, 'Ecotherapy: A Field Guide' was published in 2023.