On March 19th I wrote a throw away comment on a very short post which was a poem. The post mentioned Dose of Nature. This is a relatively new charity which I have become a guide for. You can find out more about the charity here: https://www.doseofnature.org.uk/
This charity was recommended to me by a GP (General Practitioner for those of you overseas – otherwise known as a Doctor of medicine) friend of mine who knows of my interest in nature and the desire to help people to connect with it. I looked at the website and discovered to be a volunteer all that was required was a love of the outdoors, enthusiasm for working with people and empathy and compassion. That’s me I thought so I signed up and was accepted after a short interview and having my two references checked.
The role is a one-on-one approach with a client with different needs over an eight week period for at least an hour every week. The idea is to encourage that person to try and get outside and make use of outdoor green space in between sessions.* There are different techniques to help facilitate this including mindful walks, art, birdwatching and so forth. We work with the client helping them to identify what areas they would like to focus on outside that they could take away to engage with.
Here are a couple of great short videos (1) and (2) which speak about the work of Dose of Nature and their partnership with the National Trust.
(DON Originally began in Kensington which is where there main base is but they branched out to Guildford in 2022/3. They operate out of Dapdune Wharf down near the River Wey which is a National Trust centre).
A related aside I have written about nature connectedness before when I did a small review on Miles Richardson’s work.
*There are 6 active ingredients that nature provides which have been found from research these are drawn upon in sessions with clients. The 6 active ingredients are:
Summarised from Dose of Nature Handbook (PDF)