Activ8
Our Activ8 program delivers outreach mental health support through a combination of individual and small group therapeutic sessions, taking place outdoors in nature.
We have created a proven model of care that works for young people who won’t engage with conventional mental health services. For many struggling young people, even getting through the door and sitting in a clinical office space is too overwhelming. At Human Nature we take a fundamentally different approach by taking young people out of the office and into nature, where they are more comfortable to engage in therapeutic services and form meaningful relationships with our team of mental health professionals. Instead of asking them to come to us, we bring the therapy to them.
Young people are allocated an Adventure Therapist (a Psychologist, Social Worker or Counsellor) and/or a Therapeutic Mentor (a trained and highly experienced youth worker.) This therapeutic partnership provides participants with tailored support to address their complex needs while also supporting them to develop positive future pathways. Our multi disciplinary team ensures young people can safely learn to develop positive coping mechanisms, increase physical activity and time in nature, reconnect to their peers and engage meaningfully in their wider community.
Our dynamic team provides nature-based mentoring, individual and group mental health support, skill building, and physical adventure activities that focus on building resilience and empowering young people to overcome challenges and fundamentally improve their quality of life. Our point of difference is meeting young people wherever they are, significantly reducing barriers to accessing support, and working with them in a highly tailored way for as long as they need.
Conventional one-hour sessions with a Psychologist over a limited timeframe often only scratch the surface of the issues young people are facing, often addressing only the most urgent symptoms. Our programs are uniquely designed to reach young people who are in desperate need of support but reluctant to engage in conventional services. Activ8 bridges the massive gap between youth work and crisis mental health interventions. Each session is co-designed to meet young people where they are – developmentally, psychologically, emotionally, and geographically – and take place in outdoor environments most conducive to the young persons’ sustained engagement and receptiveness to therapeutic support.
Taking young people out of the office and into nature is fundamental to the Human Nature approach and creates an ideal environment for participants of our Activ8 program to build meaningful connections with our team of mental health professionals.
