Woods on prescription

Join one of our free wellbeing courses, held in local woodlands

At times, many of us can experience feeling lonely, isolated or down. If this is you at the moment, and you’re finding it hard to know how to feel more like yourself again, then you might be interested to hear that spending time in nature has been shown to reduce our stress and boost our mood.

During the year we run free courses for adults who would like to improve their sense of wellbeing. Through regular woodland activity sessions, our Woods on Prescription courses help connect you with nature as well as meet new people in your community.

If you would like to join us, please get in touch. We also welcome referrals from health professionals.

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Who is this support for?

Our Woods on Prescription sessions are for adults who wish to improve their sense of wellbeing. Previous participants have joined the course because they have been experiencing low mood, feelings of isolation, or loneliness. Some people have decided to try the course as they have experienced a challenging life event, whereas others have reported feeling down over a gradual period of time.

Most people refer themselves to join the sessions, but we also welcome referrals from social prescribers, GPs and other health professionals.

We run groups twice a year at different locations across the project area in Sussex. If you would like to join a course, please see details of upcoming courses below, or contact us to let us know where you’d like a course to be held in the future.

We also support children and young people through our projects that work directly with Community Groups in our project area. We can support Community Groups for adults in our woodlands for wellbeing approach, providing you with session plans, activity ideas, and in-person support.

What happens during a session?

The sessions are different each week. We might be trying our hand at a woodland craft, going on a nature walk, or doing some light conservation tasks.

The group always ends the session with tea and cake, and shared thoughts and experiences, along with a nature-based task for the coming week.

We base our sessions on the NHS’s Five Ways to Wellbeing approach, so that by the time the course ends, you’ll have some practical tools for the future.

Previous participants said:

“I’ve had the most beautiful time”, “It’s got me out of the house and back into the world again”, and “It’s made me proud of our local area”.

A Woods on Prescription group enjoying a wildlife walk with Michael from the team

Upcoming courses

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Our Woods on Prescription facilitators

Our wellbeing courses are organised by Karen Laver and Cathy Cross from the Lost Woods team. Karen has a background in therapeutic play, family support and facilitating groups, as well as mindfulness and forest school. She loves learning about nature and has really noticed what a positive impact this has had on her wellbeing.

Cathy is a Forest School leader, qualified psychotherapist, and member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy who has trained in outdoor therapy. She has experience working with groups and individuals in outdoor sessions as well as in a clinical environment, and has worked in conservation and rewilding.

A previous participant said:

“The ethos of the group's very gentle, very allowing, very supportive, and [there’s] sort of permission to just go with what you feel. I think it's always really, carefully held.”

Karen & Cathy