Dave Key / Natural Change Genesis

I’ve been running outdoor courses based on the same approach as the Natural Change Project for over 12 years now. First in New Zealand where I developed the original programme as an outdoor leadership course, while working at ‘OPC’, New Zealand’s National Outdoor Training Centre, and then as a freelance facilitator working in Europe, mostly in Scotland.

The approach evolved quite naturally out of my experiences of working with a diversity of groups outdoors. I simply noticed that ‘something happens’, as the Scottish conservationist and father of the global national park movement, John Muir, said. I focussed on that ‘something’ and intentional tried to work with it. My belief - based on my own experiences rock climbing, mountaineering and sea kayaking - was that experiences of wild places had the power to transform the way we think, feel and act towards the environment, other people, and towards ourselves. For me that belief has now been tested and proven.

About four years ago, I realised that this type of ‘outdoor education for sustainability’, as it became, was actually more about healing than education. I like the definition of healing as ‘becoming whole’. Something to do with becoming complete, authentic and conscious of our place in the web of life. At this time I met Mary-Jayne Rust, a Jungian Analyst based in London, and we started developing and running ‘Ecotherapy’ courses together. This proved to be a rich and extraordinary process that has led to the techniques and processes that I am now using in my role as facilitator of the Natural Change Project.