Gippsland Adventure Therapy

03/07/2025

Even though G*T is no longer offering a face to face service, I still like to keep the idea of helping young people heal in the outdoors and positive role models. Thanks for keeping me involved in this inspiring Social Sciences Week listening to amazing humans share their ideas and actions in helping people in a mostly outdoor space.

Cheers Will Dobud - Author, Researcher, Practitioner for you work on this.

I'm not prepared to announce all the presentations for this year but...this will be our best one yet. Still a few more to register. But seriously, this is such a wonderful group of humans sharing their work, experiences, and passion. Excited for the new voices!

22/06/2025

On Kurnai Country

Been stuck at home with COVID for the past week.

Still trying to prove to the kids that I’m cooler then Minecraft 😬. Carved a cup………It leaks🙄.

Turns out it makes a nice pot!.🥰😜

11/06/2025

On Kurnai Country,

The look of a youth worker when they’ve realised that they actually have no control over the young people they’re working with and have submitted to the self-directed adventure they’re being pulled along on. 😂😂.

In all seriousness though, I bet you’ve felt the same at points along your career. The moment feels edgy, it’s safe, but you’re not really comfortable with the direction it’s taking and if you try to hold a boundary to sooth your anxiety, it’s most likely going to be ignored right🤪?

Congratulations, you’ve created an experience where young people feel confident to take control and have the dignity of risk to explore and experience on their terms.

You could say this is loose and reckless, but actually there’s a lot of planning before we got to this point. There’s an art form to selecting a location, a trusting relationship and an agreed upon safety plan to pull it all back together if it unravels.

Get used to being uncomfortable! The more uncomfortable you are, the closer you are to equality with the balance of power between you and the young people. You’re the mentor to handle the grown up stuff that allows them to do their thing and if you’re good enough at it, they’ll let you join in too and that is where the magic can happen and the knowledge sharing (both ways) begins.

Fun, safe(enough) & useful🙈🙉🙊

❤️Doug

28/05/2025

I’m so honoured to have the opportunity to run this session with Lawler at the Outdoors Victoria2025 conference. We hope to see you there. Abstract is below:

Have you ever wondered how you’re perceived by the young people you lead in the outdoors? Have you considered that the example you set impacts their behaviour? Do you focus on developing emotional safety for each individual member of your group and do you truely model informed consent and honour young people’s agency?

With family violence on the rise in Victoria, now seems like a good time to ask ourselves what example we’d like to make as male leaders in the outdoor field.

The actions we take and the language we use matters. Providing inclusive experiences takes self-awareness, emotional intelligence and intentionality. Peta and I will be unpacking the art of youth engagement, down to the use of body language and tone of voice.
An outdoor interactive workshop, where all are welcome. We’d be honoured if more than male identifying leaders join us, as more diversity provides more insights into this important topic. We’ll gather around a campfire (or wokstar), roast a marshmallow, have a cuppa tea and a yarn (BYO cup).

We can all improve. We’ll share and listen and finish with more clarity on what emotionally, physically and culturally inclusive male outdoor leadership looks like.

26/05/2025

On GunaiKurnai and WoiWurrung Country

I’ve been struggling for content in my new job and wondering what to focus my social media on now that G*T isn’t running sessions anymore.
I still work therapeutically with young people, I’m still trying to inspire other grown ups to as well.

This weekend I had opportunities to co-facilitate with some wonderful people in the outdoors. Rafting on a new program with Gippsland Recreation Outdoors and Beaconhills College and running a training day at my fav caves for Halls Outdoor Education and Rubicon Outdoor School .

A new chapter is starting with the chance to share my approach to working with young people in the outdoors. The day job and study continue, with outdoor therapy still as a burning passion, dotted with opportunities to share.

Cheers legends

15/02/2025

On Kurnai Country,

Another week co facilitating with the Mountain Track crew and I was fortunate to connect these legends with Parks Victoria and the Labertouche Caves Friends Group.

We did some track maintenance and began planning a new project to replace some unsafe hand railing. The young people will fabricate a new steel railing that will get installed at the entrance to the reserve.

Trauma among other things disconnects us from community, ourselves and our families. Fostering new and healthy connections will have a positive impact on young people’s wellbeing and mental health.

The opportunity to also do some cool activities like caving while being held in safety is icing on the cake.

Thanks legends.

Doug.

12/02/2025

On GunaiKurnai Country

It’s been about 1.5 weeks since I’ve been at Mountain Track and it’s been wonderful to work with like minded practitioners.

Today was meant to be an outreach day, helping a young person overcome some barriers to attending Mountain Track. As it so often is with well thought out plans, what we had come to achieve didn’t align with what the young person had in mind.

Instead along with the other young people we ended up fishing in this random drain that they showed us. They caught eels, carp, some strange fish that we’re not quite sure of and even saw a gold fish (no joke).

In the end the day was a success with the young person still attending the property for the first time and getting an induction to what’s on offer there.

It’s an art form, balancing program goals, youth engagement, group safety and therapeutic outcomes. I think we achieved success today👌🏽

07/02/2025

I’ve just spent the last week working for Mountain Track.

I’m truly inspired by what Founders Dave and Laura have created. Along with the help of Daz they have grown a service that works with young people who’ve experienced complex trauma, barriers to mainstream education and youth services.

Mountain Track offers programs for young people to gain the skills to support themselves and find a community that supports each other, for as long as it takes.

It was wonderful to see the Mountain Track team hold every single young person in cultural, emotional and physical safety.

It’s difficult to articulate the amount of time, community connection, intuition and skilful engagement that goes into creating an environment like this. But the evidence is there in the feedback from the young people themselves. I received the best site induction I could ever hope for from one young person and was made to feel welcome and a part of the flock from day one.

When I asked another young person “what’s good about being here” the reply I got was “they see us for who we are and treat us with respect”.

I’m here for another week or so and I’m so very grateful to the Mountain Track team and young people for accepting me into their flock.

Doug.