The Wild Minds Podcast

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Ralph Mortimer-Roome, a GP based in Brighton and Chair of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex regional group of Greener Practice.
We discuss what changes when we stop seeing health as something that sits only inside the individual body, and begin to include climate, community, relationship and the living world in how we understand healing.
In this episode, we explore:
Why the climate crisis is also a health crisis — and why solutions for planetary health can also support human health.
What older medical traditions can teach us about health as balance, rather than simply the absence of disease.
The idea that illness has not only biological causes, but also social, political and environmental dimensions.
The tension between the transactional and relational sides of medicine — treating illness while also helping people feel heard and understood.
David Abram’s influence on Ralph’s thinking, particularly the idea of the healer as an intermediary between the human and more-than-human world.
Why mental distress can be understood through multiple lenses — biomedical, psychological, social, trauma-informed and spiritual.
How loneliness and social isolation can contribute to ill health, and whether nature disconnection may operate in a similar way.
Why doctors may need to recognise their own relationship with nature before they can notice nature disconnection in others.
What a green prescription can actually look like — from signposting and access to green spaces, to walking groups and supported outdoor care.
Why simply moving healthcare outdoors is not enough — and the difference between being outside and developing a relationship with nature.
What a more embedded nature-based care pathway in Sussex could look like, including outdoor consultations, local sites, social prescribing and primary care.
Ralph’s closing idea of nature as a gift rather than something to consume — rooted in reciprocity, care and the possibility of healing.

Show Notes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-98-what-if-nature-is-part-of-medicine/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
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Mentioned in this episode:
Outside for Everyone | A Free Online Event
Monday 28 September | 6pm - 7pm
Join Marina Robb and a panel of practitioners working across very different education settings for Outside for Everyone - a live, practical conversation about what inclusive and responsive outdoor learning looks like in the real world.
Find out more: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/outside-for-everyone

For this episode, I’m joined by my husband Geoff Robb - musician, composer and co-director of The Outdoor Teacher, to explore his lifelong relationship with music and nature, and the story behind The Music of Trees.
We discuss....
Geoff’s journey from classical guitar and years of busking to becoming a professional musician, composer and creator of The Music of Trees.
How his early experiences with Reiki and healing opened questions about music, creativity and where inspiration might come from.
Geoff’s lifelong relationship with the outdoors, from Forest School Camps as a teenager to the deeper nature-connection practices we later explored together.
What it means to listen to nature, ask permission and build a relationship with individual trees - without needing to claim certainty about what is happening.
How the willow became a turning point in Geoff’s composing, and how music sometimes seems to arrive unexpectedly rather than being consciously created.
The story behind The Music of Trees - combining original guitar music with folklore, ecology, storytelling and the remarkable lives of trees.
Ancient yews, tree protectors, Julia Butterfly Hill and the people who have stood up for trees when trees cannot speak for themselves.
How COVID brought Geoff’s work as a musician almost to a standstill, but also gave him time in the woods to write more music than he had written in the previous several years - much of which became Music of Trees.
How that period also brought Geoff into The Outdoor Teacher, combining his technical and business experience with our shared commitment to helping more people access nature.
The changing reality of being a musician in the age of Spotify, streaming and AI and why supporting live music and independent artists matters more than ever.

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/97-the-music-of-trees
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.
Mentioned in this episode:
Outside for Everyone | A Free Online Event
Monday 28 September | 6pm - 7pm
Join Marina Robb and a panel of practitioners working across very different education settings for Outside for Everyone - a live, practical conversation about what inclusive and responsive outdoor learning looks like in the real world.
Find out more: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/outside-for-everyone
The Music of Trees on Tour
This September, Geoff Robb's Music of Trees show will be touring Devon and Cornwall.
Go to www.geoffrobb.com/shows for the full dates and sign up for updates for his UK tour dates in 2027.

As I record this onthe Summer Solstice - a moment when nature stands in its fullest expression, it feels like the perfect time to reflect on a season of conversations that, in different ways, have all pointed towards one essential human need: belonging.
At the Summer Solstice, when the light reaches its fullest expression, we are invited to pause and ask what has ripened in us, what is ready to bear fruit, and what kind of power we wish to carry into the darker half of the year.
The shift from Oak King to Holly King reminds us that true strength is not domination but stewardship - how can the warrior within us create the conditions for feeling, tenderness and relationship?
Belonging begins with safety. Before we can feel deeply, we need to feel held. Yet the natural world offers a remarkable invitation: trees, rivers, birds and plants ask nothing of us before we speak.
Angela Hanscom reminded us that children belong through their bodies first. Movement, risk, balance, play and sensory experience are not extras; they are part of how we come to know ourselves and our place in the world.
Children often meet the world as a community of living subjects rather than objects. Perhaps part of adulthood is remembering that capacity for relationship with the more-than-human world.
Jessica Newberry Le Vay challenged the idea that climate anxiety is something to be fixed. Grief, worry, anger and sadness may be healthy responses to a world under pressure - evidence not of pathology, but of care.
Emotional resilience does not come from avoiding difficult feelings but from learning how to hold them together, in community, with purpose and agency.
Mo Wilde brought us back to ancient relationships between people, plants, food and seasons, reminding us that health has always been rooted in reciprocity with the living world.
Many people arrive at the GP with symptoms that cannot be neatly explained or measured. Sometimes what hurts is not simply the body, but loneliness, grief, burnout, disconnection or the absence of belonging.
Health may not exist solely within the individual. It may also live in relationships, communities, purpose, access to nature, and our connection to something larger than ourselves.
Outdoor consultations, walking groups, community gardens, shared fires and time in nature are not soft alternatives to healthcare. They may be part of the medicine itself - helping people regulate, connect and remember they are not alone.
This season has returned again and again to one simple truth: health is more than the absence of illness. It is connection. It is movement. It is meaning. It is relationship. It is belonging.

Show Notes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-96-the-medicine-of-belonging
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.
Mentioned in this episode:
Outside for Everyone | A Free Online Event
Monday 28 September | 6pm - 7pm
Join Marina Robb and a panel of practitioners working across very different education settings for Outside for Everyone - a live, practical conversation about what inclusive and responsive outdoor learning looks like in the real world.
Find out more: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/outside-for-everyone

In this conversation, GP Dr Tim Rigg explores how nature, community and healthcare might come together to create a more humane, preventative and scalable model of wellbeing.
Tim speaks from his experience as a GP, bringing together clinical practice, social prescribing, nature connection and a wider understanding of what helps people become well
He explains that around 90–95% of healthcare contact happens in primary care, showing just how important GPs are in shaping the first conversation about health, care and prevention
He suggests that a very large proportion of people coming to GPs are living with chronic disease, stress, anxiety, depression, isolation or other conditions shaped by the environments and systems they live within
The conversation explores the strengths of Western medicine, especially in acute illness, trauma and emergency care, while also asking whether it is less equipped to address root causes, prevention and the conditions of a healthy life
Tim shares how the pioneering social prescribing work in Frome helped reveal the importance of community, belonging and purpose in supporting people’s health
One striking statistic from Frome was a reported 40% relative reduction in hospital admissions compared with a neighbouring area, suggesting that community-based approaches may have a significant role to play in reducing pressure on the system
The episode looks at green prescribing not as simply telling people to “go for a walk”, but as a structured, supported and clinically credible pathway from the GP consultation room into nature-based wellbeing programmes
A key part of the emerging model is making it easy and safe for GPs to signpost patients, while trained nature-based practitioners manage screening, safeguarding, delivery and ongoing support
The conversation explores why nature-based work may help through regulation of the nervous system, sensory connection, beauty, awe, movement, stillness, meaning, community and relationship with the more-than-human world
Tim’s work is also about collaboration, bringing together GPs, Primary Care Networks, nature-based practitioners, social prescribing link workers, universities, funders and local green providers
At the heart of the episode is a hopeful question about scale - how do we move from inspiring local projects to a joined-up, evidence-informed, nationally accessible pathway that supports people, practitioners, communities and the NHS?

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-95-what-if-your-gp-could-prescribe-nature/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.
Mentioned in this episode:
Outside for Everyone | A Free Online Event
Monday 28 September | 6pm - 7pm
Join Marina Robb and a panel of practitioners working across very different education settings for Outside for Everyone - a live, practical conversation about what inclusive and responsive outdoor learning looks like in the real world.
Find out more: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/outside-for-everyone

In this reflective solo episode, Marina explores how getting to know the plants around us can deepen our sense of connection, belonging and wonder. Drawing on a day spent teaching in the woods, she shares simple ways to slow down, engage the senses and discover the food, medicine, stories and lessons hidden within the plants we often overlook.
Key Takeaways
Why learning the names and qualities of individual plants changes how we relate to the natural world.
How simple sensory activities can help us slow down and pay closer attention.
The powerful "Meet a Tree" exercise and what it reveals about uniqueness and connection.
Marina's woodland day of foraging, fire-lighting, whittling and plant-based practices.
The medicinal and nutritional benefits of pine needles, including vitamin C and antioxidants.
How to make an infused pine and elderflower tea and immunity-supporting syrup.
The importance of safe foraging, correct identification and awareness of lookalike species.
Ethical harvesting practices that ensure enough is left for wildlife and future growth.
Insights from Mo Wilde's foraging work and the impact of wild foods on gut health and the microbiome.
The remarkable benefits of common plants such as nettles, often dismissed as weeds.
Creative ways to use plant study across science, geography, history, literacy and art.
An invitation to choose just one local plant, observe it through the seasons, and discover the richness of relationship it can offer.

Show Notes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-94-getting-to-know-the-plants/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!
Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.
Mentioned in this episode:
Outside for Everyone | A Free Online Event
Monday 28 September | 6pm - 7pm
Join Marina Robb and a panel of practitioners working across very different education settings for Outside for Everyone - a live, practical conversation about what inclusive and responsive outdoor learning looks like in the real world.
Find out more: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/outside-for-everyone