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Over the next few months we will introduce you to our core  network members. First off the block is one of our PhD students Helen Clark : 

My interest in the relationship between nature and health has been long standing. It probably began forming during childhood in rural Tasmania where we spent a lot of time messing about on the west coast and, nearly half a lifetime later, I am delighted to be able to research in this area. After more than a decade working with young people in outdoor education and crisis intervention, I returned to  Australia and to study as a mature age student. During the Bachelor of Psychological Science, I achieved academic awards so applied for the Honours program. While waiting to hear if my application was successful, I saw a research project exploring forests and mental wellbeing on the 2022 National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine Research Futures scholarship list. I was fortunate to be selected and the project laid the foundations to turn my interest in nature into research, and ultimately resulted in a publication in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. The research continued though that year culminating in an honours thesis exploring pathways to integrating nature prescriptions in healthcare. Building on this concept, in 2023 I commenced a PhD exploring the imperative of nature for health and wellbeing and facilitating universal adoption in health provision, with the supervision of Eric Brymer and Matthew Leach. The primary aim of the thesis is to design, implement and evaluate a framework to facilitate health enhancing nature exposure into health professional education. This year I was fortunate to receive an RTP Scholarship which is a great support to completing the PhD and continuing the rest of the research journey.