The NatureLed Approach
Is an antidote to the modern dilemma of how to raise mentally and physically capable humans.
For millions of years, human development thrived by integrating our senses with nature’s most treasured gifts: earth, grass, trees, water, wind, sun, stars. These contextual elements wired the brains and bodies we possess today — and gave us our sensory system, which is the foundation for good mental health.
Sensory Integration is the key to emotional and physical regulation. But, modern humanity suffers from a lack of interaction with the elements of nature that develop integration and, thus, regulation.
Gratitude
Respect
Connection
Using the NatureLed Approach you will
Reclaim 3 Neurological Processes
Developing these will change how you see human development and how you support your child or your own mental health.
.
Remember 4 Core Pathways
Practicing these will help you build skills and access unlimited resources.
Develop 1 essential communication tool
Interacting this way will make it easier to work with almost any child and any behavior (including your own!)
Modern life is a lot!
As one of the original nature-connection occupational therapists, Kathleen shares almost 3 decades of hard earned wisdom with you — through a heart centered, research based (and nature connected) approach.
Track behavior patterns
and get to the heart of what’s going on.
Find easier paths to peace and harmony,
Experience a life or job you love.
Understand how to access the wisdom of nature right outside your door.
Heal from childhood adversities.
THE NATURELED APPROACH
An approach that weaves
the wisdom of our collective past with modern evidence-based practice
— for a brilliant future.
The NatureLed Framework
isn't just for therapeutic intervention,
it's a way of life
one that honors our neurological history and acknowledges our modern experience.
The framework allows you to begin easily and build skills organically.
By adopting a NatureLed lens, the framework instills 6 essential core competencies.
The NatureLed program is an innovative approach that uses concepts from a nature connection practice known as "Bird Language"
to help parents and caregivers understand and support child behavior.
This method is inspired by the work of Jon Young, author of "What The Robin Knows," who has worked with and taught thousands of people how to understand bird language as a way to connect with nature. Kathleen has adopted it to help others understand child behavior and development in a fun and engaging way.
Below are the key components of the NatureLed program
using the NatureLed Framework.
BASELINE
Discover your child's temperament.
Discover your temperament.
Understand how children are inherently designed for nature connection.
Learn the two biggest things that can derail healthy development - and what you can do to avoid these!
Understand the fundamental interactions necessary between humans and nature.
Discover what aspects of nature, nature knowledge, and outdoor skills are necessary for a successful family life or program.
FIVE VOICES OF OUR CHILDREN
Using bird "language" as a fun tool, discover different ways children communicate.
Understand the link between behavior and communication.
Learn strategies to communicate kindly and effectively to increase brain capacity, reduce meltdowns, improve memory, problem solving, communication, patience, attention, and focus.
SHAPES OF ALARM
Learn about the Biological Basis For Behavior.
Get to the core of what drives behavior by understanding the top 8 most important things to know about a developing body.
Facilitate the development of sensory integration and regulation.
Learn to identify why a child is refusing to participate, yelling, pushing, ignoring, challenging you, is unmotivated, acting impulsively, can’t sit still, or won’t listen.
Know what you can do when those things happen.
Grasp the most essential aspects of human development and how our brains develop behaviors.
COMMON CAUSES OF ALARM
Learn the difference between healthy stress and toxic stress and how to keep yourself and the kids you care for in the healthy zone.
Gain insights into Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), how they shape the structure of the brain, and how they might be affecting you and the kids you care about.
Understand the common neurological and cultural basis for challenging behavior and how to transform it into a superpower.
Recognize the signs of trauma and when to intervene.
BEHAVIOR ALLIES
Learn how "good" behavior happens.
Practice the “therapeutic use of self.”
Discover environmental hacks to increase skillful behavior.
Learn how the natural world can be a co-parent or co-mentor to facilitate behavioral shifts.
Understand how to "let nature lead."
ROOTS TO WINGS
Discover what kind of environment helps a child take healthy risks and develop to the fullest of their potential.
Discover how to create this zone for yourself.
Learn strategies and techniques to ensure mental, physical, and family readiness to fly.
Feel confident with highly spirited children and big emotions.
Grasp and confidently employ the one type of interaction that can make tremendous shifts for most challenges and allow a child to feel confident taking flight.
Be able to create a healthy family culture and effective programs for the ages and stages of kids in your program.
Hear what people are saying...
Why didn't I learn this stuff in school!!
"Kathleen has a way of taking a lot of very complicated information and making sense of it. She teaches holistically and really puts all the pieces together, with great stories and an amazing amount of experience! Why didn't I learn this stuff in school!"
Mentor from the 2017 cohort of the NatureLed Approach Apprenticeship
I'm so excited to work with kids through a new lens!!
"Kathleen's workshop helped me really "get" kids' behavior. I had no idea that some of the things kids do have a neurological or sensory reason. I'm so excited to work with kids through a new lens!"
Workshop Participant from Wilderness Youth Project in Santa Barbara, CA
What do I get with the Framework / System?
The NatureLed Approach isn't just for struggling children, it is an approach that teaches how to help each child (and parent) reach their full potential. By restoring neural-nature pathways, you can create an environment that has a million years of evolutionary intelligence on your side!
Holistic approach
Drawing from occupational therapy, neuro-biology, developmental science, nature-connection, sensory processing, the science of ACEs, non-violent communication, and more, the NatureLed Approach is a holistic framework for growing, healing, and thriving.
Words from our friends
I'm connected to my son in a way I didn't know was possible
"Kathleen's kindness and gentle approach allowed me to see my child's behaviors as a form of communication that I can now understand.
Our lives are so much better and I'm connected to my son in a way I didn't know was possible. Her approach is life changing."
Father of 7 year old boy
A game-changer for our family
"Kathleen’s NatureLed™ Approach has been a game-changer for our family.
Her unique way of weaving sensory processing, neuroscience, and nature connection into everyday life has helped my children build confidence and resilience in ways we never imagined.
Kathleen’s warmth, expertise, and passion make her one of the most inspiring mentors we’ve ever worked with. We are forever grateful for the tools she’s given us to thrive together."
Mother of 13 and 9 year old daughters.
After nearly three decades as an occupational therapist and over 20 years immersed in the field of nature connection, Kathleen Lockyer saw a critical gap.
Despite advancements in child development, sensory processing, neuroscience, education, and trauma-informed care, these disciplines rarely worked together as a cohesive, holistic system.
Frustrated by the fragmentation and inspired by nature’s profound healing potential, Kathleen blazed a trail, creating the NatureLed™ Approach—a groundbreaking method that bridges science, connection, and the natural world.
The NatureLed™ Approach is more than a program; it’s a philosophy and a movement to restore the essential bond between people and nature.
Kathleen’s work empowers children and families to grow, thrive, and heal by integrating research-backed practices into real-life, natural settings.
Her innovative approach is practical, adaptable, and rooted in the belief that when we reconnect with nature, we rediscover ourselves.
We recognize the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (Chumash) peoples as custodians of the lands where RxOUTSIDE resides, widely known as Atascadero and Morro Bay, California. We are grateful to their elders, past and present, and recognize their enduring connection to this land.
In gratitude and with respect we honor the wisdom keepers of the Haudenosaunee Nation whose land Kathleen grew up on, for offering to the human family the "words before all else — The Thanksgiving Address" which honors "all our relations," and to Jake Swamp (Tekaroniankeken), traditional Mohawk spiritual leader, and his wife Judy (Kanerataronkwas) for sharing it with so many. It has profoundly supported Kathleen's life — And we offer gratitude and respect to The people, the earth, the stones, the waters, the mosses-mycelium-fungi, the insects-reptiles-amphibians, the low-lying plants, the four leggeds, the trees, the birds, the winds, the directions, the sun, the moon, the stars, the wisdom keepers, the ancestors, anything not mentioned and the spirit that moves through all things and connects us as one.
Kathleen honors her ancestors from Western Ireland, County Cork, and Northern Italy, recognizing their resilience and the rich cultural legacy of those cultures. Their spirit, deeply rooted in her ancestral lands, shapes her identity and continues through generations.
