Cath Darling

Cath is an Occupational Therapist based in North East England. She qualified with a pre-reg Masters from the University of Brighton in 2003. Currently employed by both the NHS and the University of Northumbria, delivering across all three of the Occupational Therapy programmes, she leads on the MSc ‘Research informed Occupational Therapy’ module.

Cath's PhD study (exploring children's experiences of discourse about their serious illness) aims to develop Occupational Therapy resources for use with children near end of life.

Cath also runs her own freelance services. She has been delivering as Bare Bodycare since 2012, North East Aquatic Therapy since 2016 and as Elemental Occupational Therapy since 2023. Cath has specialisms in Aquatic Occupational Therapy (having worked with water since 2005 and formally trained in Aquatic Therapy in Switzerland in 2009) and Loss/Bereavement and Palliative Care (having worked within this specific field since 2015). Cath studied with Hospice UK in 2020 to achieve an Advanced Certificate in Childhood Bereavement and now delivers bereavement support for both children and adults in the outdoors. Cath completed a foundation in Herbalism in 2019 to complement her understanding of the medicinal potential of plants.

Cath’s focus lies within the natural environment and the ways in which we as clinicians can harness the therapeutic potential there for healing and development. She is passionate about both woodland and water, and spends most of her time, both working and leisure, in the ocean, the pool or the woods. She also makes and sells her own natural skincare products and herbal infusions.

Bronwyn Paynter

Bronwyn has worked as an occupational therapist (OT) since 1993 in Australia, with a passion for innovation in occupational therapy and a focus on wellbeing. In addition to occupational therapy Bronwyn holds qualifications in workplace health and safety, project management, forest & nature therapy and permaculture design.

She has created a unique blend of occupational therapy, permaculture and nature therapy as the basis for her business Nature OT Pty Ltd.

Bronwyn has presented about nature based occupational therapy at national occupational therapy, social work and outdoor health sector conferences in Australia, the OT Entrepreneur Summit (on-line as the only Australian speaker) and as a podcast guest on OT and wellbeing focused podcasts.

She is passionate about supporting OTs (in all settings) to work with nature so you can create a way to work that supports your own wellbeing as well as that of your clients and the planet!  

Bronwyn has worked personally with over 120 OTs from 12 countries in creating nature based ways of working - programs, services and businesses. She has held a role as a mentor in a Forest & Nature Therapy guide program and is a board member for Outdoor Health Australia (formerly Australian Association of Bush Adventure Therapy).