Welcome to Elements
The 3 day Adventure Therapy and Nature Connection retreat, designed to build confidence, independence, communication skills, and resilience. Explored through the power of connection with the natural world, and playing in it.
Over the programme, participants will explore the fundamental elements - Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Aether/Space, Metal and Wood.
Some activities include:
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Making fire by friction
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Treetop high ropes courses
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Wood carving
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Creek swims
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Nature connection games & practices
A fundamental thread weaving through the programme is group circle work, hosted by Behaviour Support Practitioner & Psychotherapist, Brett Hall. Participants will be guided through opportunities to connect, be heard and seen by their peers, share deeply, reflecting on their experiences and learnings.
Brett also leads the programme’s behaviour observation. This supports us in capturing measurable outcomes that can demonstrate the programme’s impact and shape ongoing support, with the potential to be harnessed evidentially in future funding reviews. Participants with an existing Behaviour Support Plan will receive Brett’s oversight to help implementing it. His professional expertise is woven through every stage of the programme. Participants and their supports will have the opportunity to connect pre and post program in this area.
The idea for Elements has been formed over many years, through experiences working in the field with young men from varied backgrounds, psychosocial and medical diagnoses.
One fluent thread of connection, a lack of opportunities to engage in funded group programmes worth their salt. One that actually felt relevant, edgy and importantly, cool to them. These young men seem to get left behind, once they reach the mature teenage years and become an adult.
They are in their formative years, finding out who they really are and who they want to be. They find it hard to engage in the mainstream group programmes which exist within the NDIS and other government-funded spaces.
What’s available is limited, and within that, these young men don’t see that they fit into those spaces. They say things like, “I don’t have a disability” and “I don’t want people to label me”.
These young men are high functioning in many ways, they crave the capacity to flow through the world and take opportunities as they come, they want to go on trips, do courses or go to events and festivals like their peers. But the truth is, they struggle in those spaces and can come away feeling unfulfilled, if they engage at all. As much as they will or won’t admit it, they need support to build their capacity, confidence and communication skills to fully step into those spaces in their wholeness.
I have taken inspiration from many sources, formatively Nature Connection work and exposure to earth based indigenous traditions from around the world. It has profoundly impacted my life, pivoted and sent me stalking a scent. A way of living in this modern world, that is connected, has depth, is soulful, respectful, regenerative and mystical.
We know, through the overwhelming peer reviewed scientific literature, how much our connection to, and time spent in nature affects our overall health and wellbeing. I know this is missing from the lives of many, and am in no doubt that we need to integrate this, to change the trajectory of the health and wellbeing of our young men. This will not only profoundly touch all areas of their lives, but the future of humanity and the natural world.
Yours in connection,
Liam
What’s included and what to bring?
All food and activity costs are included in the price. You are welcome and encouraged to bring your own camping equipment, however if you need to borrow equipment, that can be arranged, please make this clear in the booking process. We will send out a comprehensive list of what to bring with you after the booking stage.
About your Facilitators
Liam Jenkinson
Director & Founder Cocoon
is a Key Support Worker, Nature Connection Mentor and an Outdoor Leader, qualified in Wilderness First Aid, Bushwalking & Overnight Camping, Kayaking and Mountain Biking.
Humbly practising and passing on knowledge under earth-based traditions via studies with Nature Philosophy Australia. Working with local plants for traditional fire making, wood carving, fibre crafting and edible bushfoods.
Trained through the Australian College of Community Services and Care, Tallebudgera Outdoor Education Centre, DSC, NDS & Mental Health First Aid Australia. He holds an NDISWC, First Aid & CPR and full drivers license. Currently, he is furthering education as a Therapeutic Coach via studies with Primal Intelligence.
He is an advocate for eco-centric supports, which place intrinsic value on all of nature, independent of it's usefulness to humans. Proposing that humans are only part of this system, and have ethical responsibility to cultivate right relationship within it. It recognises that the well-being of one part, affects the well-being of the whole. From this place, bridges Transpersonal ideas, which propose an intimate sense of connection to something larger than oneself.
Liam has deepened his nature connection path through Vision Questing in the Stalking Wolf lineage of North America, an ancient rites of passage which involves 4 days and 4 nights of fasting and solo isolation in the bush. He has gone on to study the 7 Levels of Quest and continues to deepen his connection with this lineage.
Liam has been working within the space as an Independent Support Worker since 2020. Supporting young men and their families or carers, from many backgrounds, various diagnosis and lifestyle dynamics. He is experienced working with complex needs and behaviours, often working closely with teams of therapists and PBSP’s to provide holistic and goal orientated support.
Scott Poad
Director & Founder Rewild
is the founder and driving force behind Rewild You, an outdoor education business based in Northern NSW. With more than 20 years of experience in outdoor education, Scott is a seasoned guide, survival instructor, and mentor dedicated to helping people reconnect with nature through immersive, hands-on experiences.
Throughout his career, Scott has been dedicated to supporting young people at-risk. His work with Human Nature Adventure Therapy allowed him to support vulnerable teenagers through therapeutic outdoor experiences.
He has facilitated Indigenous early intervention expedition based programs funded by Queensland Police, aimed at empowering Aboriginal youth and strengthening community connections.
Scott has also run adventure-based programs for foster care agencies, using nature as a tool to build resilience, confidence, and trust.
Scott is a qualified Outdoor Recreation Instructor with current Wilderness First Aid certification, Scott has spent his career leading adventures as a whitewater guide, survival trainer, and senior instructor and program coordinator with Outward Bound Australia.
His passion for the wild is reflected in every aspect of his work—from teaching traditional bushcraft and navigation skills to guiding multi-day hikes deep into the Australian wilderness.
Scott is no stranger to personal challenge. He’s a passionate peak bagger, adventure racer, mountain biker, and hiker with 1000's of km of hikes including a 350 km through the Himalayas under his belt.
These experiences fuel his belief in the transformative power of nature and form the backbone of his teaching philosophy.
When he’s not guiding others in the outdoors, Scott is living the life he teaches—raising four children, growing his own food, and staying grounded in a lifestyle that’s adventurous, sustainable, and deeply connected to the earth.
Brett Hall
PBSP - Liger Support
is a PACFA accredited Psychotherapist, Behaviour Support Practitioner, Performance Coach, and Program Facilitator with over a decade of experience in helping men of all ages to live their lives from a deep sense of wholeness and purpose.
His approach adjusts to suit the needs of his clients, but rests on the foundations of somatic, eco-focused, relational practice. Practically, this means that his work supports clients to deeply understand and embody who they are. From this place of felt understanding and embodiment, clarity on the next step forward is a natural emergence.
Brett supports NDIS participants as a registered PBSP, through Liger Support and specialises in working with young men on the scheme.
He holds a bachelor of psychological sciences/neuroscience (High Distinction) from Swinburne University of Technology, a two year advanced clinical training certificate in Gestalt Psychotherapy, and graduate certificates in recovery and empowerment coaching.
Outside formal academia, he has trained extensively over the last 15 years with transformational mentors, guides and elders in various men’s work spaces. This work has included apprenticing in earth honouring lineages, transformational rites of passage work, shadow work, and facilitation of men’s circles and transformational retreats.
In 2022 he founded Kinsmen, a series of nature-based programs designed specifically to support men to find wholeness through deep connection with each other and the living world.
In a volunteering capacity, he has guided hundreds of men through deep transformational processes since 2016 as a junior leader in the Mankind Project Australia. This has been via their flagship program, The New Warrior Training, as well as integration circles across Australia.
