About
Hi! Welcome to Outlook Ecotherapy!
We are a team comprising a clinical psychologist, psychologist, counsellor and social worker who blend evidence-based interventions with nature, animals, play, and movement to support individuals, families and groups.
We work flexibly outdoor (paddock, shed, stables) and online, as well as offering home visits, school visits, and community support.
The Outlook is an 18 acre property situated on Darkinyung land, which borders Avoca Lake and Pickett’s Valley on the NSW Central Coast.
Our aim is to support clients, couples, clinicians and corporate teams to create meaningful connections and sustainable change, and to advancing the research of Ecotherapy and Equine Assisted Psychology.
Our team also includes a range of animals, beautiful spaces, and changing weather conditions. We have a herd of nine horses, comprising the ‘big guys’…our Big Friendly Giant (BFG) Keates, Chief, and Pollyanna, Galloways Edward, and Ace, and ponies – Mini, Tony, Melody and Lacey. In the school holidays Pirate and Honey, two Miniatures also comes to stay. (They reside at Sprout ELC during the term).
Bernie, a Bernese Mountain Dog, is likely to greet you at the waiting area. Bernie loves to eat sticks and cool off in the water trough. At times, we are greeted by Luie the cat, two guinea fowl, wild wallabies, and countless kookaburras and ducks.
The property includes a forest trail along the edges of Avoca lake, a peaceful and semi-private dam surrounded by water lillies, as well as sandy riding arena, green paddocks, stables, and indoor shed.
Our Values
We are a team who CARES.
We are creative in our approach, bringing evidence-based practice to the outdoors, and integrating animals, movement, nature, and play
We are adventurous and active by offering experiences and experiments to effect new ways of thinking, feeling, and relating
We are realistic and responsible, and consider the goals of the client as well as the expectations and needs of each person in your family system or team
We are empathetic and will listen openly to you. We will notice your courage
We foster psychological and physical safety by actively listening and observing, working within your window of tolerance, maintaining confidentiality, and being present to the environment in which we work.
Model of Care
1. Holistic experiential learning
We pride ourselves in doing things a little differently. At Outlook Ecotherapy, we offer evidence-based therapies with experiential modalities including Equine-assisted Gestalt Therapy, role-play, movement, body-awareness and breathwork. Further, our sessions may involve animals, play, craft, movement, nature, and worksheets.
Experiential interventions enable clients to gain immediate feedback and in-the-moment coaching, learning by doing rather than simply talking about! In place of dialogue in a white room with a weird smelly couch, we have unlimited exercises and experiments, which can take place in green paddocks, an arena, by the dam with ducks, along a forest trail, with curious horses, and/or inside a Green Shed, which smells of hay.
2. Chapters of care
Clients are offered chapters of care with our differing clinicians, modalities of treatment, and locations. This allows support to be more flexible, responsive, and better matched to the client’s evolving needs.
For example, a client may begin with a set number of sessions with Clinician A to focus on assessment, rapport-building, and initial skill development. Following collaborative planning and review, care may then transition to Clinician B for a further block of sessions targeting a different area of need, a specific therapeutic approach, or to better suit availability and continuity.
In other cases, more than one clinician may work with a family concurrently. For instance, Clinician A may work directly with the referred child or young person on individual goals (e.g. emotional regulation, social skills), while Clinician B provides separate, private parent coaching sessions. This ensures parents are supported to implement strategies at home, strengthening consistency and generalisation of skills across environments.
This model increases a client’s access to resources, follow-through, and follow-up, resulting in stronger application of skills and more sustainable change. Our clinicians benefit from this approach through co-management, shared clinical responsibility, and ongoing collaboration. It supports cross-pollination of expertise, encourages creative problem-solving, and fosters a strong sense of team connection—ultimately enhancing the quality of care provided to clients.
