In this warm, curious and quietly profound episode, we head off into the unknown with Dr Stephan Natynczuk, a self-employed academic, accredited counsellor, and Solution Focused practitioner who takes useful conversations outdoors. Stephan has spent decades co-adventuring for change with young people in forests, rivers, caves and on mountainsides.
Stephan started out as a scientist, studying social odours in mammals, before following his curiosity into experiential education, the care sector, and eventually training with BRIEF. What ties it all together is a simple mission he names without grandeur: to generate contributors to a better world.
This is a conversation full of stories, gentle wisdom, and the kind of practical insight that only comes from doing the work for real.
In this conversation we explore:
- The low visibility navigation metaphor for change: knowing where you are, where you've been, and being able to picture exactly what it will look like when you arrive
- Why Stephan rarely explains Solution Focus and instead just gets on with it, asking the questions and seeing what happens
- Leave No Trace as an ethic borrowed from the outdoors, and what it means to do the work with people rather than to them
- Why his parting advice for a good conversation is simply to listen hard and be curious
Whether you work outdoors, sit in a therapy room, lead a team, or simply care about having better conversations, this one is for you.
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Show Notes Resources
Connect with Stephan
Stephan's Book
Solution-Focused Practice in Outdoor Therapy: Co-Adventuring for Change by Will W. Dobud and Stephan Natynczuk (Routledge, 2023). Available to order online via Routledge, Amazon, and most major booksellers (print on demand). A free field manual is available with purchase of the book.
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