For readers of The Body Keeps the Score, Last Child in the Woods, and The Out Of Sync Child, this book offers a compelling vision for the future of therapy—one rooted in
 nature, neuroscience, and connectionng.
Transform Your Practice Through the Power of Nature
Wild Inside reveals the profound connection between our nervous systems and the natural world—showing why true healing must begin where we were biologically designed to thrive: in nature.
Blending cutting-edge insights from occupational therapy, child development, and mental health, this powerful resource offers practical tools to integrate nature-based practices into your clinical or caregiving work.
Whether you're an OT, educator, or healing professional, you'll discover how to:
Support regulation through sensory-informed nature connection
Build resilience by working with, not against, our evolutionary wiring
Improve physical and mental health outcomes—naturally
Reconnect to the wild intelligence within, and help others do the same.
Â
What if your most powerful therapeutic tool…
Â
was just outside your door?
You already know that something’s missing in conventional care.
You see it in the overwhelm. The burnout. The kids who aren’t responding.
You feel it in your gut: there’s a deeper way to heal.
Integrating nature into your therapeutic practice isn’t just a nice idea—it’s a game-changer.
When you align your work with how humans are wired to grow, everything shifts.
Your interventions get simpler. Your clients respond more deeply. You feel more grounded, effective, and inspired.
Here’s what happens when you let nature lead:Â
- Stronger Relationships: Nature-based experiences create trust, co-regulation, and connection—fast. You and your clients stop trying, and start relating.Â
- Better Outcomes: Nature naturally supports nervous system regulation, stress relief, and sensory integration—for both you and the people you serve.
- Confident, Aligned Practice: Ground your work in neuroscience, sensory integration, and our evolutionary design—so your approach feels solid, ethical, and alive.
- More Ease, Less Overwhlem:Â Say goodbye to complicated protocols. Nature simplifies your work, making it more intuitive and deeply effective.
- Lifelong Impact: Help clients build a relationship with the natural world that supports healing long after sessions end—building resilience, belonging, and joy.
 Â
  Be the first to know when Wild Inside is released.
Thispowerful, practice changing book, will help you reconnect with what truly works—so you can bring more presence, peace, and possibility to your work (and your life).Â
Imagine this...
You don't need one more protocol. You need a paradigm shift.
As you read Wild Inside, something awakens.
You begin to see your role not just as a therapist, but as a guide back to what our clients have always needed:
safety, connection, and a relationship with the natural world.
You realize that nature isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a relational-regulator, a sensory-rich co-facilitator, a space where real growth happens.
Your sessions become more intuitive.
Your interventions more embodied.
And your clients?
They begin to settle, stretch, and shine in ways that once felt out of reach.
This book won’t give you a checklist.
It will give you something far more powerful:
A new lens—grounded in science, rooted in lived experience, and aligned with your deepest knowing.
Through the lens of Ecoception and the NatureLed™ mindset, you’ll come to see nature as what it truly is:
A Developmental Ally and AÂ Protective and Compensatory Experience (PACE) that has the power to restore regulation, support development, and foster resilience in the face of adversity.
This isn’t just about using nature in therapy.
It’s about becoming the kind of therapist—and human—who helps others remember their wild intelligence and live from it.
Wild Inside
Occupational Therapy,
Ecoception, and the
Wild Work
of Healing
The NatureLed™ Approach to Sensory Integration, Emotional Regulation, and Resilience
Wild Inside isn’t just a book—it’s an invitation to reimagine what’s possible in your work as an occupational therapist.
Â
Through vivid storytelling and grounded insights, you’ll see how nature isn’t an add-on—it’s an untapped relational-regulator, a dynamic therapeutic partner, and a missing piece in modern practice.
You’ll uncover how even small shifts—stepping outside, tuning into sensory rhythms, creating space for curiosity—can:
Deepen engagement
Reduce stress and overwhelm
Activate the body’s innate capacity to heal
These aren’t theories—they’re practices rooted in neuroscience, sensory integration, and your own lived experience as a practitioner.
By integrating NatureLed™ principles into your lens, you’ll:
Reconnect with the foundational values of occupational therapy
Restore the client’s sense of agency, regulation, and connection
Redefine your role as a therapist—and as a facilitator of whole-person wellness
Whether you work indoors, outdoors, or somewhere in between, Wild Inside will shift how you see your clients, your environment, and your impact.
Because when we bridge the gap between therapy and nature,
we unlock a deeper, more human way to heal.
Be the first to know!
Wild Inside
Occupational Therapy,
Ecoception, and the
Wild Work
of Healing
Spring 2025 Release!
 Sign up today and get notified! Not only will you be among the first to explore the transformative ideas within Wild Inside, but you'll also receive a very special offer before the publication day!
Meet The Author
Kathleen Lockyer, OTP/L, LMHP
Occupational Therapist · Nature Connection Specialist · Mentor · Author · Founder of the NatureLed™ ApproachÂ
I wrote Wild Inside because I’ve lived the question so many therapists are asking:
What’s missing from the way we support regulation, connection, and engagement?
For decades, I’ve watched well-meaning professionals pour themselves into their work, only to feel like something essential is still just out of reach.
At the same time, I’ve witnessed what happens when we bring nature back into the therapeutic process:
Children soften. Curiosity returns. Nervous systems settle.
And therapists finally feel aligned, effective, and inspired.
This book was born from the truth I saw early in my career—
That the disconnection we’re seeing in children today isn’t just from nature…
It’s from their bodies, their senses, their communities, and the very pathways that build resilience. —
Wild Inside is my answer to that truth.
It’s not another set of rigid interventions. It’s a return to the wisdom you already carry—rooted in research, lived experience, and our deepest neurobiological needs.
My goal is simple:
To help you remember what good therapy is truly about—
Real connection. Embodied healing. And a relationship with nature that supports us all.
This is how we build stronger generations.
This is how we come home—inside and out.
Unlock the Power of Nature
Rewire the Brain. Reconnect the Body. Reclaim the Human Experience.
Â
Wild Inside reveals how nature connection activates what I call our Neural-Nature Networks—the sensory, relational, and regulatory systems we evolved in response to the wild world.
When we align therapy with these networks, everything changes.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
-
Deepens Therapeutic Use Of Self: Nature-based experiences create powerful relational-regulation between therapist and client—fostering authentic connection, shared presence, and meaningful engagement.
- Regulates The Nervous System: The sensory-rich environment of nature calms stress, reduces anxiety, and helps the body access safety—laying the groundwork for learning, healing, and growth.Â
- Improves Mental Health Outcomes: Nature restores what modern life depletes—building joy, connection, and resilience in a sustainable way for clients (and therapists) of all ages.
- Healing from ACES: Nature is a proven therapeutic tool for those impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences. Discover strategies to support clients—and yourself—through NatureLed healing practices.
- Encourages Meaningful, Sensory-Rich Play: Motivates children to engage in the kind of play that fuels development—movement, risk-taking, imagination, and exploration—all essential to motor skills, executive function, and confidence.
- Empowers Clinical Decision-Making: Grounded in evidence, the NatureLed™ Approach validates the therapeutic use of nature and gives you clear, adaptable strategies to integrate it into your sessions with intention and confidence.
- Cultivates Ecological & Social Responsibility: By modeling respectful, reciprocal relationships with the natural world, you foster care not just for self—but for community, culture, and the ecosystems we all depend on.
- Bridges Evidence and Embodiment: Backed by neuroscience, occupational science, and environmental psychology, Wild Inside connects the dots between sensory integration, co-regulation, and nature connection—for truly holistic development.
-
Creates Lifelong Impact: Nature-connected therapy doesn’t just support short-term goals—it helps clients build sustainable, self-directed practices that foster well-being long after therapy ends.
Wild Inside
Occupational Therapy,
Ecoception, and the
Wild Work
of Healing
Â
Wild Inside is more than a book—It’s a Return to What Therapy Was Always Meant to Be
This is your invitation to a paradigm shift:
One that reconnects occupational therapy with the deep, NatureLed pathways that have shaped human development for millennia.
Â
 Step Outside
Unlock healing.
And rediscover your purpose.
When we align with the rhythms of the natural world, every moment becomes a powerful opportunity for regulation, resilience, and relational growth—for your clients and for you.
This isn’t just theory.
It’s a grounded, evidence-based approach you can begin applying in your practice right now—wherever you are.
More than an ideal. It’s an evidence-based approach that’s ready to be integrated into your practice today.
Break Free from Burnout and Boxed-In Models.
You didn’t become an occupational therapist to push paperwork, follow cookie-cutter interventions, or feel disconnected from your work.
You’re here to build real relationships.
To support healing in deep, lasting ways.
To create experiences that truly matter.
Wild Inside helps you reclaim what brought you to this profession in the first place—
meaningful, client-centered practice that reaches beyond the clinic walls and into the heart of human potential.
YES, I WANT THE BOOK!!
