Landscapes to Safety: Peer Mentoring and the Outdoors as a Space for Women’s Healing and Recovery

Women recovering from trauma often experience fear, isolation and a sense of disconnection from their community. For many women, the outdoor world, despite potential for restoration, can feel inaccessible or unsafe. This tension between the healing qualities of nature and the fear associated with being alone outdoors presents a meaningful challenge, so too when intersecting with social and economic deprivation (Thompson et al., 2016; Thompson et al., 2019). When access to the natural environment is enabled, by way of peer mentors (women who have themselves survived abuses), the experience acquires an added dimension of hope, shared understanding and empowerment (Gilbert, 2026).

This photographic presentation explores Wellbeing Wednesday a peer led community project delivered by Cohort 4, a peer support and mentoring organisation in North Warwickshire. The project supports women surviving domestic and/or sexual abuse to reconnect with nature through supported outdoor activities in their own semi-rural environment. With guidance from peer mentors, participants gain confidence in accessing open spaces, rediscovering local landscapes as places of healing and positivity. The connection with the natural world is life affirming and grounding, this women’s peer support and mentoring group experience this association.

Drawing from the photographic images of participants, this presentation examines the project’s trauma-responsive approach and its impact on women’s wellbeing. The findings highlight the value of peer-led, nature based interventions in creating connection, increasing confidence and wellbeing. The women involved demonstrate that purposeful, supported engagement with nature can be life affirming, restorative and integral to recovery.