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FTHub ACADEMY COURSE

Dynamic Risk-Benefit Assessment for Outdoor Practice

  • THEME 3
  • TRACK 4

SELF-PACED · ONLINE

  • 3–5 hours
  • 5 modules
  • 1 video
  • Certificate of Completion
  • 1-year access
  • Level: Beginner
  • English

99 €

49 €

Add to Cart
Or Subscribe — Access All Courses

Curated by

Sofia Availoti

By the end of this course, you will be able to run a dynamic risk-benefit assessment during live outdoor sessions, including site selection, in-session re-judgment, and emergency response, for the groups and participants you work with in the natural environments where you facilitate.

Outcomes

What you'll gain

  • Run the Observe, Assess, Decide, Act (OADA) loop during a live outdoor session, weighing benefit against risk as conditions change.
  • Apply the balanced approach (HSE, 2012) and Risk-Benefit Assessment (Ball, Gill, and Spiegel, 2012) to justify and document proportionate decisions to operators, referrers, and parents.
  • Sort hazards into broadly acceptable, tolerable, and intolerable bands (HSE, 2001), and convert intolerable conditions into pre-authorized stop criteria.
  • Design a 13-field Dynamic Risk-Benefit Protocol for your own practice, with designated re-assessment points, decision rules, a scouted modification, and stop criteria.
  • Self-assess your protocol against a 10-criterion rubric grounded in the FTHub Method and the Liquid Interactions Model (LIM, FTHub 2021), and adapt it across populations, environments, and group sizes.

Audience

Who is this course for?

  • Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy guides:  Add a dynamic, defensible risk-benefit judgment to the sessions you already lead, so your in-session decisions are as deliberate as your session design.

  • Outdoor educators, youth workers, and school-based facilitators:  Build a protocol that lets you preserve genuine outdoor challenges for the young people you work with, while meeting the safeguarding and risk-assessment standards your setting expects.

  •  Healthcare and well-being practitioners running outdoor sessions:  Translate the evidence on managed risk and well-being benefit into a working protocol you can defend to referrers, commissioners, and clinical colleagues.

  • Prerequisites: The course assumes you already hold a qualification to take groups outdoors. FTHub Academy courses 3-5 (Ethical Practice and Scope of Practice) and 3-6 (Risk Management Basics for Nature-Based Programs) are recommended companions.

Course Framework

Course structure

Experience first, then evidence, then application, then commitment. The module structure is the product.

0
Orientation
  • Course overview, learning sequence, and how to use the materials.
  • The Liquid Interactions Model framing for outdoor risk and benefit.
  • Baseline self-assessment of how you currently make in-session decisions.
  • Intention setting: name your group, your environment, your benefit, and your date.
  • The practice log you will use across the whole course.
  • The Risk-Benefit Site Walk: a guided practice of the continuous loop on a real site.
  • Reflection: writing your own observations before reading the framework.
  • The balanced approach in safety guidance and the risk-benefit assessment method.
  • Static versus dynamic assessment, and why the loop catches what a written assessment cannot.
  • Knowledge check on the foundation concepts.
  • Acceptable risk and the dual judgment: tolerability bands and how to use them.
  • The benefit side: naming benefit by category and feature, and discounting by realization probability.
  • A coastal case study showing the loop run under real pressure.
  • Extended re-assessment practice and reflection.
  • Your professional context worksheet: 10 fields that feed into the Module 3 design.
  • Knowledge check on the dual judgment and re-assessment design.
  • Annotated worked example: a full protocol with the reasoning behind every choice.
  • Design Your Own Protocol: a 13-field template for your specific context.
  • Integrative practice: rehearse the modification at one re-assessment point.
  • Reflection on your design decisions.
  • Self-assessment rubric: 10 criteria, with revision notes before first delivery.
  • Knowledge check on protocol design and self-assessment.
  • Integration reading: judging well in real time, and what carries forward after the course.
  • Final reflection compared against your Module 0 baseline.
  • Your 30-day action plan: three commitments naming a group, a site, and a date.
  • What I Learned: a 10-item competency self-inventory.
  • Course close and recommended next steps within Theme 3.

COURSE TOOLS

Professional Tools Package

Included in every course. These are not learning exercises — they are working documents you use with your clients, referrers, and colleagues. Available from Module 3.

  • Activity Template
    Complete facilitation script with timing, safety notes, and debrief questions. Three duration variants.
  • Evidence Summary
    Plain-language summary of findings and citations. For clients, HR, and referrers.
  • Adaptation Framework
    Checklist for adapting across client populations, environments (nature/urban/indoor), and group sizes.
  • Client Communication Template
    Ready-to-use briefing text for three professional contexts: clinical/health, educational, and tourism/outdoor.

Learning Pathway

Theme & Tracks

Where this course sits — and where it takes you next. This course is part of the following Theme and Professional Track(s).

Theme 3: Outdoor Session Design and Facilitation
Track 4: Educator & Youth Practitioner

Theme 3: Outdoor Session Design and Facilitation

Curator

About the instructor

Sofia Availoti

International Projects Director (Greece )

Sofia holds an MSc in Environment and International Development from the University of Edinburgh and a Joint European MSc in Environmental Studies – Cities & Sustainability. Fluent in Greek, English, and Spanish, she brings over 12 years of international experience in One Health, nature-based solutions, urban health, and sustainability. As International Projects Director at the Forest Therapy Hub, she leads global initiatives promoting nature-based health practices and training. Sofia also serves as Lead Expert for the One Health 4 Cities Network (URBACT), lectures on urbanism and health, and is a certified Forest Bathing Guide, Forest Therapy Practitioner, and yoga teacher.

Evidence Base

Grounded in peer-reviewed science

Why this matters for your practice

FTHub Academy courses are evidence-informed at every step. The evidence is not decorative — each module connects theory to field practice using the same scientific frameworks underpinning the FTHub Method.

SELF-PACED · ONLINE

  • 3–5 hours
  • 5 modules
  • 1 video
  • Certificate of Completion
  • 1-year access
  • Level: Beginner
  • English

99 €

49 €

Add to Cart
Or Subscribe — Access All Courses

Curated by

Sofia Availoti

Access

How to access this course

Three entry points — choose the one that fits where you are right now.

Individual purchase

49 €

99 €

Add to Cart
  • 1-year access
  • Completion certificate
  • Downloadable practice materials + Professional Tools Package

FTHub Academy Pro Monthly

60 €

/mo

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Subscribe to Pro Monthly
  • Full library
  • Completion certificate
  • Monthly Public Event
  • Downloadable practice materials + Professional Tools Package
  • Monthly Live Online Call
  • Hub Seedlings Starter membership

FTHub Academy Pro Annual

490 €

/yr

Save 32% vs. monthly
Subscribe to Pro Annual
  • Full library + Theme 11
  • Completion certificate
  • Monthly Public Event
  • Downloadable practice materials + Professional Tools Package
  • Monthly Live Online Call
  • Hub Seedlings Pro Annual membership
  • Track Completion Certificates
  • 10% off FTHub training programs

Student Reviews

Ratings & Testimonials

4.9

Based on 312 reviews

5

88%

4

8%

3

5%

2

2%

1

0%

“

"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."

"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."

Betty Fang

International Projects Director

“

"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."

"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."

Betty Fang

International Projects Director

“

"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."

"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."

Betty Fang

International Projects Director

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