Walking transforms lives. Psychologist Kylie Agnew talks about her work with Operation Flinders using adventure activities for therapeutic populations. She saw people experience positive transformation through walking.

“Some of the changes I’ve seen in people have been huge, with the young people I’ve worked with, both on Operation Flinders and in other programs, seeing them change from the start to the finish of the eight days out in the wilderness. It’s been really inspirational. I was lucky enough to travel the world to see how some of these programs run in all different remote parts of the world. There’s a lot of people using walking to help people all around the world.”

Throughout October we’re celebrating walking with #walktoberSA

Transcript:

The World Health Organization recommends that we all walk everyday. I think we should be doing as much walking as possible, obviously within our busy lives, but making time to walk everyday is going to be important, but also building walking into our lives so that we all can benefit from walking, whether it’s physical and emotional or psychological benefit.

There’s a lot of different research that’s been done on why walking is good for mental health. Some of it’s been based obviously on the physical side, having general health, meaning that you’re going to be healthier mentally, but there’s also a lot of research to show that serotonin and different hormones are released when we walk and when we exercise, and then I guess we’ve also got that relationship building which is obviously another protective factor for mental health, building friendships, building relationships by spending time together.

For me personally, I just love being in the outdoors. It’s been a passion of mine since I grew up on a farm, and also going to university and studying adventure activities then moving into using adventure activities for therapeutic populations.

Some of the changes I’ve seen in people have been huge, with the young people I’ve worked with, both on Operation Flinders and in other programs, seeing them change from the start to the finish of the eight days out in the wilderness. It’s been really inspirational. I was lucky enough to travel the world to see how some of these programs run in all different remote parts of the world. There’s a lot of people using walking to help people all around the world.