Dr Andy Harrod

Lecturer in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Applied Social Sciences

Biography

Background

I am a Lecturer in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Applied Social Sciences. I qualified as a Person-Centred Psychotherapist from the University of Cumbria in 2013 and gained my PhD in Health Geography from Lancaster University in 2024. As a lecturer I continue to draw into dialogue my twin interests in people and ‘nature’ in order to develop our understanding of people-place therapeutic encounters, specifically the myriad ways people encounter nature and the variability in their experiences. Overall, I am interested in exploring and understanding the processes involved in affective socio-ecological relationships, which support human and ecological health.

My research focuses on understanding people’s encounters with ‘nature’ and how these influence individual, community, and ecological long-term wellbeing. I engage person-centred psychotherapy with the geographical concept of therapeutic landscapes to frame my exploration of people’s relational encounters within nature-full places and the influence of these experiences on their health and wellbeing. I am interested in the use of creative and participatory methods to facilitate people’s engagement with research.

I am a person-centred psychotherapist and I have ten years’ experience of working with people with complex ‘mental health issues’, specifically in relation to sexual abuse and/or sexual violence. I am interested in the role of nature in supporting people with complex trauma, specifically the idea of nature as a safe ‘other’ in supporting therapeutic exploration and change.

I have taught a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate social science topics, including environmental education, nature-based pedagogies, environmental geographies, nature and health, research methods, and ethics.

Qualifications

  • PhD Geography: The significance of interpersonal relationships at nature-based interventions on young peoples’ long-term wellbeing, Lancaster University 
  • PgD Person Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy, University of Cumbria
  • BA (Hons) Human Geography, Lancaster University

Undergraduate teaching

I currently teach on the MA (Hons) Health in Social Science.

Postgraduate teaching

I currently teach on the Postgraduate Certificate  in Counselling Studies, as well as supervise Masters students across counselling and psychotherapy. 

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I am open to discussing with potential students research focused on the following topics:

  • Nature & Health
  • Nature-based Interventions
  • Critical Green Social Prescribing
  • Individual, Community & Ecological Wellbeing
  • Relational Selves (Being & Belonging)
  • Critical Therapeutic Landscapes Experiences
  • Person-centred Psychotherapy Inquiry
  • Qualitative & Creative Methodologies

Current PhD students supervised

2026

  • Anishka Biswas, Belonging in UK Therapy Spaces (D PSych)

  • Maura Hogan, Eco-therapy: A Decolonial Therapeutic Approach (D PSych)

  • Alex Lopez, Chaos as Affect: Liminal State(s) of Sensing  / Chaos as Inquiry: A relational and dialectical venture for counselling practice (D PSych)

  • William Taylor, Sacred Space and Symbolic Integration: Exploring Psychedelic Meaning-Making Across Cultural Contexts Using Stylised Virtual Environments (PhD, Second supervisor, first supervisor: Dr Anna Ross)

Research summary

My research focuses on exploring and understanding the transformational potential of participation at nature-based interventions on participants’ identity and long-term mental wellbeing. Nature-based interventions aim to improve participants’ wellbeing by incorporating nature through regular, structured, and facilitated activities. This includes broadly:

  • How and why people’s ways of relating affect people’s human and more-than-human therapeutic experiences with places;
  • How and why people’s perceptions of themselves and situations affect their encounters.

And specifically:

  • The relationships between facilitators and participants and within peer groups;
  • The role of nature-connectedness in facilitators’ practice and in participants’ engagement;
  • The role of nature as an actant and/or environment;
  • How these aspects contribute to the co-creation of safe and transformational places.

To explore people’s relational encounters within nature-full places I engage person-centred psychotherapy with the geographical concept of therapeutic landscapes, and interested in furthering the application of the person-centred approach to different fields, including higher education. I engage with qualitative methods, particularly in-depth interviews, creative and participatory methods to sensitively explore with people their experiences and the meanings they ascribe to them. I am interested in life mapping as a method for supporting participants to reflect on and contextualise their experiences in their ongoing biography, as well as to support them to prepare for interviews.

Knowledge exchange

I am passionate about improving practice and policy through my research. Within mental health a key concern of mine is what is known as ‘the revolving door’, whereby people who develop a ‘mental health issue’ become trapped revolving in and out of mental health services due to their symptoms of distress being attended to, rather than the whole of the person being met. As such, I am keen to contribute to social prescribing policy, which aims to connect people with non-clinical sources of support within their community. To ensure these activities are understood as not only providing respite, but also as potential spaces that co-create long-term improvements to a person’s mental wellbeing.

Past project grants

British Academy Early Career Researcher Network Seed Funding (2025) to support a service user evaluation with the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust on an inpatient therapeutic garden (Grow Your Own)

Organiser

  • August 2023 Emerging and New Researchers in the Geographies of Health & Impairment, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference Sponsored session (Geographies of Health and Wellbeing Research Group). Co-convened with Jessy Williams (University of Birmingham) and Ella Bytheway-Jackson (University of Liverpool)
  • September 2022 Social Prescribing Policy and Critical ‘Therapeutic Landscape’ Theory, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference Sponsored session (Geographies of Health and Wellbeing Research Group). Co-convened with Dr Annabelle Edwards (Lancaster University)
  • April 2022 RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum Mid-Term Conference Co-convened with Luke Green (Newcastle University), Sidra Ahmed (University College London) and Tom Lowe (The University of Groningen)
  • June – July 2021 Emerging and New Researchers in the Geographies of Health & Impairment Conference Co-convened with Tom Lowe (The University of Groningen) and Louise Mitchell (The University of Salford)

Papers delivered

  • July 2025 Exploring the role of nature-based activities on young people’s environmental actions. Morecambe Bay Curriculum Conference, Lancaster University (Roundtable discussion)
  • July 2024 Role of nature-based activities on young people's long-term nature connection. Morecambe Bay Curriculum Conference, Lancaster University (Roundtable discussion)
  • May 2023 ‘It’s Probably More about the People’: For a Person-Centred Approach to Understanding Benefits of Nature-Based Interventions. Work in Progress: Critical Geographies & Political Ecology. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University
  • September 2022 Why do we dig gardens?. With Dr Mat Cottam (The Conservation Volunteers). QUENCH Celebration Event. Liverpool
  • September 2022 ‘How does one get better?’ Untangling the ‘therapeutic’ of everyday ‘therapeutic landscape’ experiences. RGS-IBG Annual International Conference. Newcastle University
  • June 2021 Kindness & Community: Relational influences at outdoor group activities on participants’ wellbeing. Emerging and New Researchers in the Geographies of Health & Impairment Conference (Online)
  • January 2021 Exploring participants and facilitators lived experience of green care: The longevity of influences on participants’ wellbeing. Lancaster Environment Centre Winter Conference. Lancaster University (3-minute Flash of Science video)
  • December 2020 ‘I’ll never be a Dad’: (un)therapeutic encounters with nature. Institute for Social Futures Mental Health Futures Conference. Lancaster University (Online)
  • August 2020 Loss and the making of (un)therapeutic landscapes. RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum Twitter Conference (Tweet presentation)
  • April 2019 Exploring the role of human and non-human assemblages at nature-based interventions on long-term wellbeing. RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum Mid-Term Conference. Manchester University

In the press

  • Podcast: Ideal Spaces (2026) Community, Nature, Wellbeing: Andy Harrod Ideal Spaces: Podcasts
  • Podcast: Geographies of Health and Wellbeing Research Group (GHWRG) (2025) Emerging Researchers Journeys: We're here for ourselves, but we've also here for other people. It's very mutual and interdependent. GHWRG: Emerging Research Journeys Podcast
  • Video: Quality of Urban Environments with Nature Connectedness and Health (QUENCH) (2023) Why do we dig gardens?. With Dr Mat Cottam (The Conservation Volunteers). Video overview of the project.
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