Will Dobud
Will Dobud, PhD, MSW, is a social work clinician and researcher working on innovative treatment programs integrating outdoor therapeutic experiences and an advocate for youth impacted by America’s troubled teen industry. He is co-author of Solution-Focused Practice in Outdoor Therapy and Outdoor Therapies. Will is from the Washington, DC, area.
Will's Story
Will Dobud, PhD, is an accomplished and award-winning social work lecturer, researcher, and practitioner with a deep commitment to advancing outdoor and adventure therapies for youth. Currently a Senior Lecturer of Social Work at Charles Sturt University in Australia, he has built a career focused on improving psychotherapy outcomes and amplifying client voices through innovative therapeutic practices.
Originally from the United States, Will started working in Australia in 2009, where he founded True North Expeditions, Inc., a non-profit outdoor therapy organization based in Adelaide, South Australia, designed to support adolescents struggling with behavioral and emotional challenges. He has gained global recognition for his contributions, including the competitive 2015 Australian Postgraduate Award for research promise and the 2021 Distinguished Researcher of the Year award from the Association for Experiential Education.
Will's academic and professional journey reflects a blend of hands-on experience and academic rigor. After growing up in Washington, D.C., and attending boarding school outside of Boston, he volunteered as a firefighter and rescue technician in Maryland while studying social work and psychology at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. His passion for outdoor therapy took root through extensive work with wilderness programs across the U.S., including in Alaska, Arizona, West Virginia, Maryland, New York, and North Carolina, before he met his partner Renée and began traveling to Australia.
Dr. Dobud has co-edited influential works like Outdoor Therapies: An Introduction to Practices, Possibilities, and Critical Perspectives (2020) with Professor Nevin J. Harper and co-authored Solution-Focused Practice in Outdoor Therapy: Co-Adventuring for Change (2022) with Dr. Stephan Natynczuk. His research explores youth experiences in outdoor therapeutic settings, aiming to enhance the effectiveness of social work services.
A musician and adventurer at heart, he also brings a creative perspective to his teaching and practice, enriching his efforts to support young people and professionals alike.
Other Reads
Outdoor Therapies: An Introduction to Practices, Possibilities, and Critical Perspectives
Drawing on the leading voices of international researchers and practitioners, Outdoor Therapies provides readers with an overview of practices for the helping professions.
Sharing outdoor approaches ranging from garden therapy to wilderness therapy and from equine-assisted therapy to surf therapy, Harper and Dobud have drawn common threads from therapeutic practices that integrate connection with nature and experiential activity to redefine the "person-in-environment" approach to human health and well-being. Readers will learn about the benefits and advantages of helping clients get the treatment, service, and care they need outside of conventional, office-based therapies.
Providing readers with a range of approaches that can be utilized across a variety of practice settings and populations, this book is essential reading for students, practitioners, theorists, and researchers in counseling, social work, youth work, occupational therapy, and psychology.
Solution-Focused Practice in Outdoor Therapy: Co-Adventuring for Change
Solution-Focused Practice in Outdoor Therapy presents a comprehensive model for working therapeutically with clients outdoors, with adventure, and in any outdoor setting – from a typical one-hour session to multi-day expeditions.
Chapters lay out a robust and pragmatic model for opening the counseling room door using solution-focused methods. Dobud and Natynczuk bring together research on best practice in psychotherapy, monitoring therapeutic outcomes, safe and inclusive leadership, supervision, and self-care to present a robust framework for working therapeutically outdoors. Case vignettes are presented throughout the book, and a field manual is available for free download with purchase of the book.