Eric Brymer- Professor (Full) at Leeds Beckett University
Eric Brymer
- Professor (Full) at Leeds Beckett University
About
164
Publications
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4,577
Citations
Introduction
Current institution
Additional affiliations
September 2014 - present
January 2010 - present
Education
January 2000 - December 2005
Publications
Publications (164)
Background: With growing interest in nature-based interventions for health, establishing implementation frameworks for prescribing nature in diverse settings is crucial. This study aims to develop and validate a nature prescribing framework tailored for the Australian healthcare context, employing a Delphi methodology to harness expert consensus.
M...
There has been a rapid increase in the delivery of social prescribing globally in recent years. However, a lack of theoretical framework, the diversity of social prescribing interventions and outcome measures, a lack of ongoing resources to provide services equitably and a lack of coordinated research agenda make it challenging for practitioners to...
In this chapter, the authors examine adventure tourist experiences before, during, and after activity participation. Traditional notions linking the adventure experience to risk and thrills are explored alongside more contemporaneous experiences. The Western-oriented adventure tourist experience as a globalised phenomenon is examined against locali...
As climate change and biodiversity loss continue to devastate the planet and human mental health impacts more than a billion people across the globe, the human–nature relationship has become even more vital for human and planetary health (Brymer et al., Citation2019, Citation2024; Fletcher et al., Citation2024). This special issue supports the need...
![Study selection PRISMA diagram
From: Page, McKenzie [52].](publication/385716997/figure/fig1/AS:11431281289709377@1731356993160/Study-selection-PRISMA-diagram-From-Page-McKenzie-52_Q320.jpg)
Link worker social prescribing programs are gaining recognition in Australia for addressing health and social needs outside routine medical care. The evaluation of these programs is essential for informing future social prescribing programs, research and evolving policy. However, diverse outcome evaluation measures present challenges for benchmarki...
In this paper, we explore the concept of outdoor adventure in the context of mental health, proposing an ecological perspective to redefine adventure beyond its traditional associations with risk and physical challenge. We critically examine current frameworks and definitions of adventure, which often emphasise specific activities and natural envir...
In this article, we address the following question: how should clinical environments be designed to promote learning opportunities for clinicians? We develop an ecologically-informed account of learning opportunities informed by Gibson’s influential ecological theory of perception (Gibson, 1977, 1979). The so-called ‘push-pull’ account is proposed...
Research shows that the human-nature relationship positively impacts human well-being. Forest School (FS) practice offers young children a structured program of nature connection through activities, aiming to enhance their self-esteem and social skills. FS is now adapted in countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand where a unique cultural...
This perspective paper investigates the dynamic interplay between wealth, materialism, environmental degradation, and mental health amid escalating challenges of climate change. The paper critically examines how affluence, often a buffer against climate impacts, paradoxically leads to higher consumption and carbon footprints, exacerbating environme...
Telemedical technologies provide significant benefits in sports for performance monitoring and early recognition of many medical issues, especially when sports are practised outside a regulated playing field, where participants are exposed to rapidly changing environmental conditions or specialised medical assistance is unavailable. We provide a re...
Social prescribing of nature therapy “green social prescribing” facilitates access to local nature-based activities that improve biopsychosocial wellbeing outcomes, are affordable, accessible, and can be adapted to context. These are becoming increasingly popular and gray literature is emerging, however, peer-reviewed scientific evidence is exiguou...
The pedagogy underpinning clinical psychology training is often reliant upon the acquisition and transmission of knowledge and the practice of skills. The dominant paradigm in the training of clinical psychologists emphasises competence-based training drawing upon a scientist practitioner model of practice, often underpinned by knowledge of evidenc...
The latest World Health Organization report on green and blue space and mental health (2021) calls for greater, and better, urban nature environments, i. e., “wilder” urban parks, tree-laden sidewalks, and overall presence of nature in the urban environment. Evidence shows that living close to and interacting with nature promotes benefits to numero...
“I remember when sex was safe and skydiving was dangerous” read a popular bumper sticker during the HIV crisis. Popular perceptions of extreme sport (ES) often include the descriptor ‘dangerous’. Therefore, why is the popularity of ES increasing exponentially with “dedicated TV channels, internet sites, high-rating competitions, and high-profile sp...
Nature based experiences have been linked to significant positive outcomes for people and the planet. Significant life experience research investigates the associations between formative experiences in nature and resulting environmental concern and action, including both singular events and repeated experiences. However, little is known about the l...
Background
The value of natural environments for developing children's self-identity and social skills has been known for some time, and more recently the potential of nature-specific (i.e., excluding built environments) outdoor learning for achieving academic outcomes has been explored. Connecting children with natural spaces has been shown to ben...
As the threat of climate change becomes increasingly prevalent for people in both the developed and developing world, the impact of climate change on mental wellbeing has become a crucial area of research. In addition to the direct, indirect, and psychosocial impacts of climate change on mental wellbeing, there is also a question of how climate cha...
The last few decades have witnessed a surge of interest in adventure sports, and has led to an emerging research focus on these activities. However, recent conceptual analyses and scientific reviews have highlighted a major, fundamental question that remains unresolved: what constitutes an adventure sport. Despite several proposals for definitions,...
For the general public, BASE jumping is considered the ultimate extreme activity. Among BASE jumpers, those using wingsuits are generally perceived as the most experienced but also as the most risk-taking. Starting from this observation, we wanted to know whether wingsuit users differed in their psychological characteristics from other BASE jumpers...
The last few decades have witnessed a surge of interest in adventure sports, and an emerging research focus on these activities. However, recent conceptual analyses and scientific reviews have highlighted a major, fundamental question that remains unresolved: what constitutes an adventure sport (and are they ‘sports’ at all)? Despite several propos...
This book presents various studies on leisure activities in the outdoors. Indeed, the benefits of being outdoors in a leisure context are widely acknowledged across a range of disciplinary perspectives (including tourism, therapeutic recreation, camps, education, adventure and recreation) (Humberstone et al., 2015). These benefits include the devel...
Background
Hydrofoil technology has changed sailing, significantly increasing its speed and resulting in spectacularity and mass media interest. Although high speed can expose participants to a risk of high-energy trauma, there are no scientific studies related to trauma in dinghies that exploit this technology. Therefore, this study aims primarily...
The declining discovery rate of world-class ore deposits represents a significant obstacle to future global metal supply. To counter this trend, there is a requirement for mineral exploration to be conducted in increasingly challenging, uncertain, and remote environments. Faced with such increases in task and environmental complexity, an important...
Extreme sports such as BASE jumping, big wave surfing, and rope-free solo climbing are prime examples of activities undertaken in extreme environments where a mismanaged mistake or accident would most likely result in death. Traditional frameworks used to explore motivational, performance, and outcome issues have assumed a risk focus. However, in m...
The main purpose of this article is to determine which motivational orientation (MO) of primary school students (n=240) and their physical self-concept (PSC) contribute to the intensity of students' physical activity and volume of physical activity in a physical education (PE) class. They were estimated using the pedometer and heart rate sensor. MO...
Urbanization, screen dependency, and the changing nature of childhood and parenting have led to increased time indoors, creating physical and emotional distancing from nature and time spent in natural environments. Substantial evidence from observational and intervention studies indicates that overall time spent in nature leads to increased perceiv...
This book draws attention to the need for a comprehensive and rigorous focus on local solutions to improve the welfare of captive elephants, their mahouts and local residents, and to enhance tourists' experiences of elephant tourism. It achieves this by critically reviewing recent research into elephant tourism, and providing contemporary analytica...
Rock-climbing has become very popular adventure sport across the globe. Researchers have begun to investigate how adventure sport athletes perform in a manner that reduces the likelihood of serious mishap, injury or even death. In this paper, we utilize a collaborative autoethnographic approach to explicate a serious traditional rock-climbing accid...
In this chapter, we provide evidence for the importance of nature and pets, otherwise referred to as companion animals, in facilitating human wellness, and point to the implications of this evidence for the development of policy and practice initiatives. Specifically, we argue that nature and pets have important roles in the initiation and enhancem...
Society is undergoing rapid change and the higher education sector is not immune to the
impact of these changes. The last few decades has also been witness to considerable
increases in mental health issues across the globe. For an organisation that delivers
higher education opportunities for students interested in supporting the enhancement
of ment...
Human-nature interactions have been presented as important for promoting and sustaining wellbeing and health benefits. Research has shown that pictures of nature, interacting with nature, physical activity in nature, immersion in nature and even feeling connected to nature can improve health. While considerable research supports this notion that na...
Evidence suggests that experiences in nature enhance mental wellbeing. However, we are yet to clearly understand the processes through which this occurs. This study employed an exploratory qualitative approach to investigate how time spent in nature supports mental wellbeing. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 participants. Thematic analysi...
Outdoor and adventure sports (OAS) have been linked to positive health and wellbeing outcomes. This Special Edition brings together cutting-edge research and thought on the implications of this link. An analysis of the papers in this Special Edition reveals important insights into (i) the diverse and powerful outcomes derived from adventure experie...
Two decades ago, McKenzie’s meta-analysis of literature provided six fundamental elements of adventure education programme design still used to guide research and practice today. While the value of McKenzie’s early work should not be underestimated, adventure education has undergone considerable changes. Adventurous activities are now available in...
Research and public policy has long supported links between traditional sports and well-being. However, adventurous nature sport literature has primarily focused on performance issues and deficit models of risk or sensation-seeking. This standpoint is limited by assumptions that participation is: (a) dependent on personality structures; (b) solely...
Introduction:
BASE (buildings, antennae, span, earth) jumping involves jumping from fixed objects with a parachute. This practice is associated with fatal events. Despite considerable evolution in BASE jump practice over the past years, fatalities have increased. Identifying the main causes of fatal events and recommending processes to reduce fata...
Adventure and extreme sports (AESs) are associated with high risk of injury and even death. This has important ramifications for sport, education, medical and health professions and has led to discussions about the appropriateness of AESs for young people. For some, participation in AESs reflects social deviance. Research from this perspective has...
Background
In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the evolution of physical education teaching practice from a traditional teacher-centred approach to a student-centred approach. Consequently, research has focused on questions about the changing conceptions of the teaching and learning process, that is, from how ‘we’ teach to how...
Engagement with nature is an important part of many people’s lives, and the health and wellbeing benefits of nature–based activities are becoming increasingly recognised across disciplines from city planning to medicine. Despite this, urbanisation, challenges of modern life and environmental degradation are leading to a reduction in both the quanti...
Physical activity of students in a physical education class is a signifi-
cant indicator of motivation and the quality of teaching. PURPOSE
The research project examined the extent to which motivational
orientation of students and physical self-concept contribute to the
prediction of the volume and intensity of student physical activity in
a physic...
Objectives: Evidence suggests that ‘green exercise’ (defined as physical activity in nature's environments) provides an important context for health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA), offering opportunities for (mental) health and well-being outcomes, compared to urban/manufactured environments. Theoretical explanations for HEPA tend to emphasize...
More-than-human approaches open up theoretical and methodological space for considering if and how all animals, human and nonhuman, play important roles in shaping relationships, actions and encounters in leisure. This paper introduces an ecological-phenomenological framework for understanding relationships between animate actors and their environm...
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the concept of subjective well-being within the context of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015, the United Nations established 17 universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These SDGs encompassed the key social, environmental and economic dimensions that can universally impro...
Citation:
Parsons, H., Houge Mackenzie, S., Filep, S. & Brymer, E. (2019). Subjective well-being and leisure. In W. Leal Filho, T., Wall, A. Marisa Azul, L. Brandli, & P. Gökcin Özuyar (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Good Health and Well-being, World Sustainability Series, Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
doi: 10.1007/978...
Anxiety is a significant mental health issue in modern society and empirical research into effective interventions to address anxiety has been extensive. Spending time in nature is one approach that has demonstrated anxiolytic effects. However, in some situations and contexts spending time in nature in order to reduce anxiety symptoms may not be po...
Nature sports is a term used to describe a collection of physical activities that are frequently defined by characteristics of their environment or an inherent risk. These perspectives overlook new aspects of nature sports and motivations for participation, imposing an inaccurate perspective on the design and facilitation of learning experiences. N...
The aim of this paper was to rank the most important didactic exercises for teaching the basic ski turn. Participants included 307 ski instructors and assistants teaching at different professional ski levels and coming from different countries. Participants were asked, via online survey, to rate the significance of exercises included in the formed...
Currently, there are various definitions for extreme sports and researchers in the field have been unable to advance a consensus on what exactly constitutes an ‘extreme’ sport. Traditional theory-led explanations, such as edgeworks, sensation seeking and psychoanalysis, have led to inadequate conceptions. These frameworks have failed to capture the...
Drawing upon phenomenology and psychoanalytic concepts, we explore and explicate participants’ lived experience of the natural world. The authors draw upon Husserl’s description of consciousness as intentionality and his later work on the life-world, in exploring experiences which provide a basis for a psychochoanalytic understanding of the human–n...
Extreme climbing where participants perform while knowing that a simple mistake could result in death requires a skill set normally acquired in non-extreme environments. In the ecological dynamics approach to perception and action, skill acquisition involves a process where the existing repertoire of behavioral capabilities (or coordination reperto...
Background
The purpose of this descriptive, epidemiological study is to classify injury patterns and determine dynamics of injuries, possible causes and preventive measures. MethodsA questionnaire was filled in by 127 kite buggying enthusiasts in 17 countries. Injuries were classified by type and anatomical site. Incident causes were analysed using...
Skateboarding has become an international action sport attractive to young people. For this reason, skateboarding has been promoted by some researchers as important for encouraging young people to become more physically active. However, skateboarding is also considered to be inherently dangerous by the medical and broader community and as a result...
Forest School focuses on child development underlining nature-connection and play pedagogy. Practitioners facilitate child-led learning through a deep observation approach. However, challenges and assumptions exist in such approaches. Additionally, a critical examination of the practice reveals that it may be lacking a solid theoretical underpinnin...
In recent years there has been a rapid growth in interest in extreme sports. For the most part research has focused on understanding motivations for participation in extreme sports and very little research has attempted to investigate the psychological structure of effective performance. Those few studies that have attempted to explore this issue h...
Background:
Participation rates in extreme sports have grown exponentially in the last 40 yr, often surpassing traditional sporting activities. The purpose of this study was to examine injury rates in foot-launched flying sports, i.e., sports in which a pilot foot-launches into flight with a wing already deployed.
Methods:
This paper is based on...
Participation in extreme sports has been linked to personal transformations in everyday life. Descriptions of lived experience resulting from transformative experiences are limited. Proximity flying, a relatively new discipline involving BASE jumping with a wingsuit where participants fly close to solid structures, is arguably one of the most extre...
Traditional definitions for adventure tourism have focused on the adventure tourism activity or the adventure tourism environment. In these cases the activity is most often associated with risk and the environment associated with unfamiliarity and natural terrains. Critiques of these definitions have pointed out that this traditional perspective is...
Politecnico di Milano is hosting the first international summer school in extreme sports medicine and engineering. The course covers a broad spectrum and is open to all PhD students, doctors, engineers, physiotherapists, etc. The course is limited to 50 participants and is free for PhD students of Politecnico di Milano and for the members of the Ex...
The term ‘extreme sports’ has become synonymous with a variety of nontraditional adventure experiences. Terminologies such as ‘whiz sports’, ‘free sports’, ‘adventure sports’, ‘lifestyle sports’, ‘action sports’, ‘alternative sports’ and ‘extreme sports’ are often used interchangeably. One disadvantage of this proliferation is that accompanying def...
Uncertainty in extreme sports performance environments, like rock and ice climbing, provides considerable psycho-emotional and physiological demands which challenge the acquisition of perceptual–motor skills. An ecological dynamics theoretical framework adopts concepts and tools of nonlinear dynamics and ecological psychology to investigate and mod...
Abstract: (1) Background: Green physical activity promotes physical health and mental wellbeing and interesting questions concern effects of this information on designing indoor exercise environments. This study examined the physical and emotional effects of different nature-based environments designed for indoor treadmill running; (2) Methods: In...
Research from a variety of scientific fields suggests that physical activity in nature and feelings of connection to nature enhance psychological health and well-being. This study investigated the psychological health and well-being impact of the physical activity environment for those already undertaking the recommended weekly amount of physical a...
Previous research has considered action and adventure sports using a variety of associated terms and definitions which has led to confusing discourse and contradictory research findings. Traditional narratives have typically considered participation exclusively as the pastime of young people with abnormal characteristics or personalities having unh...
We are witnessing an unprecedented interest in and engagement with extreme sport activities. Extreme sports are unique in that they involve physical prowess as well as a particular attitude toward the world and the self. We have scant understanding of the experience of participants who engage in extreme activities such as Buildings Antennae Span an...
Understanding how best to accrue benefits from designing physical activity and exercise programmes is needed to tackle global health problems related to physical inactivity and poor mental health. Some studies have implicated an important role for green exercise and physical activity, but there is a lack of clarity in current research. Therefore, m...
This technically oriented book on medicine as applied to extreme sports offers broad
coverage of the field extending well beyond the usual focus on major trauma and acute
injuries. In addition to the injuries and diseases associated with individual extreme
sports, this book also addresses the topics of psychology, dermatology, ophthalmology,
infect...
Ideas in ecological dynamics have profound implications for designing environments that offer opportunities for physical activity (PA), exercise and play in sedentary individuals. They imply how exercise scientists, health professionals, planners, designers, engineers and psychologists can collaborate in co-designing environments and playscapes tha...
Questions
Question (1)
we are interested in investigating psychological wellbeing from physical activity in green spaces and wanted to use physiological measurements ... Does anyone have any ideas? Heart rate etc. won't really work aS participants will be physically active, the measurements will need to be taken in the field and they will need to assess not only reductions in things like stress ... But also more positive psychological outcomes .. So cortisol, dopamine etc might be ideal? But what else and how?
