The Therapeutic Great Outdoors

Posted on Jan. 14, 2021

When LaVoya Woods-Dionne ’19 (MSW) pops into view on a Zoom screen, don’t be surprised to find her outside. Woods-Dionne is a therapist and social worker who emphasizes the healing power of the great outdoors, and she practices what she preaches. Her Instagram feed is covered in images of creeks and beaches and forest, and she conducted our interview from her sunny front porch.

Easy access to the outdoors was a big part of what drew Woods-Dionne, born and raised in New York City, to Carolina. “I’m in nature every day,” she said. “I go kayaking or canoeing to start off the morning, and then a quiet walk in nature, a little yoga, maybe a picnic. It’s been really divine.”

She also was drawn by the chance to help the nation’s oldest public university grapple with long-standing challenges of race and inclusion. When Woods-Dionne enrolled in the School of Social Work for her master’s degree in 2017, UNC was witnessing regular protests about racial justice, a Confederate monument and the need for greater diversity in both the student body and the faculty.

Woods-Dionne specializes in helping young people overcome trauma. She has a private therapy practice and is on staff at UNC’s Counseling and Psychological Services, part of a six-person Multicultural Health Program that launched in 2019. In a report to the trustees, a campus task force on mental health recommended more resources for “students with diverse identities,” citing a huge rise in demand for CAPS services and the politically charged environment on campus.

“There’s a lot of power in student voices, and organizations for students of color on campus have been pretty clear about the things that they need for a long time,” Woods-Dionne said, referencing years of campaigning for more mental health resources. “Being a student of color at the University, it was really important for me to feel like there were active allies in the administration that understood the necessity of safety and a sense of well-being for students of color. I feel like I’m now a part of that.”

That means helping students recognize their strengths while acknowledging the legacy of discrimination at UNC. In fall 2019, just 8 percent of Carolina undergraduates were Black. Black students make up more than a quarter of public school enrollment in North Carolina.

“It’s only been 69 years since the first Black student was admitted at Carolina. “And that student faced a lot of discrimination — actual aggression and violence. While there have been incredible gains in civil rights, Black and brown students of color on campus still don’t always have their experiences recognized.”

Woods-Dionne draws on her own background to guide her therapy. She grew up in Queens, N.Y., seeking out all the nature she could find in the nation’s most densely populated city. “I remember getting in trouble for getting dirty a lot,” she said. “Climbing trees, or my brother and I riding bikes around the city, just everywhere. Just the speed and the wind and that feeling of freedom as a kid, feeling like you’re controlling your own destiny on those two wheels. That was pretty powerful.”

She also remembers the struggle to succeed in tough environments: Being falsely accused of cheating in a science class where she was the only girl and only student of color; leaving college because her family couldn’t afford tuition; joining the Air Force shortly after 9/11 as a way to earn money for her degree.

Resilience — to bounce back from adversity, to understand setbacks as temporary detours instead of permanent catastrophes — is at the core of Woods-Dionne’s approach to counseling. She reminds students that the Black experience in America is a story of strength.

“Communities of color have been healing themselves for a long time. I’m tapping into this idea that communities of color have been able to thrive and prosper despite all the harm. Recognizing the role of trauma but saying that you have all the resources you need to thrive.”

One of those resources is the natural world. The stereotypical image of a hiker, kayaker or bird-watcher is not a Black woman from Queens; Woods-Dionne wants to change that. A wealth of research finds that Black children are less likely to live in areas with easy access to parks or nature preserves. The Center for American Progress estimates that “communities of color are three times more likely than white communities to live in nature-deprived places.”

Woods-Dionne has been a camp counselor, run an outdoor preschool and even traveled to Italy to study the famed Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, which emphasizes exploration and plenty of time outside. She can cite reams of research about the ways natural environments promote not just physical health but mental well-being.

“Black folks have been in nature since the beginning of time,” she said. “But we’ve been pushed out of natural experiences. Many places like public pools and parks were still immersed in very real segregation all the way into my childhood. I had four generations of folks who had never even had those experiences because they weren’t allowed to. I’m the first person in my family to go camping.”

She probably won’t be the last. Woods-Dionne’s 14-year-old daughter grew up joining in many outdoor adventures and watching her mom persevere through years of intensive schooling and occasional setbacks on the way to a thriving therapy practice.

“I was not a traditional student,” she said. “I was in college as a grown adult with a child and a career, which was … exciting! But I’m really happy my daughter got to see all of that, and to see where I am now.”

— Eric Johnson ’08

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