We will assess your team's unique needs and interests to design a tailored half-day series of workshops that fosters a deeper connection with nature, strengthens team bonds, and enhances overall well-being. Using feedback from this initial experience, we'll collaborate with you to establish an ongoing workshop schedule that continuously supports your team's wellness goals.
Where: The location is flexible and we will customize our programs to the outdoor space of your choosing. Typically we visit local greenspaces nearby your office but transportation can be coordinated to provide your team with a more remote adventure.
Who: Any team of working adults of 5-100 people. Our instructor to participant ratio is typically 1:10.
When: Out of Office consultants is currently offering our launch program on Fridays in 2025.
Lunch: We partner with caterers who offer sustainably resourced food with minimal waste produced.
Duration: 4-5 hours
Out of Office Wellness is an educator collaborative whose members offer a wide range of workshops that help anyone find their love for the outdoors. In addition to our nature-based wellness programs, we can work with you to accomplish other goals:
Outdoor opportunities that create space for your team to build rapport, welcome new members, and have fun with each other. For many teams, this only manifests as a "happy hour", which can be alienating for people who don't drink or have a history of substance abuse. Our programs create opportunities for teams to connect and problem solve with each other, directly translating to the work they do in the office.
Being stuck in an office negatively impacts our ability to think creatively and come up with new solutions. We will work with your team to come up with a custom session that is based around a problem and develop an outdoor experiences that will act as a catalyst for generating new ideas, literally thinking outside the box.
Hit your natural reset button and savor the moment on your own or with your team. These programs allow you to rest your frontal lobe, the part of the brain that is responsible for executive function. Spending time in nature with no agenda relaxes us and provides neural benefits that modern science is only just beginning to understand. Practices like this are key to reducing anxiety and burnout in the workplace.
We are a group of wellness practitioners and educators with diverse backgrounds and skillsets who are united by our passion for connecting our community to the natural world. These connections improve our wellbeing and empower us to advocate for nature, creating a happier and healthier world.
Will H. Hansen
Rob Riman
Stefanie Haug
Paul Kelley
Malaika Bonafide
Experience: Paul holds an MS in Environmental Education and has developed programs that connect people with nature for over 15 years. His work with Outward Bound and Mass Audubon specialized in creating opportunities for people to find adventure anywhere from a local park in Cambridge to remote wilderness in New England and internationally. He specializes in guided kayak tours and also owns an oyster farm and paddle tour company near Portsmouth, NH.
Motivation: "Growing up, I was lucky to have a small stream behind my house which was my favorite place to relax and play with friends. As I get older and am responsible to keep up with a fast paced work life, I often feel stress and anxiety which sticks around, especially when I do not intentionally make time to be outside. The fact that I, as an environmental educator, have to remember to schedule quality time in nature is absurd, knowing that it is vital to my happiness and well-being. That is what working in the modern age is, but does it have to be? I am building Out of Office Wellness to develop a way for busy adults, including myself, to integrate exploring and observing nature into their lives to take pause and find balance and happiness. Besides, why should kids be the only ones who get to play outside?!"
Experience: 500hr RYT and Trauma Informed certified yoga teacher, Malaika has been teaching yoga in and around Cambridge, Boston and surrounding areas since 2015. Malaika is also a certified sound healer offering sound meditation sessions along side her yoga offerings. Her goal is to offering her students an accessible yoga practice with variations that support and honor where they are both mentally and physically each time they arrive on their yoga mat. Malaika hopes to support her students health & wellness through the practice of yoga and sound healing.
Motivation: "My motivation comes from seeing students benefit from the practice of yoga and sound meditation in a positive way."
Experience: Stefanie Haug, LICSW, MSW, MIA, is a practicing licensed psychotherapist, certified Mindful Outdoor Guide (Kripalu) and mindfulness teacher. Her global professional work spans the nonprofit (UNDP, schools) and corporate (ESG asset management) world where she focuses on community and nature connections, mindfulness, and trauma-informed care. She holds positions with community organizations centering human rights, mental health (Red Cross Mental Health Responder), and social justice. Stefanie is known for infusing curiosity, calmness and care - with a healthy dollop of humor and humility - into her relationships with all people and all things.
Motivation: "I am a passionate advocate of mindfulness in nature as a path to personal and community connection and care. Growing up in New England and Germany, I was privileged to have a range of nature explorations from preparing foraged meals (not always edible) to spending a summer in a backyard tent (not always comfortable). Whether through my early days as a budding herbalist, wildlife rehabilitator or environmental sustainability student, I’ve appreciated the interconnection of nature on hands-on, grassroots and global policy levels. The fact that nature is honored across cultures and traditions offers me another doorway into my ongoing learning and advocacy around culture, race and identity. Ultimately, I find my deepest happiness and sense of self when immersed in nature, alone, with others, feeling the connection to our place “...in the family of things,” (Mary Oliver). I welcome “rewilding” you to your own innate relationship within nature."
Experience: As a senior expedition leader for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and Outward Bound, Rob frequented remote alpine heights and coastal backwaters across North America and beyond. Later, shifting to an urban context, he instructed for a community-based wooden boat building program, then onward to graduate studies and work in architecture and sustainable design, followed by a director role co-founding the local nonprofit, Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET). Today, he free-lances as a naturalist and place-sourced educator, while endeavoring to decolonize his own learning. Rob holds a U.S. Coast Guard captain’s license and maintains a Wilderness First Responder certification.
Motivation: "Since my earliest years spent roaming Lake Michigan’s upland ravines and paddling the Mississippi’s tributary headwaters, I’ve long felt drawn to explore far-flung places. And yet, my wayfinding impulse has more recently found company alongside a penchant for deepening relationships with our wonderfully rich local land and waterscapes. Centering on community-oriented exploration and evolving narratives of place, I seek to guide others in discovering meaningful connections with their surroundings. I believe this manifestation of ‘landfulness’ is a critical component in embracing regenerative living practices and developing resilience -- plus it’s super fun!"
Experience: A relentless optimist, Will has spent the past decade bringing people together to improve themselves through fitness, food, and for the common good. This has been across many roles and professions. First, as a professional fitness coach certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Second, as an advocate for sustainable food systems both at the national and international level through the United Nations Association of the USA, and through international experiences working on the ground to learn sustainable practices from others who are leading the way from Peru to Tunisia to Nepal and more. This has been at the local level in Boston, bringing people together through food tours, preventing food waste, and working towards a more just food system. Third, by creating novel products, services, and experiences as a social entrepreneur, from developing fitness equipment to vegan desserts, and more.
Motivation: "Spending time surrounded by mountains and the ocean before I could even talk, it's always been obvious that we are nature, and that so much of our modern workplace and lifestyle has brought us out of that understanding, to our detriment. Now, more than ever, we need to get creative, get moving, and get together to return ourselves to this nature and this healthful state of being that we've always had just around the corner, if only we look for it."