Main image: Fatima Reszczynski, EcoGPX® Launchpad Coventry and Warwickshire, 2024
Extending Nature - XN
"Extending Nature is co-creating immersive XR experiences to build therapeutic nature-connectedness for adults living with Generalised Anxiety Disorder or GAD", Dr Jo Scott - Senior XR Research Lead.
A 'score' from PLACES by EcoGPX® prototype app
What is XN?
Our extended reality enabled interactive experiences connect people with anxiety to their local natural spaces, relieving immediate symptoms and creating long-term therapeutic benefits through nature-connectedness, place-attachment and community.
Extending Nature (XN) uses cutting-edge XR (extended reality) to deliver affordable, place-based therapeutic support via the PLACES by EcoGPX® mobile app for people experiencing anxiety. It empowers participants to engage in immersive ecosomatic practices—such as breath-work, grounding, and nature visualisation—through spatialised sound, 360° video, and AR/VR guidance. Developed with diverse artists and individuals with lived experience of anxiety, the app turns everyday green and blue natural spaces into restorative environments. Individuals can explore personalised journeys, and access pre-recorded sessions from expert international ecosomatic practitioners—transforming local landscapes into shared, therapeutic digital ecosystems.
Issias Yohanes at EcoGPX® Launchpad Coventry
XN is developing a Digital Enabled Therapeutic (DET) to benefit mental health
The project addresses the widespread impact of Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), which affects over 3 million UK adults and contributes to £100 billion in annual economic losses—including £45 billion from stress-related workplace absence alone. Traditional therapeutic access is often limited and costly, with sessions averaging £60/hour, and many individuals never receive treatment.
GAD is one of the most common mental health conditions in the UK. In England specifically, roughly 6 in every 100 adults meet the diagnostic criteria for GAD in any given week. This corresponds to a point prevalence of about 5.9% of adults for GAD.
- we are offering opportunities for healthcare organisations including NHS Trusts and GP Commissioners, higher education institutions wishing to create restorative spaces on campus and relieve student anxiety, publicly funded bodies and private companies with high levels of employee absenteeism and leadership stress to test out our PLACES app and become involved in our Extending Nature project - we will also be inclusively opening up opportunities for diverse eco-somatic practitioners across the UK to be involved in filming nature-connected 'scores' that will be shared through the Places app
What are the potential Impacts and outcomes of XN ?
We know from numerous studies that connecting with nature through collaborative, creative and somatic activities is hugely beneficial for those suffering from stress and anxiety. Our Innovate UK-funded EcoGPX® Launchpad Coventry and Warwickshire project (2024) forged new connections between people living in Coventry and their local places, particularly green and blue spaces, prompting valuable nature-connectedness in the city. It also combated individuals’ feelings of isolation, through the establishment of a creative community, helping them to feel more emplaced in and positively connected to the city of Coventry. The project activities and connections helped those participating in the project to develop new conceptions of themselves as creative people, new confidence in their creative abilities and new networks of creative solidarity in the city, which extend across diverse communities. Overall, it positively affected individuals’ perspectives of themselves and the city where they live.
EcoGPX® Launchpad Coventry Co-Creators
How did XN come about ?
Extending Nature emerged from the vision of Dr Alex Boyd, founder of Intercultural Roots for Public Health (IRPH) and its charity spinout, EcoGPX Ltd. With a background in Daoist embodied culture and systems engineering, Dr Boyd has long connected traditional and indigenous wisdom culture with digital innovation. In 2015, he conceived and co-founded the IFTR Embodied Research Working Group with Prof Lynette Hunter, Dr Ben Spatz, Dr Ian Kenvyn , Peter Lichtenfels, Prof Janelle Reinelt and others. With administrative support from Wendy Van der Haagen-Boyd, he later, in 2017, established Intercultural Roots for Public Health (IRPH) as a UK-based yet globally facing charity working across arts, education and health for positive social and ecological change.
Together Artistic Director Dr Andrea Maciel, Wendy and Alex with the wider IRPH community co-led a series of ecosomatic initiatives through IRPH – including Health & WELLth, Creative Labs, Mental Health First Aid, Ripples and Constellations (2019 - 2022) see Projects) – culminating in a series of Human-Nature Connect residencies (2022-23). These projects built an international community of eco-somatic practitioners, including disabled and chronically ill artists (see Arts Disability Network). Key collaborators alongside Alex and Wendy for the foundational EcoGPX® work in Ilkley, Bradford in 2023 include Dr John Zibell (Creative Director EcoGPX® 2023-24), and in Coventry 2024, Dr Ben Spatz (Creative Director), Maryam Safe (Creative Liaison Manager), Basma Darouich (Digital PR, Marketing & Promotion Specialist), Peter Awosiyan (Full Stack Developer) and Dr Jo Scott (Independent Evaluator). Discover more via our independent impact evaluation at EcoGPX® and at our spin-out company EcoGPX Ltd.
Extending Nature is a collaborative partnership project with EcoGPX Ltd (EGPX) and Intercultural Roots for Public Health (IRPH) - click image to learn more about PLACES by EcoGPX®
Team
- Extending Nature (XN) Project July 2025 - December 2026:
Alex Boyd – Project Director Ben Spatz – Creative Director EcoGPX Jo Scott – Senior XR Research Lead Wendy van der Haagen-Boyd – Finance Director Meg Fozzard – XR Specialist & Disability Access Advisor Joel Le Clercq – Access Support Worker (with Meg) Emmanuelle Henry-Cottrell – EDI & Diversity Access Worker Basma Darouich – CCO/PR, Marketing & Promotion Specialist Maryam Safe – Regenerative and Holistic Design Lead Al Kennedy – Ecological Design Lead Peter Awosiyan – Full Stack Developer (Aidcore Technologies Ltd) Will Crawford – Sound and Music Lead (Quietnote Ltd) Derek Lawrence - Digital Reality Capture Specialist (Twindl Ltd) Emilios Lemoniatis - Clinical Psychiatrist (Medical Creatives Ltd) Julia Organ - Director, Medical Creatives Ltd)
- Advisors:
Daniel Abdelmassih – Innovate UK Business Growth Advisor Will Abramson – Trustee, Youth Media Group Harriet Beattie – Pro Bono Legal Counsel, Visa Legal ,via LawWorks Joe Churchill — Trustee, Primary Films Lois Liao – Trustee, Intercultural Roots Andrea Maciel – Trustee, Intercultural Roots Issias Yohanes - Trustee (Third Sector Renewables) and Architect (Volunteer) David Zerny - Innovate UK Business Growth Advisor
- With thanks to:
Mindset-XR Innovation Support Programme - delivered by the Health Innovation Network (HiN) South London - MSP Link
-1 in 5 (20.2%) adults (over 11.5 million) in England had a Mental Health Condition (MHC) -Young people were more likely to have an MHC than older adults with prevalence in 16 - 24 yr olds rising to 25.8% -Prevalence of severe MHCs has also increased by 11.6% -Prevalence of MHCs is higher in the most deprived areas (26.2%) than in the least (16.0%) -Yet only 44.6% adults are receiving treatment
We have an increasing demand for MH services 3,790,826 people were in contact with NHS services in 23/24 which is 40% more than pre-pandemic. There is limited capacity within the NHS workforce.
*The Mindset-XR Innovation Support Programme, 17 September 2025, Leeds.
About our funder: Innovate UK
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is creating a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations.
We provide targeted sectors with expertise, facilities and funding to test, demonstrate and evolve their ideas, driving UK productivity and economic growth. Join our network and communities of innovators to realise the potential of your ideas and accelerate business growth. Innovate UK: inspiring business innovation.
