Mental health professionals have long recognized that therapy and medication can be important parts of supporting young people. But what if healing also comes from learning to paddle a canoe, tending a garden, making art, hiking a mountain trail, volunteering in the community, or simply finding a place where you truly belong?
That idea is at the heart of social prescribing, an approach to well-being that is gaining traction around the world. Rather than asking only, “What’s the matter with you?” social prescribing asks a different question: “What matters to you?”
For Oliverian School, social prescribing wasn’t a new philosophy. It was simply a new name for something we’ve been intentionally building for more than two decades.
When Head of School Abby Hood first learned about social prescribing through The Connection Cure (Hotz, 2024), she immediately recognized it. “We realized this is what we’ve been doing all along. Now we have a research-backed framework that helps us better understand why it works and how we can become even more intentional.”
At Oliverian, we’ve always believed that students thrive when they move their bodies, spend time outdoors, create something meaningful, contribute to their community, and experience genuine connection with others. This philosophy is reflected in the pillars of our student experience—Adventure, Stewardship, and the Arts. Woven into students’ daily lives, these programs naturally align with the five pillars of wellness Hotz identifies: movement, nature, art, service, and belonging.
Research increasingly shows that each of these experiences contributes to improved mental health, resilience, and overall well-being.
Today’s adolescents are growing up in a very different world than previous generations. Technology has made many parts of life more convenient, but it has also contributed to rising rates of anxiety, loneliness, school avoidance, reduced community participation, and fewer opportunities for unstructured exploration and play.
Many of the students who come to Oliverian have gradually watched their worlds become smaller. Anxiety often convinces young people to stop trying new things. They withdraw from activities they once enjoyed. They avoid situations that feel uncomfortable. Over time, opportunities for growth shrink.
As Kenzie Keefe, Oliverian’s Director of Student Support, explains, “The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety—it’s to help students build lives that are bigger than anxiety.”
That philosophy shapes everything we do. Rather than asking students to wait until they feel less anxious before they begin living, we help them discover experiences that are meaningful enough to make taking the next step worthwhile. Through trusted relationships, thoughtful coaching, and meaningful experiences, students gradually expand their worlds instead of allowing anxiety to shrink them.
One word in social prescribing deserves special attention: social. The activities themselves are often social, but students are also far more likely to try something new when it’s suggested by an adult they trust. That might be a coach, advisor, teacher, dorm parent, or therapist. These trusted relationships provide encouragement, accountability, and reassurance when stepping outside a comfort zone feels difficult.
For adolescents—especially those experiencing anxiety—that relationship often becomes the bridge between wanting to participate and actually taking the first step. A socially anxious student might not immediately volunteer to perform at Coffee House, but they may begin by sitting in on a jam session. A reluctant student might only agree to join Canoe Club because a trusted adult invites them, or because friends are going. Once they’re there, something changes. The activity itself becomes rewarding. Confidence grows. Relationships deepen. Students begin returning because they want to, not because they have to.
What makes these experiences effective is the balance between structure and choice. Every student participates in our morning Adventure, Stewardship, and Arts classes, beginning each day with movement, time outdoors, service, or creativity. Within that expectation, every student also has meaningful choices—the opportunity to select experiences that spark curiosity and align with emerging interests. Sometimes students already know what they enjoy. Often, they don’t. Trying new things becomes part of discovering who they are.
One important distinction between simply offering activities and practicing social prescribing is the role of coaching. Trusted adults help students reflect on which experiences leave them feeling calmer, more connected, or more confident, and encourage them to carry those practices beyond Oliverian.
One Oliverian alumna discovered that connecting with the natural world helped her stay grounded. After graduating, she planted a garden at her apartment complex as a way to relax and regulate her emotions. That may be one of the greatest successes of social prescribing. Students don’t just leave with better coping skills—they leave with a growing understanding of what helps them thrive.
Social prescribing isn’t about replacing therapy, medication, or other clinical supports. Those interventions remain important and, for many students, essential. Instead, social prescribing recognizes that well-being is also built through everyday experiences that connect us to ourselves, to other people, and to the world around us.
At Oliverian, we don’t see movement, creativity, service, nature, and belonging as extras. They are essential ingredients in helping students discover who they are, what matters to them, and how they want to engage with the world. That is the promise of social prescribing—not simply helping young people feel better, but helping them build lives that are rich, connected, and worth fully living.
