Gregor ritchie

Natural Wellbeing Scotland was founded by Gregor Ritchie — a community leader, mentor, and nature-based wellbeing practitioner with over two decades of frontline experience supporting people through trauma, burnout, addiction, homelessness, isolation, and major life transitions.

Gregor’s career has spanned children and family support, additional support needs, autism services, youth work, homelessness prevention, recovery and mental health support, community development, violence reduction, and human rights advocacy. He has worked with and alongside organisations including Childline Scotland, Buddies Clubs and Services, the National Autistic Society (Scotland), Simon Community Scotland, 3D Drumchapel, and within primary school and ASN settings.

He helped set up Glasgow’s first Nightstop service, supporting young people at risk of homelessness with safe emergency accommodation. He also worked as a Dads Support Worker and co-developed Dads Matter, a dads support group rooted in connection, practical help, and real peer support. Gregor has also worked as a youth worker within a youth project in Maryhill, supporting young people with confidence, belonging, and positive direction.

Gregor has held senior community leadership roles too — including managing the Heart of Scotstoun Community Centre, helping build local services and partnerships in a way that strengthened community connection and participation. He later worked as a Community Navigator with Braveheart Industries (linked to the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit), supporting people to change direction around wellbeing, safety, behaviour, and future opportunities.

After that, Gregor became a Human Rights Advocate with The Advocacy Project, supporting people’s rights within psychiatric hospitals across Glasgow. This included standing alongside individuals when they felt unheard or powerless, helping them understand their rights, and making sure their voice was respected in complex systems and high-stakes decisions.

Gregor is also a co-founder of Men Matter Scotland, helping build a stigma-free, peer-led approach to men’s wellbeing and suicide prevention that has supported thousands of men and families across Scotland.

Nature didn’t just inspire N.W.S —

it saved Gregor’s life

Gregor’s work is shaped by professional experience and lived experience. During repeated periods of burnout and exhaustion, nature became the thing that brought him back — in stages. He had to re-learn how to cope, regulate, and rebuild from the ground up.

That journey led him to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to wellbeing — not just mental health in isolation, but the full human system: emotional, psychological, mental, physical, spiritual, and even cellular health. It’s why NWS focuses on practices people can actually use in real life, not just read about.

What Gregor offers

Gregor continues to work with individuals regularly, offering human support and holistic options, helping people not only learn tools — but experience them, in a way that sticks. His approach is straight-talking, compassionate, and grounded, with a strong emphasis on safety, dignity, and practical progress.

Depending on the service, this may include:

• Mentoring, guidance, and honest conversation

• Grounding, breathwork, and nervous system regulation

• Meditation, reflection, and mindset work

• Walking sessions and nature-based practices

• Cold water exposure (supported and trauma-informed)

• Exercise, routine-building, nutrition foundations, and wellbeing planning

• Shadow work to understand patterns, triggers, self-beliefs, and coping strategies

At the heart of everything are the values Gregor tries to live by: compassion, empathy, honesty, respect, and love.

Gregor is also a husband and father, and he understands the pressure of trying to stay well while carrying responsibility and keeping life moving. Natural Wellbeing Scotland is his life’s work — built to be real, grounded, and deeply transformative for the people who take part.