At key points throughout my life, being in the Natural world has supported me to
grow and find my path. (see page “My Story”)
On a professional level, Nature Based Facilitation has always been a part of my
work.
When I was 18 years old I committed to working with the next generation with
Nature as my ally.
Whilst on my Gap Year in Peru I took a group of young children from their
orphanage to the nearby seaside. Being in the sea, and jumping in the waves gave
them a taste the freedom they longed for in their young lives, mostly full of heavy
responsibility. I held my breath, watched, continually counted heads bobbing up
and down in the water and listened to my heart sing….
Many of the clients I work with today talk fondly of a time in their childhood when
they had the freedom to roam and explore in nature: the seaside, the woods, the
fields and the mountains.
As adults we can forget or grow fearful. We may become restrained by the weight of
the world or limited by anxiety.
Simply being in the woods can release some of these knots and help us remember
forgotten joys.
We may sit under a tree and remember climbing one. We might light a fire and
remember and enjoy the simple pleasure of sitting and watching the flames.
Noticing this inner child and being with her may support us, as an adult, to respond
more ably to our present life situation.
We can rediscover a partnership with Nature in which our enquiring mind can feel
quietly accompanied and calmed. We sometimes discover answers to our questions
or maybe, the adequate questions that need to be asked.
These challenging times we live in call us to find insight into the radical
interdependence of all phenomena, the web of life.
To support ourselves we need to connect deeply with the cycles of nature so that
our whole being remembers that we are a fundamental part of the Natural World.
It is time to name our eco-grief, the despair we may feel when we hear of the
destruction of our natural resources, the domestication of our children, the loss of
wild spaces.
By naming this grief and being with it, we can lose our fear of it. We can find
compassion for ourselves again and then more for others too.
In our sessions I work alongside you, I witness, because witnessing heals. One of
my greatest allies is an open heart, because that creates compassion and creates
space for the new.
I use Mirroring (reflecting back what I have heard and seen), Tracking (following
your story and any visible emotions) and Guiding (offering a next step).
Through working in Nature outside of us we can meet our own Nature inside us and
uncover our gifts which contribute to and support this web of life.
I became co-guardian of a 16 acre woodland a few years ago. I was able to buy the
woodland because I had an accident on a farm which nearly killed me.
The woods remind me, every day, of the preciousness that is the gift of life itself.
Co-owning a little patch of wilderness has allowed me to tend to the wild woods
within my soul.
I hope this Sacred Haven may nourish you too.
Most of my individual and group sessions take place in the two woodlands that
make up Nemetona (a Celtic word meaning guardian of a Sacred Haven), a
regeneration project I share with Bridget Rowan (https://bridgetrowan.uk/).
I am also open and available to run group sessions in nearby locations.