Into the Heartwood 

… creating space for the development of an ecological being’ness

Workshop dates

7th November 2025, 10am - 4pm

This one in November is entitled 'Gathering in before winter's descent'. We will be giving space for slowing our pace at the end of the growthful arc of the year. Join us to celebrate and honour this special time and together we can move into winter's descent gracefully. There are still spaces available, so do get in touch to find out more and ensure your place around the fireside.

Please contact me (see email below) and we’ll arrange a brief conversation to consider your readiness at this time. Following this you’ll receive a booking form and further information. Please return your completed forms, along with your fee and this will book your place.

It is urgently understood that our species’ separation from nature is having very serious consequences on many levels. Restoring our relational position within the living earth feels like an appropriate response to our world in these times, providing the opportunity to develop a healthier affiliation with the natural world, as well as our own being.

Into-the-Heartwood outdoor workshops offer intentional nature experiencing for 'helping professionals' / 'human relations practitioners' to support the development of a nature-relatedness and creative expression amongst the living world.

Working with processes involved in Rites of Passage (thresholds between severance, liminal space and incorporation), sensing into the reciprocity of your relationship with the living earth, and allowing your own unique creative voice to express and respond is the bedrock of the nature relatedness offered here.

Approaches that underpin this work include eco-psychology, eco-philosophy, environmental expressive arts, rites of passage and somatic mindfulness.

As we acclimatise to being amongst the living world, our capacity to attune grows: we notice more, become more mindful, and over time our relationship with the more-than-human is profoundly deepened. Attuning in this way fosters an embodied state of being, offers up wisdom, and invites a shift in our perspective of the animals we are, within the ecological web.

By getting curious about the queries such as, ‘who am I in nature?’, we begin to open ourselves up to a rich, interconnected experience that can lead to an expansion of awareness. Over time, this awareness supports the growth of an ‘ecological intelligence’ that is embodied, emotionally cohesive and innately creative.

Working creatively offers an opportunity to explore through curiosity and without fear of product outcomes. The focus is on the experience of the process, garnering greater understanding, expression and communication. Entering into a reciprocal relationship with the living world we offer back our gratitude, understanding and creativity.

Through engaging in Into The Heartwood process, we can cultivate..

  • a vital aliveness, offering a deepened sensory awareness

  • an engagement with creative expression that is free of value-judgement

  • an intentional engagement with the more than human world

  • an altered pace and a reciprocal relationship with the natural world

  • working in alignment with the seasonal turning of the earth

  • our appreciation, respect and care for other species and living organisms

  • a sense of a shared self

2026

13th March

8th May

3rd July

11th September

13th November

Location

Held in ancient woodlands and low moorland meadow in Derbyshire, UK.

We have the use of a compostable toilet, a woodland hut (if required) and fire-pit.

Fees £75 per group day

Please bring your own lunch. Refreshments provided.

Into The Heartwood is CPD for human relations practitioners who are wanting to develop an ecological practice to support their work. This is not supervision, therapy, or a training in how to take your practice outside, but will be a personal underpinning to support your professional practice.

  • What people say about ITH

    Although I was very busy with work and family life when I engaged in ITH, I’m so glad I booked on as it has been so important to give myself time for being with my experience of nature. My commitment to my own nature practice in my local area was a sticking point for me and I struggled initially to give myself space for this. I came to realise that my difficulty with this was an important part of my process and I started protecting short moments of time in my day for pausing and being. I cannot state enough how much this has made a difference to my sense of my self in the world!  

  • What people say about ITH

    I really valued the spaciousness of the sessions.  There was structure but within it there was plenty of room for things to emerge.  I found that I could settle into a new way of being and relating to the world around me. Rather than me as a human imposing on the landscape, or nature being there for me to see, sit in etc, i could start to see myself as one living thing in a space full of other living things all just existing and being.  It was very profound and enabled a new receptivity to develop in me that has followed me in other aspects of my life.  I loved the experience of looking for thresholds and finding different ways to consciously move into another way of being and responding to the world around me. Thank you Natasha!

  • What people say about ITH

    Before doing ITH I would say I had a sensitive relationship with nature. Engaging in this process has opened my eyes to a different sense of being amongst nature that has helped me be in contact with myself as an animal! I loved how it was tailored to me and my process - not a course which I had to fit into. Doing ITH has given me greater confidence to take my therapy practice outside! Thank you! (SJ)