In September the natural world is fully retreating into Autumn. In this session we will explore how calming our minds and opening ourselves to the beauty and wisdom of the natural world gives rise to our own renewal. As we settle, we begin to drop deeper and our senses sharpen, allowing us to slow down enough to take in the radiance. All this will happen in a safe, supportive environment where we build a warm sense of connection, and shared intention and practice.
Our time together will include:
Mindfulness practices – slowing down, welcoming ourselves, and appreciating the wonderful Foxburrow wood.
Deep nature connection practices – awakening our senses and imagination, practising reciprocity and reverence
Enhancing our experiences with creativity – optional image making
No previous experience necessary, simply willingness to sit quietly in nature.
“A gentle yet powerful experience led with such integrity and professionalism.”
In this experiential workshop we will meet our inner world, resourced by our true nature, the wisdom of the group and the natural world. We will befriend the parts of ourselves involved in our sense of belonging and those that block it. The habits and beliefs that protect us and the vulnerable parts that feel unworthy and alone can get in the way of deepening our connections to our body, ourselves, others and the more-than-human world. As we enter into a reciprocal relationship with the natural world, we will increase access to our innate sense of belonging and invite in more clarity and confidence.
The day will include:
IFS and Earth-based meditations
Embodiment and sensory practices
Walking and being on the land
Creativity – mapping and sculpting parts
Group, pair and solo work
Poetry and song
£65, £55, £40 (£40- 1 spot in exchange for helping with refreshments)
This workshop is for anyone who wishes to begin to heal, grow, be more compassionate and feel a sense of interconnectedness.
Spaces are limited.
Previous experience of IFS is helpful but not necessary, just willingness to sit quietly and be curious about what is within and around you.
Facilities: there are simple facilities on the meadow, including a cosy yurt and a compost loo. We will be spending time indoors and outdoors. Directions and what to bring will be provided after booking.
*IFS therapy is a transformative approach to understanding our minds and healing different aspects of our personality and guides us to be with our experiences in a compassionate way.More information about IFS: www.sebastianablack.co.uk/internal-family-systems
Facilitator: Sebastiana is an IFS level 3 therapist, ecotherapist, mindful self-compassion teacher and experienced group facilitator. She is the co-founder and director of Ecotherapy East social enterprise in Suffolk, tending the land and tending our inner world in community. More about Sebastiana: www.sebastianablack.co.uk/about-sebastiana
Future offerings: There will be another two 1-day workshops (on the meadow and in Trowse in Norwich) in spring 2025 before a closed group will be offered in Suffolk.
Ceilidh
Celebrate Nature with Music and Dance
Saturday 23 November 2024,
7:30pm-10:30pm Bramfield Village Hall, nr. Halesworth Suffolk
Ecotherapy East community enterprise based in Bramfield warmly invites you to an evening of ceilidh dance and music. Polkas, hornpipes, reels and jigs… The band Far ‘n’ Away (fiddles, melodeon, double bass, recorder) and their experienced dance-caller will steer you to safety through a heady mix of boisterous folk! Come and enjoy the evening with us, celebrating what we have achieved so far, and help us raise money for our project on the Foxtail Meadow we steward in the heart of Bramfield.
Bring your own alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink. Tea, coffee and snacks will be available.
There is limited parking- please share cars, walk or bike.
Find out more about Ecotherapy East: www.ecotherapyeast.co.uk
And more about the band: https://farnaway.org/
Doors open at 7pm. We can’t wait to see you there!
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.” – Mary Oliver
You are invited to pause and gather in creative community, to take your place as part of the meadow and sink into its ecosystems. We can soften, let go, and delight in the wonders of the season. We will meet nature within and without, in the hope of knowing ourselves and the natural world more deeply.
On this day of outdoor mindfulness and ecotherapy practice we will explore and embody our strand in the web, invoking receptivity, reciprocity, and reverence. The practices encourage us to allow all of our senses to ease into the natural world, filling us up with the aliveness and beauty of spring. Our intimate connection with nature changes us and opens our curiosity to what needs attention within us.
The day will include:
Meditation and reflection
Embodiment and Mindful walking
Sensory and imaginal practices
Creativity to digest our experiences
Sharing in a supportive community
No previous experience necessary, just a willingness to sit quietly.
All are welcome.
Facilities: We will be on the nature reserve therefore facilities are very simple to minimise impact on the wildlife. We have a large yurt in case of showers but we will spend most of the time outdoors. There is a compost loo and water.
Contribution to Ecotherapy East: £60, £50, £40- choose what you can afford. If this is too high for you and you would like to join us, please get in touch.
Spaces limited to allow for a small, connected group.
Travel: We encourage car sharing, use of public transport or bicycles.
Parking: Parking is available at Bramfield Village Hall for a small charge of £3 per vehicle.
We have 4 spaces by the meadow for people with limited mobility.
Buses: The workshop is timed to work around when buses arrive and leave Halesworth. The Charcoal Line 40, 41, X41 runs from Norwich to Halesworth once an hour, and Bus 521 goes from Halesworth to Bramfield. All Suffolk buses timetables can be found here: https://www.suffolkonboard.com/ways-to-travel/bus/bus-timetables/
Address and directions will be provided after booking.
Facilitators:
Robert Black is an integrative counsellor, supervisor, ecotherapist and expressive arts therapist, working in private practice. He worked at Norfolk Mind as a trainer of Mental Health First Aid, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion and Active Hope courses for over a decade and has been running workshops in the natural world since 2016.
Sebastiana Black is an Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist, ecotherapist and Mindful Self-Compassion teacher. She practises Buddhism, which helps her work with climate distress. She is a co-founder and director of Ecotherapy East, which actively contributes towards ecosystem regeneration and building a community around the meadow that they steward. She is passionate about deepening our sensitivity to our inner world, Earth wisdom and the larger ecosystems in which we belong. She enjoys writing songs and poetry inspired by the more-than-human world.
Stories from the land
Helen Wells will perform her one woman show Sensitive Indicator – a drama of insect loss. Helen weaves together her life with that of an endangered butterfly the Grizzled Skipper and explores the insect crisis on our warming earth, our collective vulnerability and what we are passing onto future generations.
Travel: We encourage car sharing, use of public transport or bike.
Parking: Parking is available at Bramfield Village Hall for a small charge of £3 per vehicle.
We have 4 spaces by the meadow for people with limited mobility.
Buses: The Charcoal Line 40, 41, X41 runs from Norwich to Halesworth once an hour.
For more information and to book email heavenwells@icloud.com or text 07803608274.
Climate Conversations – Sharing our feelings about the ecological crises
with Ecotherapy East
Saturday 8 June2024 2-4pm Co-op Community Space, Halesworth Free, donations to Ecotherapy East welcome
Feelings like grief, anger, hope, love, despair, fear; the climate and biodiversity crises can evoke so many emotions from day to day, depending on what news we’ve heard, or particular person we’ve talked to. Many of us also imagine others might not be feeling the same as us.
This is a space to share in a supportive environment about how the situation is affecting you, as well as reflect and learn what can support you going forth. When we voice our difficult emotions this can free us up to feel more hopeful and act in small (or bigger) ways. We will be offering some thoughts on what often holds people back, as well as some simple practices that can sustain us. We hope you will find it an inspiring and positive space to connect with others. Led by experienced facilitators from Ecotherapy East, a social enterprise based in Bramfield.
This event is free, but please let us know if you intend to come so we can track numbers. Please email: ecotherapyeast@gmail.com
At midsummer, close to the summer solstice and the turning point it represents, join us to mark this time of maximum light and expansiveness. It will be a chance to sink into land and nature connection, slow writing and community. Writing will help us to digest our experiences and distill precious insight.
Joanna Guthrie is a poet, writer and facilitator whose writing focuses on the other-than-human world. Her second poetry collection was published last year.
Rebecca Stonehill is a writer, creative writing teacher and activist. She has published three novels and a memoir and is the founder of Norwich Writers Rebel.
The day will include:
An Invitation for slow writing to sink into land, nature and other-than-human connection
Sharing of poetry and verses
Guided meditation and contemplation
Labyrinth walking
Smaller group work
An invitation to share writing in a small, supportive community
Contribution: £45, £35, £30 – choose what you can afford. Please consider paying the highest amount to support our work and those who can only afford the lower price. If this is too high for you and you would like to join us, please get in touch.
Facilities: We will be on the nature reserve therefore facilities are very simple to minimise impact on the wildlife. We have a large yurt in case of showers but we will spend most of the time outdoors. There is a compost loo and water.
Travel: We encourage car sharing, use of public transport or bicycles.
Parking: Parking is available at Bramfield Village Hall for a small charge of £3 per vehicle. We have 4 spaces by the meadow for people with limited mobility.
Refreshments: Tea and biscuits provided. Please bring your own packed lunch.
Buses: The Charcoal Line 40, 41, X41 runs from Norwich to Halesworth once an hour. We can offer a lift from there. The workshop is timed to work around when buses arrive and leave Halesworth.
Address and directions will be provided after booking.
Sink into the gifts the Earth offers you each moment. Tune into the ecosystems inside and around you with your whole body and all your senses. When we let the natural world come to us, we can really include it into our experience. We can rest in what is right here, enter into a creative conversation and notice how it changes us. No longer separate, belonging to the meadow, meeting the pond, the grasses and the trees and being met by them.
Drawing on practices from ecotherapy, dance movement psychotherapy, voice movement therapy, community dance, and mindfulness, Katy Dunne (Norfolk Arts award winner, 2023) and Sebastiana Black will create a nourishing day to support you in deepening your connection to your whole self, the natural world, and each other.
The day will include:
Movement exercises to deeply connect with ourselves, and those we meet on the land
Meditation practices to slow down and sense the inner and outer world
Voice, imagination and movement to nourish ourselves and give back to nature
Creativity to enhance and digest our experiences
Time for you to slow down and rest in nature
No previous movement and meditation experience is necessary, just willingness to sit quietly in nature and move according to your ability.
Contribution to Ecotherapy East: £60, £50, £40- choose what you can afford. Please consider paying the highest amount to support our work and those who can only afford the lower price. If this is too high for you and you would like to join us, please get in touch.
Spaces limited to allow for a small, connected group.
Travel: We encourage car sharing, use of public transport or bicycles.
Parking: Parking is available at Bramfield Village Hall for a small charge of £3 per vehicle.
We have 4 spaces by the meadow for people with limited mobility.
Buses: The workshop is timed to work around when buses arrive and leave Halesworth. The Charcoal Line 40, 41, X41 runs from Norwich to Halesworth once an hour, and Bus 521 goes from Halesworth to Bramfield. All Suffolk buses timetables can be found here: https://www.suffolkonboard.com/ways-to-travel/bus/bus-timetables/
Address and directions will be provided after booking.
Connecting Deeply with Nature and PsycheEcotherapy Retreat
Friday 21 July to Wednesday 26 July Weekend or 5-day option
Tuttington, North Norfolk Camp or sleep off-site
"I experienced a huge and powerful shift during this retreat. There are many unhelpful parts of ourselves that we are so familiar with but can’t seem to change, no matter how hard we try.
Getting to know them using guided techniques in nature, allowed me to move through grief and sorrow into absolute joy and to lovingly accept them, as the first step towards positive change."
At the height of the year, we offer you an invitation to pause and gather in a creative community and take your place as part of the ecosystem of meadow, woodland and river. We will meet nature within and without, in the hope of knowing ourselves and nature more deeply.
As we walk the land and meet those who live there, we will explore the four directions and elements, taking note of the connections we make as we share circle time. From this contemplative, regenerative space we will get to know our inner world and welcome ourselves in our wholeness. The aliveness, beauty and wisdom of the natural world will allow our deeper selves to guide us on this adventure as we tune into what is alive and emerging in us.
On Friday to Sunday you can nourish yourself by getting to know your innate resources, the archetypes of your wholeness, your Self. You will get in touch with the powerful adult of yourself, your wild indigenous self, your movement toward insight as well as your ability to dive deep into the unknown of your inner world.
Take a deeper, more intimate exploration on Monday to Wednesday as we turn our attention to ways in which we fall short and seek ways to heal and grow, tackling blocks to our wholeness (our parts). This will compliment the weekend’s work, and take it to the next level.
Come and enrich yourself and your relationship with nature on a beautiful meadow in North Norfolk with ancient trees and adjacent woodland area.
The retreat will include:
Nature-based Four Directions work, embodying our wholeness, our innate resources and healing what blocks us- exploring our inner ecosystem
Fostering our own sense of deep nature connection, tapping into our natural wisdom, imagination, sense of belonging, and presence
Letting the natural world guide us
Finding our place in the web of life – exploring our ecological selves
Nurturing and calming mindfulness and compassion practices
Engaging more deeply in all our senses, including the imaginal
Movement and other expressive practices
Digesting our experiences with creativity (creative writing, mark making, scupting) and sharing in group
Generosity – sharing together in community, gaining support and insight
Periods of silence to increase our sense of connection and rest
Evenings round the fire with poetry, songs and stories, sunset walks, sauna, river swim
Accommodation and Food
There is plenty of space for camping or you can bring a caravan. There is also an option of sleeping indoors in the workshop hall on the floor. Or there is also the option to come and go and sleep off site. However we recommend that you stay on site to make the most of the retreat.
We will provide a vegan dinner each night which we will prepare and cook together on the fire. You will need to bring something to share for our first dinner on Friday and lunch and breakfast for your stay.
There is a fully equipped kitchen and gaz stoves available. There is no electricity on the field.
Tea, coffee and light snacks will be provided.
Donations
We offer a sliding scale so you can choose what is appropriate for you and your circumstances. If this is still beyond your current possibilities and you would like to be part of the retreat, please reach out and we will do our best to accommodate you. If you feel like you would like to contribute more before or after the retreat, let us know.
30% of our profits from the workshop go to Ecotherapy East, CIC, who are increasing biodiversity on a 12-acre meadow in Suffolk. This takes time and resources. Your money is supporting that as well as the teachers and the team who have been planning this event for many months.
Schedule
Friday
Arrivals from 4pm to pitch your tent and settle in
6pm – shared dinner
7-9pm – introductions, orienting and meditation
Saturday
7:30am – rise
8am-8:40 – morning meditation and dream sharing
8:45-9:45- breakfast
10am-1pm morning programme
1-3pm lunch and break with community generosity time
3-6pm afternoon programme
6-8pm preparing dinner, dinner around 7pm.
8-10pm evening programme – sunset walk, optional-sauna, circle round the fire- stories, songs, poems..
Sunday
7:30am – rise
8am-8:40 – morning meditation and dream sharing
8:45-9:45- breakfast
10am-1pm morning programme
1-3pm lunch and break with community generosity time
3-6pm afternoon programme
6-8pm preparing dinner, dinner around 7pm.
8-10pm evening programme – sunset walk, optional-sauna, circle round the fire- stories, songs, poems.
Monday, Tuesday – as above
Wednesday
7:30am rise
8am-8:40meditation
8:45-9:45- breakfast
10am-1pm morning programme
1-2pm- lunch
2-3pm – closing
3-4:30pm – departures – tidying, packing and leaving no trace
Facilities: There will be an outdoor shelter in case of showers and a cozy workshop space with a woodburner if it rains heavily or is too cold to sit outside. Lovely compost loos, hot showers and a sauna. There is a fully equipped kitchen and gaz stoves available. There is no electricity on the field.
Spaces are limited to 12 people so please book early.
Do get in touch if you have any questions or want to talk to us first before commiting to attend.
What to bring: camping equipment and bedding, food for lunches and breakfast and food to share on first night. Clothes for the weather, a sun hat, sunscreen, waterproof jacket, trousers and shoes in case of showers, a blanket for extra comfort, head torch, swim suit, towel, a chair to sit on, something to sit on in the wild (portable chair or stool, piece of cardboard or plastic..), water bottle, your own journal however paper, pens and art materials will be provided.
At the Autumn Equinox, we will be exploring themes of balance, obstacle navigation and what to harvest in our lives and what to let go of.
The workshop will take place on Ecotherapy East’s beautiful 12-acre land they have been regenerating.
We will be tuning into our innate connection with the natural world, our inner world and ecosystems around us. Writing will help us to digest our experience and distil precious insight.
Rebecca Stonehill is a writer, poet, creative writing teacher and activist based in Norfolk. She has published three novels and a memoir.
Sebastiana Black is an Ecotherapist, IFS therapist and Mindful Self-Comapssion teacher. She co-founded Ecotherapy East and runs nature based workshops in East Anglia.
