Natural Academy

Here is a poem of these times from our You tube channel, speaking of the land we are stewarding here in Ham Green Outdoor Centre the Lakeside field we have been rewilding, near Bristol.

In the dry of it all A poem of dry times

Spending the day with the incredible Occupational Therapy team at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, exploring how the NatureWell approach can support health, wellbeing and recovery through deeper connection with the natural world.

It was inspiring to share ideas, experience practical nature-based approaches, and explore how nature can become an active partner in therapeutic practice. As healthcare continues to evolve, it is encouraging to see such openness to approaches that support nervous system regulation, connection, meaning and belonging, alongside excellent clinical care.

A huge thank you to everyone for your warmth, curiosity and engagement. We left feeling hopeful about what is possible when people and nature are brought back into relationship.

Together we can create healthier people, healthier communities and a healthier planet.

Our first Seasonal morning is on Friday this week. 10.00am -12.30pm to get in touch email [email protected] for more info and a short registration form.

As I sit here in our South immersion with our Advanced Pathway students, surrounded by quartz, river, ancient landscape and the quiet presence and wisdom of the natural world, I feel the deepgrief of what is being lost. I am also reminded why this work matters so deeply. We are committed to meeting everyone exactly as they are, in the world as it is, rather than through the lens of any utopian ideal.

This week we are exploring the Wild Mind Map of the Psyche by Bill Plotkin, a framework that integrates beautifully within our ecotherapy model, Natural Self Eco Therapy (NSET). NSET brings together ecocentric, eco systemic and reciprocal eco-psychotherapeutic practices that are in service of the regeneration of health , both human and more-than-human.

The NSET model and practices invite us to understand the psyche not as something separate from nature, or each other, but as an expression of the same living intelligence that shapes forests, rivers, seasons and skies. Rather than asking “What’s wrong with me?”, we begin to ask, “How has life organised itself through me, how have I needed to hold myself back from life and how might my life further reorganise towards wholeness, regeneration and what I am called to offer? Already new careers and services are growing in this work across therapy, mental health and regenerative projects.

Through experiential practice, reflection, time in nature and deep dialogue, our Advanced Pathway participants are discovering how the patterns of the human psyche mirror the living world itself. This offers a regenerative map for healing, practice, leadership and therapeutic work, supporting people to move beyond survival and towards belonging, vitality and natural self-leadership.

It is a privilege to witness this unfolding in such a beautiful part of the country, where the land itself becomes teacher, companion and guide. And I also see the fires raging as life burns. To bear the truth in these times requires a new way of knowing the world, a widening of our participation and a new story of belonging to this wild precious living world.

ReWild Yourself Lancashire

Something special is growing in Pendle.

Not just a new woodland, but a new way of coming together.

Over the coming months we’re delighted to be supporting the ReWild Yourself Community Programme in Lancashire, helping local people reconnect with themselves, each other and the living world through the evidence-informed NatureWell approach. The programme is part of the new ReWild Yourself Community Hub, combining a biodiverse ERANDA Forest with nature connection experiences designed to support both community wellbeing and ecological recovery.

This isn’t simply about spending time outdoors.

It’s about discovering how moments of beauty, curiosity, reflection and shared experience in nature can help us feel more grounded, more connected and more hopeful. Together we’ll be exploring how caring for nature and caring for ourselves are part of the same story.

We’re excited to work alongside local communities, facilitators and partners as this wonderful project unfolds, creating opportunities for people and wildlife to flourish together.

Great to see Ellen and Emma creating this important service in Exeter area.

Our Ham Green Centre is an amazing space. Great to see these sessions happening here.

Come along to these free nature connection and health sessions in Ham Green near Pill, Bristol area.

What happens when psychology remembers Earth?

For much of modern psychology, the individual has been the main focus. This has brought many ideas. understanding personal trauma, attachment, behaviour, relationships, family systems, culture, inequality and the social conditions that shape our lives.

These learnings matter.

And yet, one relationship has often remained absent: our relationship with the rest of the living world.

At Natural Academy, our applied ecopsychology begins with a simple but radical understanding:

Human beings are not separate from nature. We are nature.

This changes how we understand identity, health, healing, belonging and meaning.

In this new article, we explore applied ecopsychology as a meeting place between ancient inheritance and emerging possibility.

Our ancient inheritance lives not only in old stories, ancestral wisdom and Indigenous knowledge, but in the body itself: in the nervous system, breath, senses, grief, rest, play, bonding, belonging and our deep movement towards life.

The body is ecological memory.

Our emerging possibility asks us to imagine a psychology large enough for these times: one that honours science, lived experience, embodiment, imagination, community, ecology and the more-than-human world.

In a time of polycrisis, the question is not only how we help individuals cope within a broken story.

It is also how we support people, communities and cultures to participate in a more regenerative purpose: one that supports our unique flourishing, the wellbeing of our communities, and the wider Earth community.

The invitation is not to go back.

The invitation is to participate.

Where Psyche Belongs, The Living Field Ancient Inheritance, Emerging Possibility

Great to see our lead NatureWell trainer in Liverpool, Carl Dutton sharing the good work at Alder Hey Hospital.


https://www.alderhey.nhs.uk/why-nature-matters-by-carl-dutton/? #:~:text=Nature%20has%20its%20place%2C%20and,it%20is%20available%20to%20all.

Nature and mental health: why nature matters Discover how nature can support mental health and how Alder Hey uses the Nature Well programme to help young people feel calm and connected.