Our Secret Gardens and How We Tend Them
Physis, curiosity and playful connection
We will explore the idea of being gardeners who tend our souls and the soul of the world. Amidst the beauty of summer in full bloom we will connect deeply with our secret gardens, both as a dynamic metaphor and practical embodiment. Working directly in contact with nature we will examine how the therapeutic relationship can intimately facilitate, protect and nurture our creative growth. We will consider the significance of dormancy and seasonality, emergence rather than intentionality, whilst at times actively gardening and cooking, creating art and writing reflectively.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Mary Oliver
Course aims and outcomes
Make use of the secret garden metaphor to develop our sense of self as part of nature, that supports our personal growth and self-nurture.
Understand how we have tended our own secret gardens, and how we would like to protect them in future.
Practice ways to work with the secret garden metaphor therapeutically with clients.
About the course
This is the first in a series of seasonal courses being offered this year with the overarching theme of ecological connection. These can be booked individually or as a group. Please see website for full details of cost and CPD hours.
This weekend course is open to all modalities, with some focus on TA, and is ideal for student and practising psychotherapists and counsellors in who want to expand their ecological awareness. Our work will take place outdoors and in woodland shelters. We take a dynamic, experiential approach to learning, with plenty of opportunities for sharing, creative exploration and quiet contemplation.
We will:
Work with our memories of playing outdoors, and whether we to what extent we could use our imagination and dexterity to freely experiment, pretend, take risks.
Directly engage our physical curiosity through light gardening and cooking using herbs and vegetables from the cottage garden.
Spend time in contemplation in a chosen niche in the woodland garden.
Explore the science of our interior landscape, and the contribution of nutrition, bacteria and other organisms to our sense of health and wellbeing.
Find out how this relates to our work with clients, through discussion of case studies, role play, working with metaphor, inner child and personal narrative in the context of the garden.
Ffynnon Dawel
Ffynnon Dawel is an old stone cottage and four-acre woodland garden nestled in a mile long wooded valley. The woods are home to ash, wych elm, oak, hawthorn, holly and wild cherry trees, as well as many native plants and woodland creatures. Humans have also lived here since 1870 growing flowers, fruit and vegetables in the cottage garden. To reach our encampment we cross a little foot bridge over the stream to meet in a woodland glade just beyond the garden.
Arrive 5pm Friday with an introduction to Ffynnon Dawel, followed by an evening meal at 7.30pm. The course is for 8 - 12 participants, is semi-catered, and most meals will be taken in the house. Participants are welcome to stay in comfortable shared accommodation in yurts and bell tents. (Please see the website for full details on the course)
Book Your Place
Book your place now via the BOOK NOW button on the bottom of this page. The fees for the course are £TBA and you can reserve your place with a deposit payment of £100.
