I discovered ecotherapy in 2012 when I attended a weekend retreat, based in the work of Joanna Macy and John Seed. We gathered at Moora Moora, a large cooperative community in Mount Toolebewong, Victoria. It was here that I experienced my first ‘conversation’ with a tree. We were encouraged to enter the trail and find the being that called us. My being was a gorgeous, towering, Mountain Ash.

I followed instructions and sat facing the tree, waiting for her communication - it did not take long to come, but the fullness of it was expressed over time, as I was drawn into a contemplative, almost meditative state of communion with the tree. Was it an hour or half hour before I was called to follow the trail back and enter the circle to share my experience. I wish I had my journal from that day, but the essence of the communication was this, “I invite you to feel my presence, stretched above you through my branches as they reach to the sky, and below you stretching down through the earth… Feel my strength… and all that I contribute to this planet with which I am one… And pass on my message to all of your kind, to be like us, the tall trees, alive in our deep stillness of presence, yet ever growing, ever flowing with the breezes and movement of the earth and sky. Always positively contributing to the whole.”

Stillness inside, ever growing and flowing, ever contributing. A Guiding Principle to elevate, sustain and define a lifetime. When I discovered walk and talk counselling, I was already a counsellor based in a Melbourne psychology clinic. After returning to the Northern Rivers area in NSW, I embraced walk and talk into my work. I loved, loved, loved the aspect of working in the outdoors; by the river, on the beach, on the headland trail. A few years later I came across Wild Reverence, and the inspired work of Rob Engels. I commenced training with him that day. 

My work as a Somatic Ecotherapy Guide is in its early stages. Come join me in a life changing adventure!