I met with Caroline White, who works for Sacred Earth, to find out a bit more about the project. Sacred Earth is a 40-acre site, located near Horam, East-Sussex – a former brickworks that has been rewilded and repurposed to be a biodiverse site that works for people and nature. The site hosts a wealth of different activities including ecotherapy, mentoring, outdoor education, conservation, and volunteering. Caroline explained that Sacred Earth is all about being ‘for people, for nature’. Caroline’s roles, as ecotherapist and communications manager at Sacred Earth, give her a varied and enriched workload. She is passionate about being in nature and the incredible effect it can have on our wellbeing. She is keen to share what Sacred Earth does and get the message out!
Due to the nature of her work, Caroline doesn’t have a typical daily routine. Her work is informed by the Five Pathways to Nature Connection, which are senses, emotions, beauty, compassion and meaning. She uses these to guide much of the work she does. For example, finding meaning in nature might include being aware of the natural cycles of the seasons and using them as a metaphor for difficult periods in our lives. She guides people through a range of activities that enable them to connect through these pathways. Many of these revolve around being creative in nature and getting in touch with the senses, including making sculptures from found, natural objects that represent feelings, or reflecting writing. One such activity involved participants writing for five minutes from the perspective of a tree. These activities are designed to create a deeper connection with the natural world and create space for self-reflection and growing self-awareness.
Caroline also works one-to-one with clients in nature, using a holistic approach that includes personal centred counselling, trauma-informed bodywork and plural mind psychology, based on Bill Plotkin’s Wild Mind and Dr Richard Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems.
Caroline strongly believes in the magic of nature and how significantly it can boost wellbeing. But she also wants to develop people’s sense of compassion for nature, so that we learn to care more about it and take practical action to protect it. She hopes that through her work as communications manager, she is able to make information about Sacred Earth and ecotherapy as accessible to as many people as possible.
Sacred Earth has many exciting ideas in the works and new projects starting soon.
Wellbeing In Nature (WIN) is an upcoming weekly group for young adults aged between 18 and 30. The WIN group aims to reduce feelings of loneliness and encourage people’s connections with nature. The group will run weekly on Thursdays from 10:00-16:00 starting from 14th April. To find out more please visit: https://www.eequ.org/experience/1302
Wild Wellbeing is a monthly session for adults that focuses on mindfulness and connections with nature through activities centred around horticulture, forest bathing and creativity. The session runs monthly on Wednesdays. To find out more please visit: https://www.eequ.org/experience/1326
To find out more about Sacred Earth and the reach of their work, please visit: https://sacredearthland.co.uk/
