We're delighted to share this programme for Systemic in Nature, Rookhow, 2025.

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Friday 3rd October

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Keynote Speech with  Dr Hugh Palmer

The Connected Human: Finding Sacred Unity Through Fourfold Vision

In a time of ecological and relational crisis, Hugh invites us to reimagine therapy and human connection through the lens of sacred unity. Drawing on Blake and Bateson, this keynote introduces Fourfold Vision as a framework for engaging with complexity, creativity, and compassion in our work and lives.

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The Blossom domestic violence programme

Jo Roberts from The Wilderness Foundation shares ideas from their pioneering work with Exeter university researching how nature can support survivors and witnesses of domestic violence.  Their project included a co-creative space which intended to build a collective, autonomous community; supporting  expression through creativity, a bringing together of nature and people and developing future goals.  All explored together outside in nature:  whatever the weather!

 

Exploring our relationship with Loss and Bereavement.  How can Nature help the process of healing - workshop with Paul Andrews

Through Paul's work within a Hospice setting, he will share his creative approaches in helping families manage the process of death and dying. This workshop will explore how Paul includes both cultural and spiritual ideas concerning the finality of life and its connection to mother earth.

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Writing Workshop with Dr Hugh Palmer

Writing as Relational Practice: Finding Voice in Complexity

This reflective workshop explores writing as a generative, systemic act that honours multiplicity, uncertainty, and connection. Together we’ll explore ways of writing that engage the personal, the political, and the poetic, holding complexity without  collapsing it.

 

Saturday 4th October

 

Workshop with Nigel Dykes:  ‘More than human’

Nigel draws on his work as a lecturer in outdoor and environmental education to challenge the idea that “outdoor places” are perceived merely as the backdrop for outdoor activities.  Whilst access to green and blue spaces are asserted to be good for human health; this relationship is simplistic and has been problematised by academics in the field.  Nigel invites us to empathize with the people of the place, their histories, and needs.  Places are also “more than human”, this concept is an all-encompassing term, involving humans and all non-human entities, which attempts to decentralise the central importance of humans. The “more than human world “is not separate to humans; places are co-produced and are an ongoing entanglement of intra-relationships. How might a better understanding of these relationships lead to places that improve human health? How could an understanding foster and encourage activism to address health issues in the “more than human world”?

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Transmaterial Worlding as eco-relational practice: Thinking beyond human systems 

Workshop with Dr Leah Salter

This workshop will draw on Eco-relational; New Materialist and Transmaterial theory to focus on ecosystemic practices that extend beyond human systems and extend social to include beyond human relating.

We will engage in some activities together that help us to ask ourselves the self-reflexive question of:

How can we step outside of the invitation to focus purely on human systems to include in our practices wider Eco-relational, Transmaterial, Animate worlds? 

 Leah has been developing Transmaterial Worlding as an approach to systemic theory, practice and research for the last 6 years with her colleague Gail Simon. Leah has also been involved in an international Ecosystemic  practice group and an international  Eco-relational research project that has included trees as active co-researchers; with the human-tree relationships and learning from trees as the cornerstone of the research. She will share some of her experiences from these projects with the group and guide some activities that help us take that learning into practice and support us to learn from practice.

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Living adventurously - Understanding the relationship between the natural world and relational safety. Activity workshop by Paul Andrews and Nigel Dykes

Barry Mason first introduced to systemic practitioners the concept of Safe Uncertainty.  Nigel and Paul would invite you to join their outdoor activity workshop to explore how adventure can support relational risk taking in therapy. They will also share the importance of respecting nature as a healer whilst recognising the impact we continue to have in our quest for exploring wild spaces. 

 

Workshop with Julia Evans

Exploring Lines of Flight and Liminal Spaces Through the Natural World

In this workshop, we will explore lines of flight and liminal spaces through the natural world. Drawing on the concept of 'lines of flight' as pathways of escape, transformation, or becoming, we’ll consider how the natural world can offer spaces of transition and possibility—those in-between, threshold moments that invite reflection, reimagining, or change.

 

Workshop with Chiara Santin

Becoming Explorers of inner landscapes through diffractive mirroring in Nature

The workshop will offer an experiential space to explore your inner landscapes through connecting with nature as a diffractive mirror. Its an opportunity to experiment with different ways of knowing through the language of embodiment, the language of creativity, the language of metaphors and writing.

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Nature as anchor: cultivating stability through nature with Gemma Anfield and Charlie Chapman

Connecting with the natural world can be a powerful tool for grounding and stabilising clients. This experiential workshop invites you to explore nature-based techniques that foster presence, and emotional regulation. Through guided outdoor exercises, somatic practices, and mindful engagement with the natural world, participants will learn how to integrate ecological awareness into their therapeutic approach. Whether working with trauma, anxiety, or simply enhancing well-being, this workshop provides hands-on strategies to help clients feel supported, centered, and connected to their present environment.  

 

Further offerings

 

Morning Workshop: Awaken with Nature

Begin your day with stillness, presence, and connection. In this morning mindfulness session, we will gently attune to the rhythms of the natural world, using breath, movement, and sensory awareness to ground ourselves and awaken with intention. A quiet invitation to start the day with clarity and calm.

 

Evening Workshop: Settling with the Earth

As the day draws to a close, join us for a peaceful, grounding mindfulness practice in nature.  Through gentle reflection, breathwork, and quiet observation, we will ease into stillness and soften the transition into evening. A chance to unwind, let go, and reconnect with your natural rhythm.

 

Morning gatherings and Evening Epilogues

Gathering to talk, share reflections, using the principles of ‘whoever is moved to speak’ (or sing!) and sharing some quiet time too – listening to the sounds of the woods around us and a Labyrinth with Paul (Saturday night).

 

Eco-systemic treasure trail.  Nature-based and creative arts.  Participative resources and sharing spaces.    

 

Time-timetable and detail may vary and are subject to changes

*Numbers dependent

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