ABOUT
Hello!
I'm Jess, a nature-based practitioner and ecological artist living in the Black Mountains in Wales.
In this landscape of rain-soaked lichen and weathered rock, I am shaped by the possibility of another story. A story rooted in solidarity with the natural world from which we are inseparable. With one foot on the earth, I feel a sense of being planted among something I can only describe as ancient. The other, in a dance with uncertainty. How to land in such shifting times?. Yet, it is those moments between that feel most alive. In Japanese arts & culture there is a concept called "Ma" - which speaks of the fundamental time and space from which life needs to grow. It is my experience that if I can turn towards this dance with open curiosity, there is medicine to be found. Here, light streams through the smallest break in the wall, imbuing life with new meaning. It is these moments that capture my imagination and inspire my life and work as a nature-based practitioner and ecological-artist. If I were to trace my most formative experiences that have led towards my love for working with people and nature today, it would have been my early interest to explore more nature-based ways of living and being. This led to my travels to the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, supported by a Zibby Garnett Travel Fellowship, to hillside nunneries in Myanmar, the Andes Mountains in Bolivia, and the Chapadas of Northern Brazil. With my life and work now rooted within the Welsh landscape, my motivation for sharing what has been gathered in my basket is continually enriched by those I meet through the community nature-based projects I am part of.
Background & Training
My background and training span over fifteen years in developing a creative and therapeutic nature-based practice. Much of my work today exists at the confluence of human-nature relations, tending, growing and communal storytelling. I work within community based organisations and in private practice. My training to date includes studies in the Arts Therapies (British Assocciation of Arts Therapists), Environmental Education (Schumacher College), Permaculture, and group work facilitation (The Work that Reconnects & London Gestalt Centre.) I am currently in my final year of training with the Natural Academy on the Advanced Pathway in Ecopsychology and Nature-based practice. You can find out more about my experience in bringing these threads of practice together here. If you would like to explore the possibility of working together, either individually or as a group, more details can be found here. Thank you for visiting!