This episode is a collaboration with the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2021. I chat with Kate Stevens,  the Creative Learning Co-ordinator, at the Beacons arts centre,  a contemporary theatre and arts venue in the heart of Inverclyde. Kate is one of the workshop facilitators of a series called; creative nature for wellbeing that ran during this year's festival. The Beacon partnered with Belville Community Garden Trust and Mind Mosaic Counselling and Therapy to deliver a series of workshops exploring the connection between our mental health and our relationship with nature.

If you have ever wondered what 'creative therapy' may be about and wish to explore beyond the stereotypes of analysis, or that this isn't something you thought you can do, as you're not ‘a creative’, then this podcast is for you. Here Kate and I give you first hand experience of a creative therapy workshop centred around the theme of nature. 

Join in whilst you listen to Kate leading me through two exercises: nature soundscapes where we immerse ourselves in some forest bathing. I find this both relaxing and slightly challenging when asked to make my own sounds to join the forest but it makes for a good discussion afterwards. Kate and I talk through memories and how they are formed as part of a writing exercise relating to my first experience in nature.

This podcast is about the joy of sound and creative writing, the ability to connect us with the outdoors from inside our own rooms, whilst giving us tools to enable us to connect with what's going on inside us. Recently I have been connecting with the sounds around me in nature and brought some home to share in this episode.