Nature

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A green thought

Nature

Say instead it was an evening in head-high
bracken with its smell of dark and medicine.
Thinking green of the infecting fern
where you may crouch and not be known,
lodging your feet for good amid the stalks.
A bower is a dwelling place or once it was
a cage for pent-up singing birds.
Look down to see the warp and weft of root.
All the world is in these clutches.
Look up to clock the fern’s drab underneath
blotched with spores you mustn’t breathe.
Breathe in deep. There’s nowhere else to live.

– Katherine Towers

Coaching outdoors brings depth and creativity to coaching outcomes. The attentional effect of nature and the abundant metaphors of an outdoor space provide insight and knowledge which it can be difficult to find in an office or classroom. Re-sensitised and re-focussed, clients can explore systems and relationships anew and draw connections between their physical and mental understanding. Being coached outdoors is powerful and the results really do stick.

What people say…

Director

Queen Mary University

“Claire’s use of space and nature really added something special to our coaching sessions.  I found I perceived myself through different lenses when I was in different spaces, and this helped me gain a deeper understanding of my motivations and unconscious barriers.  Coaching in a meeting room was where I felt more in control, but much less likely to drop the ‘office mask’.  Coaching in an open space, a green space with fresh air and sky, without the security of being on home turf in familiar surroundings allowed me to truly reflect on my experiences and explore the possibilities from both a career and a life perspective.  And Claire was an excellent guide through the process, encouraging me to use elements of the space as metaphors to describe feelings and perceptions.  It was a little uncomfortable at times (I am not a natural sharer of ‘feelings’), but oh so powerful in helping me know myself better”