Into the Heartwood 

… creating space for the development of an ecological being’ness

Imagine living your life through a deeply rooted and personal relationship with the living earth? What would be different for you? How would you show up in your relationships? What would your work life look like if you truly knew you were an equal part of the natural world? If you’ve given this thought, you might well be asking the question ‘how do I access this kind of relationship?’ As with many transitions, it requires a desire for change (passion), repetition (practice), and willingness to travel (process).

A nature practice involves making space in our lives for an intentional and relational engagement with and amongst nature. It can be a deeply nourishing practice that supports the development of an embodied nature-relatedness which can evolve how we feel, cultivate the way in which we think, and inspire our attachment to the web of life. As we acclimatise to being amongst the living world our capacity to attune grows: we notice more, become more mindful, and over time our relationship with the more-than-human is profoundly deepened. Attuning in this way fosters an embodied state of being, offers up wisdom, and invites a shift in our perspective of the animals we are, within the ecological web.

Through engaging in Into The Heartwood process, we can cultivate..

  • a vital aliveness, offering a deepened sensory awareness

  • an engagement with creative expression that is free of value-judgement

  • an intentional engagement with the more than human world

  • an altered pace and a reciprocal relationship with the natural world

  • working in alignment with the seasonal turning of the earth

  • our appreciation, respect and care for other species and living organisms

  • a sense of a shared self

Into The Heartwood is CPD for human relations practitioners who take their work outdoors, or are wanting to develop an ecological practice to support their work. This offering is to foster a personal nature-relatedness practice which is supported naturally by sensory (and therefore creative) exploration. This is not a supervision, therapy, or a training in how to take your practice outside, but will be a personal underpinning to your professional practice.

Into the Heartwood 2026

Location

Held in woods and low moorland in Derbyshire, UK

Dates (2026)

Fridays 10 - 4pm

13th March

8th May

3rd July

11th September

6th November

Fees

Registration fee: £50 + £75 per group day

Total CPD hours: 30

Application for 2026 - closes 1st December 2025

Please contact me (see email below) and we’ll arrange a brief conversation to consider your readiness at this time. Following this you’ll receive a booking forms to complete and further information. Please return your completed forms, along with your fee and this will book your place.

Into the Heartwood Taster day workshops

If you would like to attend a taster day, I am running workshops in 2025. Please got to https://www.natashasephton.com/nature-basedcpdworkshops for more information.

It is urgently understood that our species’ separation from nature is having very serious consequences on many levels. Restoring our relational position within the living earth feels like an appropriate response to our world in these times, providing the opportunity to develop a healthier affiliation with the natural world, as well as our own beings.

Into The Heartwood delivers a series of immersive, outdoor, seasonal sessions, supporting the development of a nature-relatedness through the facilitation of embodied mindfulness exercises, environmental expressive arts, and practices in participant’s local land between sessions. Working with the processes involved in Rites of Passage (thresholds between severance, liminal space and incorporation), sensing into the reciprocity of your relationship with the living earth, and allowing your own unique creative voice to express and respond is the bedrock of the nature practice offered here. Approaches that underpin this work include eco-psychology, eco-philosophy, environmental expressive arts, rites of passage and somatic mindfulness.

I offer this process over a full year. It begins during winter through hibernation and, entering into the growthful arc of spring, summer and autumn, offers an intentional and emergent ecological practice that holds at its centre the query, who am I in nature?

By getting curious about this focus - amongst others - through process focused exercises, ritual and ecological expressive arts, we open ourselves to a rich experience that can also support a personal and professional development. Working together, amongst the more-than-human-world, leads to an expansion of relationship and awareness that is inclusive and supports an ecological and embodied intelligence.

Working creatively offers an opportunity to process through this ecological mindset, garnering greater understanding, expression and communication. Entering into a reciprocal relationship with the living world we offer back our gratitude, understanding and creativity.

  • What people say about ITH

    Although I was very busy with work and family life when I engaged in ITH, I’m so glad I booked on as it has been so important to give myself time for being with my experience of nature. My commitment to my own nature practice in my local area was a sticking point for me and I struggled initially to give myself space for this. I came to realise that my difficulty with this was an important part of my process and I started protecting short moments of time in my day for pausing and being. I cannot state enough how much this has made a difference to my sense of my self in the world!  

  • What people say about ITH

    I really valued the spaciousness of the sessions.  There was structure but within it there was plenty of room for things to emerge.  I found that I could settle into a new way of being and relating to the world around me. Rather than me as a human imposing on the landscape, or nature being there for me to see, sit in etc, i could start to see myself as one living thing in a space full of other living things all just existing and being.  It was very profound and enabled a new receptivity to develop in me that has followed me in other aspects of my life.  I loved the experience of looking for thresholds and finding different ways to consciously move into another way of being and responding to the world around me. Thank you Natasha!

  • What people say about ITH

    Before doing ITH I would say I had a sensitive relationship with nature. Engaging in this process has opened my eyes to a different sense of being amongst nature that has helped me be in contact with myself as an animal! I loved how it was tailored to me and my process - not a course which I had to fit into. Doing ITH has given me greater confidence to take my therapy practice outside! Thank you! (SJ)