Offerings

Nurtured by Nature is a series of gentle, nature-based wellbeing workshops delivered at the Secret Garden in Boscombe, Bournemouth in partnership with Grounded Community are designed to help people slow down, connect with the natural world, and build personal and collective resilience. Through sensory experiences such as fire gatherings, mindful journaling, creative crafts, and seasonal celebrations, participants are invited to pause, notice, and rediscover the restorative power of nature in a safe, supportive space.

This much-loved programme has already demonstrated meaningful improvements in wellbeing, social connection, and environmental awareness. We aim to grow this work so that even more people can benefit from the healing, grounding influence of the natural world.

These weekly Fire Circle meetings in the Secret Garden, Boscombe, offered to people in recovery from addictions have become an important anchor for participants. It is a space where they can share both the difficult and the joyful moments in their lives, support one another, and work through anxieties, trauma, family challenges, and other personal issues. At the same time, it is a place where they can relax, enjoy themselves, reconnect with nature, and experience the wellbeing benefits this connection brings.
One of the participants describes the Fire Circle group as follows:

I have been attending the nature well sessions since they began in October 2023. This group has really been helped me to grow emotionally and have a better understanding of myself and has made a significant change in my mental health and wellbeing. I have found the group to be the only place that I feel safe enough to be honest and vulnerable, to feel seen and heard.  Something that I felt was missing from other self-help support groups and fellowship meetings I had attended in the past. Over the time attending, we have done many wonderful things together from cooking food over the fire, to crafting activities nurturing our inner creative. A safe space that has evolved from a group of people that meet once a week into a community. (J.D.)

The NatureWell approach explores five pathways to nature connection to enhance the health and wellbeing and to build pro nature behaviours and attitudes through a positive psychological approach.
This experiential course consists of guided practices and exercises that participants can introduce into their lives and use in the future to resource themselves. The course provides techniques to relax, restore, and revitalise participants through the process of nature connection. 

NatureWell usually consists of 6 sessions, each linked to a different pathway to nature connection. These are:
CONTACT: Grounding ourselves in nature and accessing our senses to make contact with the natural world. Noticing through our senses.
BEAUTY: Engaging with natural beauty is a way that we deepen connection and find feelings of joy, immersion and inspiration.
EMOTION: Developing an emotional bond with, and love, for nature, experience shifts in mood and feeling in nature.
COMPASSION: Developing a compassionate approach to our self, other people and the natural world. Finding things in common with our self in people and nature, being kind, finding a caring ethic.
MEANING: Finding meaning in our connectedness to nature, how does nature highlight a sense of our meaning and purpose.
INTEGRATION: Understanding what the 5 pathways to nature are and how to integrate them into day-to-day life. Having a deeper understanding of simple but effective ways to bring nature into our life. Capture main experiences, changes and how these inform future living.