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Nature Connection training and education

News Mindfulness
17th April, 2025
by Katie Tokus | 3 Min Read
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Mindfulness in Nature

Here at Sharpham, we work in the realm of connection: linking people to their deeper selves, whilst simultaneously inviting retreat and course participants to (re)connect to the natural world.

For eight years, we've been running our nature-informed version of the world-renowned eight-week mindfulness course, for people who want to recover their mental health.

And in this year, we continued with our developing training course for teachers, counsellors, therapists, adventurers and people who want to learn nature-mindfulness techniques to share with others. 

 

 

MIN walking in landscape with NLCF logo

Mindful-In-Nature 

Thanks to the generous support of the National Lottery Community Fund, Sharpham’s Mindful-In-Nature programme continued to provide significant support to local individuals seeking mental health recovery and well-being. 

We ran two 8-week courses in our Woodland Campsite, led by two experienced facilitators. 28 people were supported to develop new skills to help manage stress, develop personal resilience, and cultivate self-compassion. Participants were taught how to cope with difficult situations and apply mindfulness to daily life, all while being part of a supportive community. 

Invitations to future gatherings with others from the course are part of the programme’s ongoing commitment, enabling participants to return to the woodland in community.

Mindful-in-Nature is in its eighth year.

Read the inspiring success-story of a Mindful-in-Nature participant here

Explore the course here
Learn nature-based mindfulness and meditation skills on our MBNCT training course

Mindfulness Based Nature Connection Training (MBNCT)

This reporting year saw our second Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Nature Connection Training (MBNCT), now offered as a Continuing Professional Development programme.

The course was fully booked, with 13 students taking the skills learned back into their communities and thereby widening the circle of Sharpham’s impact.

A blend of practical and theoretical, the MBNCT training is designed to support attendees to disseminate and teach the practices learned on the course more widely, beyond Sharpham. Participants not only deepen their personal mindfulness and ecological awareness, but also expand the range of practices they can lead professionally, including how to lead dialogue and discussion and an understanding of the role of facilitator and how to manage a group. 

I've incorporated the themes and practices of the course to the 'Wellbeing in Nature' sessions that I lead at a hospice Wellbeing Centre. The guidance, support and feedback on the course gave me more confidence to include different practices linked to nature-based ceremonies and reflecting on life events. I've also introduced the sharing circle as an integral part of the group

- Participant on our Introduction to MBNCT
The course has been a lasting inspiration. I manage a 30-acre spiritual retreat centre, and I've been keen to enhance our natural beauty and integrate it with our work. We've introduced mindfulness-based nature connection practices for both residential and evening class students, complementing our Practical Philosophy courses


- Participant on our Introduction to MBNCT

 

Explore the course here
Contact: holding a feather

Our developing pedagogy

We're defining our approach to the nature-informed work we do here, hoping to create a pedagogy, a method, an intelligence.

Over the past year, we have been engaging in conversations with staff, teachers, facilitators and Trustees about the nature of the Sharpham pedagogy. 

By pedagogy, we mean the various practices of mindfulness and compassion, the value of silence, nature connection, living in community, learning through experience, and embodied movement.

These conversations have revealed through multiple voices some truly distinctive characteristics of ‘how’ we do things.

Explore our nature-informed ways of working here