Mindfulness & creativity retreat: Time to Create - 4 nights in The Coach House

Emma Capper

Emma is an Certified Nature and forest therapy guide, an artist with a passion for weaving and workshop facilitator with over 25 yrs of experience delivering workshops in the expressive arts. In 2013 she founded Creative Journeys in nature, weaving her love of art and nature together to curate workshops and forest therapy walks to connect adults and children with their innate creativity and our natural world.

Intuitive or expressive art is the process of creating, guided by what feels interesting and good to you in that moment. It is an adventure where there are no goals to make 'art'. Rather, it is allowing yourself to be open to the curiosity, magic and delight of being present on the journey.

She offers her Creative Journeys' and regular Wanders for Well-being on the Dartington Hall Trust Estate and in other local woodlands in Devon. She is a provider for Dartmoor National Park Authority, Teignbridge Council, Age UK, Devon Carers, WEA and the Woodland Trust.

Emma Dibben

Earth, and each other, and resonates deeply with Sharpham’s ethos for a more mindful, compassionate and environmentally sustainable world.

Emma has long had a curiosity and interest in meditation, sitting her first silent retreat at the age of 19. Her practice deepened as she came in touch with the teachings and philosophy of yoga. Since 2014 she has been supporting and facilitating, as well as sitting, many different retreats. She has a deep love of silence, solitude and the natural world. In her free time, she loves walking on Dartmoor and swimming in the magical river Dart.

Jas Tribe

Jas (they/them) has a passion for transformational inner work that shows up as positive change in the world. Jas is an event designer & facilitator, yoga teacher, community builder and farmer. They work through an embodied, imaginative, care focused lens, weaving knowledge of yoga, mindfulness, activism and the natural world through their work. 

10 years ago Jas was a wildlife conservation trainee at AMBIOS on the Sharpham Estate. Having since worked in a range of sectors - campaigning, education, wellbeing and food systems - Jas is back as a retreat facilitator! They have delivered workshops, trainings and courses to the general public, LGBTQIA+ groups, refugees, young people, businesses, NHS trusts, school teachers, community groups, and more.

Jas is also a ‘Work That Reconnects’ facilitator, running seasonal workshops and online courses to support people into reconnection with ourselves, each other and the natural world. 

Jess Stein

Jess offers retreats that combine mindfulness, nature connection and creativity. She has been facilitating mindfulness spaces since 2012, initially as part of the Plum Village tradition and for the last six years at Sharpham Barn, House and Woodland. 

Reverence for nature informs all that Jess does. Initially trained as a yoga teacher all that she teaches takes its inspiration from the organic shapes of the human body and the forms and patterns of the natural world. She offers practices that awaken each person's unique capacity for awareness, creativity and connection. The spaces she holds are welcoming, intuitive and gently transformative.

Alongside retreats, Jess is a palliative care nurse and holds a degree in English Literature. Eternally curious, she has completed training in Dru Yoga, Scaravelli Inspired Yoga, Creative Writing and meditation, Embodied Anatomy, Nature Connection and Cultural Repair, Qi Gong, Adaptive Yoga, Yoga for Women’s Health and much more

Mary-Rose Finnegan Clarke

Mary-Rose is a mindfulness practitioner, psychotherapist and group facilitator based in Bristol. She has spent over a decade supporting people as a BACP-accredited psychotherapist and EMDR therapist, and feels deeply nourished by holding meditation spaces and sharing mindfulness practices in community. In 2019, she co-founded Wake Up Bristol, a young people’s mindfulness community in the Plum Village tradition. She has also trained with Processwork UK, facilitating awareness at individual, relationship and collective levels. Mary-Rose brings a warm, gentle and playful presence to retreat spaces. 

Polly Cheesman

Polly has been practicing meditation since 2009, and draws inspiration from the Insight Meditation tradition and the teachings of Pema Chrodron, Thich Nhat Hahn, and Jaya Julienne Ashmore. Her practice is rooted in a deep connection with the land, and noticing the ordinary beauty that’s always offering itself to us.

Through her work, she has witnessed how experience in nature can be a catalyst for profound change and re-ignite our lost connections at this pivotal time. Polly is passionate about how meditation and nature connection practices can support greater intimacy with life, and guide us towards deeper presence, connection and joy.