Nature's healing for Kirsty at Sharpham

Trainee meditation teacher Kirsty Summerbell had recently been told that her fertility treatment was unsuccessful when she came on a nature-connection and self-compassion retreat at Sharpham's Coach House in December 2024.

“I'd been feeling a bit lost,” she said. “I knew, from doing meditation, that nature is quite a safe sort of place for me and that I wanted to go somewhere that was nature-inspired.”

“Also, my self-compassion hasn't always been the best, which I've discovered during meditation. And so it just seemed like a really good one to go on”.

She was at the end of a run of fertility hospital appointments, having been told that she couldn't have children.

Kirsty felt supported by Sharpham’s natural setting whilst she was here and after staying with us, she has spent more time in nature.

“I don't live that far from the forest. I just go for a walk. I don't take my phone. I don't go for anything. No reason…I just go for a walk. And it's just lovely because I'm not, you know, I'm just being, I'm not doing, am I?” she said.

“I have this massive thing about nature and how it's helped to heal me,” she said. “It brought me back to how important nature is to me for my healing and that of other people as well”. 

Kirsty is an aromatherapist and an accredited mindfulness teacher.

“I’d felt really lost, like what path am I on? Just talking to people at Sharpham helped me realise I'm definitely on the right path. The retreat helped me realise that this is it: I am on the right path and I can help people”.