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Nature's healing for Kirsty at Sharpham

Blog Mindfulness
20th February, 2025
by Katie Tokus | 5 Min Read
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Flowers in the light and airy extension in our Coach House retreat venue
Eliza Boyacigiller portrait

After being in the embrace of nature at Sharpham, retreatant Kirsty was able to face a very hard fact.

Kirsty had been told she was unable to have children, but was only able to say that out loud for the first time during a self-compassion retreat at our Coach House venue.

In doing so, and ‘being with what is’, she was able to begin a healing journey, as opposed to being stuck in pain. 

That journey has taken her all the way to becoming an accredited mindfulness teacher, a participant on our Mindfulness-Based Nature Connection Training course and the founder of a nurturing community for others needing nature’s healing.

Here, Kirsty shares her transformational and inspiring experience at Sharpham.

Christmas Retreat at The coach House

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.

Coach House Coordinators

“When I got to Sharpham, I kind of thought, well, I'm here now, I want to just sort of start the healing process. I remember…the first session. We were at a group session…the meditation teachers Lindsay and Barry asked ‘Why are you here?’”

“I kind of said, ‘You know - I can't have children’. That was the first time I'd admitted it out loud, the first time I'd admitted it in front of people. And yeah, it was, yeah, transformational, to say the least”. 

While that was a difficult experience for Kirsty, she sees that as the moment when she began to accept that hard fact and begin a ‘recovery’.

“I kind of thought, ‘Well, that is part of the healing, isn't it? So I guess it was the…start of me trying to move on from that rubbish news”.

Kirsty was able to say something so personal in front of her fellow retreatants because of the safe, community feeling that had been generated in the space.

“Everybody was sharing, everybody was there for their reason. And it just felt like a safe place to be able to do it in front of strangers, because they were all there for their own personal reasons. It was scary to say it. Scary for myself. But, I don't know, it just felt the right thing to do,” she said.

“I'm so glad I did. To hear everybody else's story…made you feel like you're not alone, like everybody's going through something. So it was really like a really nice bonding experience, the whole four days”.

“Most of us wanted to stay longer if we could have. We didn't want to leave, I don't think…It was amazing”.

Wild garlic in flower on The Sharpham Estate
Toria Hare

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”.

Kirsty's community of support that works with nature's healing
Kirsty Summerbell/Bellflower & Bloom

Kirsty has since founded a Community Interest Company for others requiring nature’s healing: Bellflower and Bloom.

“It’s a community project I created for people who might be going through something in their lives. It’s about coming together, connecting with nature, and finding healing and hope through Mother Earth, but also giving back to our beautiful planet,” said Kirsty.

“I really want to bring in nature because Sharpham helped me so much. I really want to help other people as well. That's my plan”.

Find out more about Kirsty’s Bellflower and Bloom group here  

Follow the group on Instagram here

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