WILD KIN

Small Group and Private Ecotherapy Gatherings

in the More - than - Human World

Held by a qualified psychotherapist & movement practitioner.

In ethical relationship, with care, presence, and respect

“

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Mary Oliver

Wild Kin is a gathering. You are being called...... into the becoming field. Not to learn, not to achieve, but to remember. This is not a class. Not a method to master. It is a remembering. We enter in silence. We listen. We allow. Words may fall away. Time may loosen. Something within you may begin to speak that has long been quiet. We begin at the edge: in the studio, arriving through simple, unshaped movement. Then, together, we cross over outside onto the land. The physical journey is gentle, though you should feel able to walk up to 5 miles across uneven ground.

Gatherings are held on selected dates in Ditchling, and the surrounding countryside.

Choose the day that calls to you for a group gathering or getting in touch for a private session.

If this speaks to something within you, you are invited to step forward and book your place.
Spaces are few, held in intimacy and care.

Email: vikkiharristherapy@gmail.com

07967 735861

The next group gathering dates are:

Saturday 25th April 9.30 -1.30pm (4hrs)

Sat 6th June 10.00 - 5.00pm (Full Day)

The rhythm of future gatherings will reveal itself in time.
I listen, and weave this offering in response to what is calling.

Contact me

The day unfolds as a living, guided experience:

🌿 Arrival & Grounding

Gentle, unshaped movement to release tension and arrive

🌿 Body & Earth Connection

Mindful sensing, yielding your weight to the earth, breath as anchor

🌿 Orientation & Noticing

Turning to the directions, following what calls, simple creative expression

🌿 Wandering & Deep Listening

Slow movement through the landscape - an environmental movement practice, where the body listens and responds to the land

🌿 Integration & Return

Gathering, reflecting, or quietly witnessing - grounding back into the body

This is more than walking, more than talking, we move deeper into relationship with ourselves and the more than human world.

We work with the land, not just upon it, in reciprocity, in reverence.

Our practice may unfold as:

A calling back into the body through mindful sensing
Turning to the four directions, honouring what is above and below
Landing and yielding, offering the weight of the body to the earth
Breath as prayer: breathing and being breathed
Long exhales, softening; inhalations, renewal
Entering into relationship with soil, air, water, stone, chalk
Sitting at the edge of darkness and light, seen and unseen
Wandering, stillness, and listening for what calls
Poetry and mark-making as offerings
Following the places of grief, of love, of tenderness
Meeting the cycles of living and dying within and around us
Practising kinship with the more-than-human world
Being with the elements through all seasons, all weathers
Walking a living map, guided by rhythm, restoring vitality and presence

What if you did not need to become anything more.........only to return?

Where becoming asks for surrender, not certainty, where the soul grows in the spaces where control softens.

The human psyche and the natural world are not separate

-they mirror and shape one another.”

Mary - Jayne Rust

Contribution & Fees

I offer a sliding scale to support accessibility and shared responsibility within the group. Please choose the level that feels right for you, with honesty and care.

Supporter Rate:

For those who have financial ease and would like to support the sustainability of this work, and help make lower-cost places

available to others.

4hrs Gathering (£75) Full Day Gathering (£130)

Standard Rate

Reflects the true cost of running the session and supporting the space, materials, and facilitation.

4hrs Gathering (£65) Full Day Gathering (£115)

Low-Cost Rate

For those who may need financial support at this time due to low income. A limited number of places are available at this rate.

4hrs Gathering (£55) Full Day Gathering (£95)

Thank you for contributing in a way that honours both your circumstances and the wider community.

Please email for details of private session fees.

Practical Guidance

Natural environments can be uneven or muddy. Wearing comfortable footwear with tread and weather-appropriate clothing helps you feel grounded and safe. Occasionally, sessions may be gently interrupted by passersby or environmental sounds; these moments usually become part of the experience rather than a distraction. We go out in all weathers, unless deemed unsafe. The physical journey is fairly gentle, though you should feel able to walk up to 5 miles on even ground and meet the steep gradients of the South Downs.

My Personal Eco-therapy Training and Experience

“I am afraid of the unknown.”

My experience of eco-therapy is one of gentle returning. As I step into relationship with the land, my nervous system begins to settle, held by something steady, rhythmic, and alive. There is less urgency here, less searching for answers. Instead, a slowing. A softening.

In this space, compassion naturally arises, towards myself, towards what I am carrying, towards the parts of me that have been striving or holding on. The body begins to feel safer, the breath deepens, and I am reminded that I do not need to push or become anything more.

What unfolds is a quiet trust: that by being with what is here, in connection with the natural world, something essential begins to restore itself. I found my true nature in nature: to be wild and authentic, where I matter and am matter.

My psychotherapy training included twelve days of eco-therapy where I experienced immersive outdoor modules, embodiment practices, and non-stylised environmental movement. Furthering my professional development I am grateful for my teacher, Emma Rich for her offerings of "Earth Tongue" in the woodlands, hills, and lakes of Wales. I am about to embark on a year long seasonal programme "Circling the Mountain". Alongside this, my work as a Pilates movement coach informs how I inhabit the BodyMind as a living, integrative process. I draw on Nick Totton’s work in Wild Therapy, where eco-therapy recognises that humans are deeply connected to the wider-than-human world. Totton describes wildness as “a continual tendency towards complexity,” reminding us that our inner lives are naturally intricate and relational.

Working outdoors can shift perspective, bringing insights from the environment, the wind, the trees, the textures of the land, back into our awareness and into therapy. Put simply, this approach helps you tune into your body and mind together, using movement and embodied awareness to connect more deeply with your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. This perspective enriches eco-therapy by creating space for reflection, presence, and connection that is grounded in both body and mind.

“You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”
Mary Oliver