Canopy Connections

I've been observing the world my whole life. The last two months in particular, and not once have I ever experienced this level of incongruence from the mental health world.
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What is empathy without action?
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I have been vocal on my personal accounts. I do not worry if I lose friends, family, or clientèle because our humanity is, SHOULD be the barometer that we gauge ourselves with and I will never quiet this part of myself, in any aspect of my existence as a human being of this earth.
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I stand for ceasefire and a free Palestine.
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I will not be quiet.
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Friday arrives, I linger at the window and at the first flash of blue, I run to the garden and let my skin grab a fleeting yellow beam and gather the vivid colours with my eyes.

Two minutes taken, but reset for the day.
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Sun making its way through the mighties, warming my face.
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Watching the bumblebees going along their way, whipping up little whirlwinds of dust in their wake.
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The breeze tossing my hair and bringing with it scents of spring blooms.
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I could sit here forever.

The journey home from work, loving the small things.
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Winter Solstice of the North is here and the beginning of Yule, where the sun crawls along the horizon at its lowest and the night stretches as long as it can. The longest night of the year.
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It's a time for anyone and everyone to really notice what nature is doing, what it's telling us, what its teaching us if only we stop to feel its expressions even when it's darkness is at its most deep.
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Standing at the edge of transition is both frightening and thrilling.
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Earth's cycle is letting you know its time to contemplate turning towards the coming light.
Soon, it will be time to grow...
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The last passion flower in my garden, bathing in the fading snippet of sunshine this afternoon.
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Passion flower has been traditionally used in herbal medicine for alleviating anxiety, difficulties sleeping, stress, and to increase focus...
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I think I've already felt some of these benefits just by spending some time with it and enjoying its existence.
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Finding the rainbows.
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Welcome to Earth Day
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How can you honour Mother Earth today?
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What might she whisper in your ear when you do?
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*t

Hi, I'm Jenni and would like to introduce myself again (it's been a spell...)
I live in Scotland and I'm a registered Relationship Counsellor with a small private practice.
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I also work as a counselling support worker and group facilitator in a Violence Against Women and Girls charity.
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I'm a certified Forest Bathing and Nature Therapy Guide with the ANFT and I'm currently training to be a clinical counselling supervisor.
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I like to keep busy, I'm always learning, and I'm a constant explorer.
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One of my favourite places to be is high up in the trees, with some paints or a book, or just with my own thoughts and the company of the earth and it's often unnoticed inhabitants.
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Exploring our world, both inner and outer, is crucial for authentic living.
Dive a little deeper...
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Hibiscus, another heart flower from my youth in Hawaii, can boost the immune system and can prevent cell damage caused by free radicals in the body.
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This could decrease the risk of developing some significant health complications and also decreases inflammation.
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Hibiscus tea contains antioxidants, such as anthocyanins...basically, great stuff to make a brew from!
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Sunsets.
Just sunsets.
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If you've been wounded...
The best revenge is healing.
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Above the canopy, the freshest, greenest air I've ever breathed.
Grateful tears.
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Plumeria or Frangipani symbolises love, new beginnings, and spring. A beautiful token for those you love!
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I spent a few years growing up with it all around me in Hawaii and always loved their scent and wearing them as leis. I find them so nostalgic, positive and hopeful, I had a string of them tattooed on my forearm.
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I was delighted to find them here in Costa Rica!
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The volcano to climb peaking through in the distance.
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An external mountain to climb for sure, but also internal. Climbing the peaks in my mind too!
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"It's more than enough to be (by) yourself."
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Valentine's Day is subjective to each person, it can place unhealthy pressures on those in and outwith a relationship. Encouragement to show your love more deeply in your partnerships is always welcome, but it's also a great opportunity to find love for yourself and create space to nurture and hold yourself in your own arms and accept all that you are.
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It's also an idea to grow the notion of being in partnership with Mother Earth, you're never alone in the arms of trees and the murmurings of nature giving you life everyday.
A meaningful and fulfilling relationship can exist without a traditional Valentine!
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Hazel, a magical tree. Many whittle wands to ward against worrisome spirits and use Hazel rods for water-divining. It's known as the 'Tree of Knowledge’ in Ireland and charms are fashioned from the hazelnuts. 🧹
Magic aside, the catkins that blow in the breeze very near my house give me comfort that growth is happening, even before the leaves bud and burst.
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Reminds me that everything happens in seasons, the body's phases are natural, and soon things will begin to wake!
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Springtime is a busy time for counsellors, as are all of the season changes. As the earth wakes, so do many of our thoughts and contemplations about life and transitions.
This is no bad thing.

Clients that come to counselling may sometimes wonder if their therapist truly cares about them. I can't speak for anyone else but I can honestly answer that yes, yes I do truly care about my clients.
Counsellors are just as human, feel and suffer just as much as anyone else and being in touch with myself allows me to attune to those I'm working with.
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If you work with me, you'll encounter all of me.
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This may seem disconnected to what you've heard about therapy, and for some practices, this is true, but I practice with the firm belief that counselling is a journey you and I both embark on, I am alongside you.
My awareness of our mutuality and vulnerability is a tenet I hinge therepeutic process and growth on, and I hone my own self-awareness with my own therapy, ongoing cpd training, clinical supervision, and art journalling.
Let me show you a page from my core.
I hope that it inspires you to be curious of what's within yourself.
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Exposed.

I noticed a tree that's missing an area of bark and it lead me to think about how that bare piece of it's flesh felt differently in the surrounding elements, why was it naked there, had it been stripped at some point or had it always been like this.
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Of course this then had me making links to my counselling work, personifying this tree to client process.
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Then OF COURSE I apply it to myself!
This is where I really excel, examining my bareness, exploring where I can strip myself further to the core and expose any demons I've yet to meet and begin yet another piece of work on myself.
I love it.
The expedition, the pain, the joy, the expansion, the foreverness of the journey...
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Direction.
Where to go from here, and where even is here to start with?
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Stuckness usually means a crossroad of decisions, often the choices aren't clear, or even wanted.
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Pauses to contemplate are welcome and necessary to process...what next?
But when does this contemplation become stuckness? Do you know the difference?
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What are your signs that inform you that you might be hiding? For me, I become aware I'm hiding if I haven't made it out to the woods, or even the garden for awhile. Being outside in nature gives me clarity and strength like nothing else does. I know that no matter how upset, confused, or apathetic I am when I walk under the canopy, I will always walk back out with my thoughts gathered and nestled into neat(ish) piles of Desires, Fears, and Actions.
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When I avoid the forest, I know I'm avoiding making decisions.
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I saw this arrow two days ago out in the woods and it was an arrow to my heart, which I have now begun following with renewed vigor.
I hope every one of you find new arrows to your heart, and I wish you the courage to follow them.
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"Have you ever outstretched your arms to receive a hug from the wind?
What would that be like?"
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Usually, when I'm having a tough time, the best fast-acting medicine for me is to head outside. If it's a blustery day, I let down my hair and embrace the wind.
Now, I mean I spread my arms out wide and make the surface area of my body as large as possible to allow the wind to connect.
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I remember, in that moment, that I'm no different to the wind swirling around the earth, swaying and swooping, diving into crevices and soaring to euphoric heights, dying almost to an imperceptible still and raging with emotive velocity.
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This is one way I remember that I'm alive, a force of the very nature that society tries to lull me into forgetting that I belong to.
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I don't welcome the wind, I AM the wind.
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Walking my child home from school through these woods is often the highlight of my day.
We forest bathe and seek small treasures, we climb trees and watch our leaf boats flow with the water under the bridge, we deeply notice the more-than-human-world and discuss the beneficial effects it has on us humans and how we impact the earth.
We gather rubbish left by those that have yet to discover the benefits nature has on our wellbeing, sometimes we cry together about this.
Today, we felt the sadness as we collected the crisp packets a pair of adults had dropped near us, but THEN we noticed a tiny squirrel popping it's head out of the leaves, so as always, we paused and absorbed the creature living it's life. This particular wee one seemed to be playing a game of hide and seek in the leaves, diving head first into a pile, then peeping it's head out to see if we approved of the show!
We did!
Life goes on, it always does one way or another, with or without us, and so we continue to gather the trash and find the delights in life where we can!
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This late blooming Cosmos, amongst its fading kin, called out to me in my local woods. It got me thinking about the cycle of its life and how the latency of its seeds parallel the process of growth in my relationships.
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The Cosmos flower is an annual, it doesn't regrow each year but it does drop it's seeds as it ceases to live and these become the next incarnation of life the following summer.
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The thought that struck me was that for Cosmos to reseed itself, it's flowers have to be left fading (dying) long enough for it's seeds to develop fully. It needs to be left in its 'unpretty' state long enough to internally seed its new beginnings.
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The new growth needs to take its time.
I couldn't help but to personify myself and my relationships, that I could so easily believe to be stagnant, as these flowers that SEEM dead, but are nurturing the next phase of life within unseen.
This was such a comfort to me.
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Is there a flower or aspect of nature that you can relate your own relationships to right now?

Seasons happen.
In nature, in relationships, and in our own bodies. My own body is only just now emerging from a dark season of healing. Within this dormant spell, there were a few times I felt a stirring of....guilt, maybe even shame for not being present (at least visibly present) in my public endeavour to reach potential clients and general life kin.
Now ten, maybe even five years ago, I'd have succumbed to such nefarious a pull and pushed my worn body to appear, to be productive, to give of myself when my own sustenance was waning.
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The ultimate, most valuable gift I've ever received was a gift from my own heart- my realisation that I matter and I deserve, at the very least, the same attentive, loving care that I afford those around me. So when I need rest, when I seek a quiet presence, that's what I nurture myself with.
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So here I am, I am back and I am well *touch wood!* and it's lovely to see you all again.
There will always be a cycle of wellness, illness, and rejuvenation in my body's cycle- such is the way with chronic conditions, but for now, I am here 💫
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There is no right path.
Follow the path that sounds like your joy.
Listening closely to this, is how you honour yourself.
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When the sky delights, there are few words, just feelings.
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Some say an orange poppy means a rise in creativity is on the horizon. I think, for me, this is true and I'm ready for it!
This little trio of delightful orange poppy heads nodding in unison on the breeze spoke volumes to me and I left their little group feeling more included in my own plans of things to come.
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A counsellor who fully accepts their client as they are, creates a comfortable safe space that can allow any and all changes to take place.
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It's tempting to pretend, exaggerate, or hide aspects of yourself from your counsellor, I know as I did it myself decades ago!
To want to impress the person who has heard of the parts of yourself that you might feel are less than flattering, maybe the most painful parts of your story, isn't uncommon.
Part of cultivating a therapeutic relationship is really embedding in that trust that's so necessary to open the door to realness.
'All in' is what I like to call it.
Finding a therapist that can hold all of you and more so, accept all that you bring to the table, is worth their weight in gold.
Lasting change doesn't occur where there's fear of being yourself.
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"Embrace all that you are, then your authentic self can unfold beautifully."
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What if we just let it all go and let ourselves shine through?
Would it be freeing or frightening to unfurl yourself in a way that displays your every leaf turn.
This is what we do, we realise aspects of ourselves that we want to change and
"we turn over a new leaf".
This phrase is no accident, nature has always known what to do to evolve beautifully whilst not giving a damn what the rest of the world thinks.
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