Children’s Ecotherapy & Sound

These sessions are designed to help children connect with nature to learn, increase their confidence and empathy, and to boost their mental and physical wellbeing. Come on a walk with me to learn about plant communication, to meditate in nature, and to hear the trees sing.

Can you remember being fascinated about nature as a child? Or have you seen a child run their fingertips along a tree trunk, completely enchanted, gazing up at the tree’s canopy in wonder?

Children have an incredible ability to connect with nature in a way that is full of uninhibited curiosity. Everything needs to be touched, looked at, and smelt…their senses are wide open as they forest bathe by pure instinct. The benefit of helping children to foster a deep connection with nature helps them to increase confidence and empathy, and boosts their physical and mental wellbeing. Drawing on the huge evidence base of the benefits of forest bathing, we now know how important it is to connect with nature, and how it is proven to lower our stress and anxiety levels, and increase our overall wellbeing. If children can learn about the importance of time in nature, they can utilise it’s wellbeing benefits, empowering them to use these skills for their own self-care during childhood, adolesence, and into adulthood.

And there’s another benefit too. Taken from the report, Home to Us All: How Connecting with Nature Helps Us Care for Ourselves and the Earth (Charles et al., 2018). “The report advocates an increased focus on connecting people with nature to inspire action for biodiversity conservation; and while it presents evidence for the importance of connecting with nature at all ages, it gives childhood a leading place, based on its review of research that childhood experiences often motivate later conservation actions.” Put simply, the more children can learn about the natural environment, the motivated they will be to protect it. And as climate change continues to change the world around us, increasing climate or eco-anxiety, the act of protecting the environment can help lessen this anxiety.

Compared to before the pandemic, mental health issues have increased in Victorian children by 41%, and with wait-lists for psychologists under pressure, it’s no wonder why so many children are struggling with their wellbeing.

But what if we could help by empowering children to learn practical skills to regulare their nervous system by connecting them with nature and music?

My unique framework, Children’s Ecotherapy & Sound, enables me to hold a safe and trauma-informed space where children are encouraged to connect with nature by forest bathing, learning about tree and plant communication by listening to plant music, deep breathing and meditation exercises, creating earth art, connecting with First Nations culture, storytelling, and they experience a sound healing amongst the trees with Native Amercian flutes, drums, chimes and voice.

I believe in the importance of nature connection and wellbeing practices to be fun, educational and inclusive. Keep reading to find out more about my programs.

What does Children’s Ecotherapy & Sound look like?

Sessions can be tailored for;

  • School groups (primary and secondary)

  • Home schooling groups

  • School holiday programs

  • Kinder groups

  • Outdoor education programs

Where?

I can come to you. Be it your school, community space, park, or even out on the trail. I just need a tree, some plants and a patch of grass!

What’s included?

Programs can include the following;

  • A sound healing meditation using chimes, Native American flutes, drums, voice, singing bowls

  • A guided meditation to help children create ‘the forest of their mind’, developing a safe space they can utilise during times of worry or stress

  • Guided forest bathing where children are encouraged to open all of their senses to connect with nature

  • Plant music facilitation - I connect a plant music device to plants, trees, and mushrooms which picks up on their electromagnetic frequencies and translates them into sound, allowing us to listen to the music of the plant world. I use this as a way to help children connect deeper with nature and learn about plant communication and how similar tree communities are to human ones.

  • Ecotherapy activities such as earth art (using items from nature to create mandalas), animal, insect and plant identification, fox-walking and tree hugging!

I am passionate about everyone enjoying their experience during the session, but also being able to take some skills and tools home with them, such as learning how to meditate, or create the ‘forest of their mind’, or how to forest bathe, or learning that they like to listen to Native American flutes to relax.

My qualifications and experience:

  • I have a current Working With Childrens Check

  • I have comprehensive knowledge of the Victorian Child Safe Standards legislation (I have developed and implemented legislative policy and procedure across a large tertiary organisaton, as well as consulted with other organisations about child safety), so all sessions are delivered using a Child Safe lens

  • I have been delivering these sessions as a school holiday program over the past 12 months at The Yarra Valley Living Centre in the Yarra Valley

To find out more, please either send me an email or book a free 30 minute discovery call so I can learn more about your requirements and provide you with a quote.