The Power of Connection: from anxiety to regulation through storytelling and somatic practice

A new, two-day workshop with Jon Cree and Madelanne Rust-D’Eye

If you support other people through stress, anxiety or overwhelm – as a teacher, outdoor practitioner, coach, therapist or facilitator – this two-day course with Jon and Madelanne offers practical, embodied ways to find your way back to regulation and connection: through story, the body and the natural world.

5 stars

“I can’t sing Jon’s praises enough – a highly skilled facilitator. I have returned energised and motivated to ‘do the work’.”

Attendee of Reframing how to work with Behaviour and Stress in the Outdoors

What we’ll explore

How nature-based and body-informed somatic practices can support self-regulation and unwind anxiety
How metaphor and storytelling can be vessels to contain and share life experience
How relational attunement helps us re-focus attention and rediscover delight in the energy of life
How experiencing the ‘Self’ in its interconnectedness with the natural world and with others inherently counteracts anxiety.

What to expect from this experiential workshop

Over the two days, you’ll take part in attunement exercises – in and with the natural world, and with each other – alongside guided work with story and metaphor. This isn’t a lecture-based course: expect to move, notice, listen and reflect together, at a slower pace than most training allows. A core thread throughout is that none of us are alone in this – our natural state, as both ancient wisdom and modern science increasingly confirm, is one of profound interconnectedness.

What you’ll take away

Regulate yourself first – practical ways to calm your own nervous system, and work with warmth and acceptance towards yourself, before trying to support anyone else’s
Recognise, respond to and reframe dysregulation in others – spotting stress and overwhelm as they happen, and understanding the mind-body link well enough to see behaviour differently, not just react to it
Use story and metaphor safely – a gentle way to help someone hold and make sense of a difficult experience, including painful memories
Use nature and sensory practice to support connection – working with the multi-sensory world around you, and accompanying someone through a hard moment with genuine compassion, without needing to fix or control them.

Woman hiding behind a lead in playful somatic practice

Is this therapy training?

No. This is experiential CPD for practitioners. It will deepen your understanding of therapeutic ways of working – but it does not qualify participants as therapists or counsellors.

Go to dates and costs

Next available dates

Dates: Saturday December 5th and Sunday December 6th 2026

Time: 9.00am to between 3.30pm – 4pm daily, arrive at 8.45am to start on time

Location: Our woodland site, off Park Lane, near Laughton, East Sussex, BN8 6BP

Cost: £280

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Who facilitates this two-day CPD workshop?

Jon Cree has almost forty years’ experience as an environmental and earth educator, and co-author of The Essential Guide to Forest School and Nature Pedagogy (Routledge). His passion is helping others ‘get in touch’ with the natural world through dynamic learning programmes and hand-on learning experiences. He has for many years worked in Forest School, particularly with learners who are often stressed by our education system, home circumstances or other situations that set them apart from ‘the mainstream’. And yet we all bring gifts to the communities we are part of. During the pandemic signs of stress, anxiety and even trauma have become more prevalent and Jon has been diving deeper in ‘somatics’ and body based approaches. He has been asked to run even more trainings on anxiety, stress and trauma, and how the more than human world and creative practises can support our nervous systems. This is based on the many years he has worked with young people, especially adolescents.

Madelanne Rust-D’Eye is a Canadian somatic educator and facilitator who lives among the volcanic hills, grassy meadows and rocky coastline of Midlothian, Scotland. Madelanne’s work meets at the intersection of social justice, somatics, and regenerative culture. She also has her own somatic therapy practise.

Originally trained as a trauma-informed somatic psychotherapist (MA Naropa University), for the past 10+ years, she has been growing the community and practice of Body-Informed Leadership to address the wounds of connection carried in the bodies of Western people and cultures.

She has created and led innumerable programs and trainings with youth and adults, each with their own unique flavour. Madelanne brings a gentle presence, deep curiosity, and a knack for enabling the inherent brilliance, diversity, and collective leadership of the groups she hosts.

Madelanne is a Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist (MSME/T), registered with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). See Madelanne’s free resources on her website here: bodyinformedleadership.org/free-resources.

Testimonials