Experiences

Discover Your Wild Way...
🌿 Grief Support Circle
A space to honour what you carry
🕕 Saturday 19th September 2026 | 1.30pm-5pm
📍 The Quiet View, Kingston, near Canterbury
An experiential workshop and guided ritual to explore and allow space for the losses we feel. Throughout the afternoon, we will facilitate nature connection, ritual and sharing opportunities as ways to come together and know that we are not alone.
Using movement, sound, writing and talking practices, we will invite the untamed nature of grief to be expressed. This is for anyone carrying grief — whether for a person, identity, relationship, health, or the wider world. We work in a trauma-informed way and all sharing and practices are invitational and optional. Share as much or as little as you want. Held in the sanctuary of The Quiet View yurt and peaceful gardens.
Full Details
Grief can be loud, quiet, hidden, confusing or hard to name. It lives in the body, in the spaces between things, and is present beneath the surface of everyday life.
Grief is the experience of loss, it is a process that evolves, an ongoing experience of something no longer here. We know grief follows a bereavement and it also follows other losses; a relationship ending, a redundancy, deteriorating health or illness, a hoped-for future, or a sense of who you once were. We also grieve what we might have expected and things we never chose, the parts of ourselves we have had to leave behind, and the sadness we carry for the wider world.
Whatever you’re grieving, it carries wisdom and something longing for expression. When grief has nowhere to go, it can create a barrier to connection, to joy, to vitality both within ourselves and with others.
This workshop is informed by our own experiences of grief, group work and circle holding, and also by the work of Francis Weller and his understanding of the Five Gates of Grief which offers us a framework for the challenges and emotional responses that loss and change can bring.
What to Expect
We’ll gather together to spend the afternoon in the sanctuary of The Quiet View in Kingston. The peaceful gardens overlook the hills of the Kent Downs, nestled by fields and woodland. The land itself forms part of the support for the circle.
Held by Lucy Furniss and Louise Allen, experienced facilitators and therapists, both trained in Wild Therapy. This workshop invites people to come together to explore and express grief together.
We work in a trauma-informed way and all sharing and practices are invitational and optional. We aim to facilitate the workshop at a pace that allows for awareness, integration, and choice. You will be free to share as much or as little as you want, to listen, or simply to notice what arises.
Throughout the afternoon, we will facilitate nature connection, ritual and sharing opportunities as ways to come together and know that we are not alone. Using movement, sound, writing and talking practices, we will invite the untamed nature of grief to be expressed.
During these practices we will invite you to notice what is present in your body, your breath, and your emotional landscape, allowing this awareness to guide the process. We will use a combination of singing, drumming, humming and movement to connect as a group for support. Both the group and the land itself becomes part of the holding.
There is no expectation to show up in a particular way, but we invite you to stay close to your own experience and allow what is present to emerge.
The afternoon includes:
• Introduction to the 5 Gates of Grief
• A chance to reflect and share what feels comfortable
• Collective guided ritual to help access your grief
• Grounding practices with the support of the land
• Quiet reflection time, including a group labyrinth walk
• Light refreshments
Qualities of grief can include sorrow, despair, anger, rage, fear, numbness, relief and also love and joy. All feelings are welcome - there is no right or wrong way to grieve.
Who is this for?
This workshop is for anyone who wants to explore grief in a group setting. It is aimed at adults. We welcome all forms of grief, including (and not exclusively):
• Bereavement
• Unmet needs
• Loss of identity, relationship, work, or health
• Childlessness or pregnancy loss
• Life-changing illness or disability, or late diagnosis
• Collective or climate grief
You do not need to justify your grief to attend.
Why join us?
Everyone will have their own reasons for attending and their experience of the afternoon. We hope that people might leave:
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Feeling less alone in their experience of grief
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Feeling less overwhelmed or scared by grief, and more connected to their process
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With some tools and ritual ideas to tend to grief at home
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Having experienced the value of being in circle together, with collective listening and sharing
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With a sense of meaning, connection or affirmation of life
About the Organisers
Gestalt psychotherapist, Lucy Furniss and integrative counsellor, Louise Allen, are experienced facilitators and trained Wild Therapy practitioners who share a deep respect for the emotional wisdom of the natural world.
Together they bring years of experience in therapy and holding group spaces that are trauma-aware, ethically grounded, and gently structured. Their work weaves psychological understanding with embodied awareness, relational practice, ritual, and connection to land.
They believe grief is not something to fix or rush, but something to honour as part of the vitality of life, in community and with compassion, steadiness, and care.
Practical Details
When: Saturday 19th September, 1.30pm–5pm
Where: The Quiet View, Kingston
Included: Facilitation, refreshments, materials where needed
Bring: Comfortable clothing, layers, water bottle, journal and pen and an optional drum or rattle/shaker
Investment
We are looking for 6-15 people to join us for this afternoon.
Standard price £40
Abundant price £55
If cost is a barrier, please do contact us.
Higher contributions help support subsidised places.
You might feel a sense of recognition reading this — that you’ve been feeling more than you show. Or perhaps you’re curious, but afraid about what might arise. Either way, consider this an invitation to explore the relationship you have with your grief, supported by a group and the land.
You do not need to be “falling apart” to come. You do not need to explain or justify your grief. You are welcome as you are without expectation.
Wild Way Retreats
For women navigating change, loss or
a crossroads in life
Dates: Thursday 16th September to Sunday 19th September 2027
Location: To be announced (we're currently searching)
Our gentle, and deeply grounding 4-day woodland retreats are designed to support women through times of uncertainty and transition.
If you're interested and want to register for more details as they become available, please email us at wildwayretreats@gmail.com
Are you in a season of change and not sure what comes next?
Are you a women who is:
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Feeling lost, stuck, or overwhelmed at a turning point
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Struggling with anxiety, low confidence, or self-doubt
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Grieving a loss — a relationship, role, identity, loved one, or long-held dream
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Facing big life changes (children leaving/childlessness, health shifts, career changes)
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Finding it hard to make decisions or trust themselves
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Feeling disconnected from who you are beneath the demands of life
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If you recognise yourself here, you are not broken —
you are in a threshold moment.
Rather than pushing for answers, we create the conditions for clarity, confidence, and inner trust to naturally emerge. This work is guided by nature-based ritual, deep listening, and the wisdom of the more-than-human world.
Andrea and Lucy bring their own lived experience of navigating change, alongside years of therapeutic and nature-based practice. They work slowly, intuitively, and with great care — guided by the rhythms of the land and the needs of the group.
You will be held by:
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A small, supportive group of women
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Skilled, qualified wild therapists
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The steady, regulating presence of ancient woodland
The Retreat Journey Guided by the Land
Over 4 days and 3 nights, you will be gently guided through practices that help you slow down, feel safe, and reconnect with yourself, including:
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Daily facilitated circles — to explore what’s alive for you and be witnessed without judgement
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Dream circles — weaving insight, intuition, and meaning during times of change
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Solo sit-spot time in nature — to access your own inner wisdom and clarity
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Guided meditations & sound bath — to calm the nervous system and support deep rest
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Somatic movement — to reconnect with your body and emotions
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Fire rituals & seasonal ceremony — to release what no longer serves and honour what’s emerging
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Creative practices with natural materials — to express what words can’t reach
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Nature is not a backdrop here, but an active participant in the work. Everything is invitational. You are never pushed, fixed, or analysed.
What You’re Likely to Leave With
Women often leave this retreat feeling:
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Calmer, more grounded, and deeply rested
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More confident in their own decisions
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Clearer about what they want — and what they don’t
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Reconnected to themselves and their inner wisdom
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Supported rather than alone with change
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Gently energised to take the next step forward
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This is not about forcing transformation — it’s about creating the right conditions for it to unfold naturally.
A Past Participant Shares
“Simply put, this retreat enabled me to reclaim my power. It gave me the soft, empowering space I needed to face my darkest fear and begin to move through it. Coming out of the retreat, I felt brave enough to make a huge life change I didn’t think was possible.”
— Holly, 2024
Meet your Retreat Guides
Andrea Hobbs: Experienced crafter-artist, Wild Therapist, Meditation Mind Calm Coach, Tarot and Oracle Card Guide.
At Blossoming You, Andrea tends the fertile meeting place between creativity, intuition, and the more-than-human world. With over four decades exploring alternative spiritual lineages, she walks with a grounded mysticism—one that trusts the Earth as teacher and imagination as bridge.
Her intuition opens doorways into the unseen dimensions of experience: the shimmer between stillness and inspiration, the moment when silence begins to sing. Andrea invites participants to explore creativity not as performance, but as listening—to the land, to the body, to the inner whispers of the soul.
Blending contemplative practice with artistic play, she helps you find balance between vision and embodiment, between wonder and presence. Under her guidance, transformation unfolds less as an event and more as a blossoming that knows its own timing.
You can encounter more of her work at www.andreahobbs.co.uk.
Lucy Furniss: Experienced Gestalt and Wild Therapist
At Blossoming You, Lucy walks alongside you as a companion at the edge of becoming. Drawing on her years of Gestalt practice and Wild Therapy, she helps participants listen to the subtle languages of body, land, and imagination—those quiet places where growth begins before it blooms.
Lucy weaves dialogue, movement, and nature-based ritual to invite psychological and ecological rewilding. Her guidance encourages you to meet the more-than-human world not as backdrop, but as co-facilitator and mirror—helping you sense what wants to awaken and what is ready to rest.
She holds a tender trust in the Earth’s capacity to teach and transform us, reminding each participant that blossoming isn’t about performance or perfection; it’s about remembering how to live in rhythm with the world that made us.
Learn more about her ongoing practice at www.lucyfurniss.co.uk.
Investment:
Information to come

