Mind, Body and Nature

Hello, my name is Emilie and I am fundraising for the Blue Tangerine Federation, a group of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) schools. Last year we created a garden, with our students, to display at Chelsea Flower Show. We were lucky enough to be awarded a bronze medal, and, have once again been accepted to create another garden this year. In collaboration, The Blue Tangerine Federation and Natural Academy will showcase a wild, natural garden that tells a story. A story of ‘reconnecting the roots between humans and nature’. This story will be used to promote our work in mental and physical health, using nature as a resource to support mental and physical health recovery for children and adults.

After receiving training from the Natural Academy, a non-profit community-interest company, we have created an outdoor, therapeutic programme and are delivering therapeutic interventions in nature. This includes activities such as walking and talking, nature art, spending time with animals, growing and maintaining plants, working with music therapists to create nature music, foraging and cooking and using our senses to bring ourselves into the present. The pupils also learn how to regulate their emotions through breathing in natural settings.

The Blue Tangerine Charity exists to enable young people with special educational needs to fully demonstrate their abilities and capacity in the mainstream workplace. Working in full partnership with The Collett School and St Luke’s School – the schools that form The Blue Tangerine Federation, we seek to change the dial regarding the extremely challenging employment landscape for people with SEND in adulthood. The federation ensures our young people feel valued and have the skillsets to develop the self-esteem and confidence to tackle barriers they face in adulthood and this chimes with the values and work of Natural Academy in supporting individuals to work with others to improve their personal outcomes.

Natural Academy, whose mission is to help people and nature recover and flourish together, trains practitioners who facilitate the health, healing and recovery of people. This journey supports our return to a deepening connectedness to the natural world. And, from this, our approaches in applied ecopsychology emerge to support individuals, communities and the natural world around us.

Many of us have forgotten the importance of nature in our life, and have therefore lost the ability to access it. A lot of our students, like most people, are spending more and more time on technology which is causing poor mental health and a negative mindset. We want to encourage the use of nature to promote positive social interaction, to learn about our environment, and to show how important conservation is.