Healing Arts: Connect to the Forest Gallery Tour

Join us for a unique event showcasing the healing benefits of nature.  

The morning will begin with a gallery tour by artist Clare Hewitt of her exhibition ‘Everything in the forest is the forest’. Responding to a government report suggesting that loneliness and isolation were increasing in rural areas of the UK, acclaimed photographer Clare’s exhibition celebrates trees and their remarkable ability to nurture and communicate.  

Following a break for tea, you’re invited to step beyond observation into embodied experience. Led by Laura Babb (The Clear Space) we’ll journey to meet the trees of Cannon Hill Park and explore what it means to be in community with the more-than-human world and with each other. Through gentle guided eco-somatic and nature-therapy based practices, we’ll consider how, just like trees, we can thrive through interconnection, reciprocity and responsiveness. When we move from exploring the forest as metaphor to experiencing it as a living, nurturing presence, we can begin to find ourselves in relationship with it, receiving holding, grounding and connecting, while offering our attention and responsibility in return.

This part of the session will explore:

● Guided somatic, sensory and grounding practices to attune to the trees and their environment  

● Gentle mindful movement inspired by forest ecologies  

● Paired and small-group reflection to cultivate presence and mutual support  

● Reciprocity; how we can receive nourishment from trees while consciously offering care

You’re invited to notice your embodied responses to the trees you meet, to the land beneath your feet and to the community we’ll cultivate together. Emphasis will be placed on creating a supportive, trauma-informed and inclusive space where connection can unfold through stillness, attention and shared experience.

Please wear comfortable clothing suitable for all weathers and outdoor movement. We hope to be outside in all but the most extreme conditions! All paths will be accessible for wheelchair users.  

This event is presented as part of Healing Arts Birmingham (HABrum) a city-wide initiative demonstrating how the arts can transform health, wellbeing, and social equity.

About Laura Babb

Laura Babb is an integrative therapeutic counsellor, ecotherapist and somatic trauma therapist. Her work weaves together psychology, embodied awareness, nature connection, archetypal exploration, folklore and ritual, inviting people into deeper relationship with themselves and the more-than-human world. She holds grounded, relational, trauma-informed, identity-affirming and neurodiversity-friendly spaces, shaped by the belief that connection unfolds through reciprocity, presence and community. Find Laura at The Clear Space.

About Clare Hewitt

Clare Hewitt is a Photographer based in Birmingham, a Senior Lecturer in Photography at The University of the West of England, Bristol, and Archivist for Vanley Burke and the Lisel Haas Collection.  

Clare’s practice often focusses on ideas relating to loneliness, isolation, community and collaboration. In Everything in the forest is the forest, she has worked with a community of 12 oak trees at The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR FACE) to visually understand how they thrive through connection and communication, to inspire similar behaviour amongst human beings.