we can be heroes!
We received a wonderful new year gift! A South West Surrey Heroes Award from Jeremy Hunt for our contribution during the Covid pandemic. We're delighted and wanted to share the news with everyone involved in the project and say thank you!
in the garden
The cold weather and muddy ground didn't stop planning work on the pond project. The site resembled an archaeological dig as earth was gently moved in search of the edge of the pond liner. If you fancy joining us during this period of lockdown, Fridays are currently our main day for gardening work - email info@space2grow.space to book in.
reflections from the acre
In this week's reflections from the acre Lou, our founder and family psychotherapist, shares her thoughts....
"A few years ago, I spent one long hot summer working as a family psychotherapist in a run down building in the NHS’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Basingstoke. The boxy rooms, stained carpet and peeling walls were claustrophobic and depressing, not very therapeutic. Living in a one bedroom flat as a child, I spent as much time as possible outside, to ‘blow those cobwebs away’, as my grandmother used to say.
I set up space2grow for people to come and clear their heads in the outdoors instead of being inside staring at the walls, feeling isolated and alone. Even the Talking Shed, where I work as a family therapist and where the parenting and cooking courses take place, is deliberately the opposite of a functional white room, with different patterned wallpaper on every wall blending into views across the garden and to the meadow beyond.
I hope that being in the space itself is a form of therapy, with the conversations that happen between people an added bonus. I remember a group of parents arriving one summer evening for a parenting course remarking on how the sound of the church bells ringing as they crossed the churchyard, the birdsong when they arrived on the acre and the summer light falling across the wildflower meadow, all combined to melt the stresses of their day, before they had even begun to talk about it. Therapy is so much more than talking, but that is also something that we offer on the space2grow.
During lockdown I have been working with local families as a family psychotherapist in the Talking Shed, hopefully helping them to make a bit more sense out of family life. With the current variant of the virus proving to be so virulent, I have taken my therapy sessions outdoors, doing ‘walks and talks’, sometimes including the dogs to distract younger children while I listen to a parent as we walk. This feels as far away from the family therapy sessions in the boxy rooms of CAMHS as I could have hoped for."
If you feel you would benefit from family therapy then please contact info@space2grow.space.
If you would like to share what the acre means to you please email info@space2grow.space - we love hearing everyones reflections.
As always, we are working hard to ensure that space2grow remains a Covid safe site so please email info@space2grow.space prior to your visits, bring your own food and drink, take any rubbish home and please adhere to social distancing.
Thank you and see you soon!
