About Natalie

 
 

Inner and outer nature have always been a theme in my life and work. I’ve long been fascinated with the inner workings and beauty of Nature’s design from the micro to the macro: the body’s nerve, blood, fascia pathways and networks reflecting the Earth’s rivers, branches and mycelium.

I’m inspired by the incredible medical drawings of Netter, the visionary art of Alex Grey, and the Exhibition of Body Worlds by Dr Gunther von Hagens & Dr Angelina Whalley and Embrogeneisis by Richard Grossinger.

I completed my degree in Theatre Design BA(Hons) in 1990 designing sculptural dance sets, that depicted this exploration - for Macbeth’s set, the floor of the stage was a landscape/female body, covered in latex skin, with a giant hour glass timer pouring sand through her navel, where each death of a character would pass.

Another set was a giant egg made of metal circles welded together, that dancers would move within, each a universe in themselves, there costumes were a seed, an astroturf belly, blue rubber water, and a lycra purple line from sacrum to hood, outlining the craniosacral rhythm "Breath of Life" before I knew of its existence.

I then began creating personalised mandalas through joint meditation, feeling into images arising in the body along the midline and its Chakra centres, bringing the many separate images that arose, into the story of the whole called Dreamshields.

In 2004 after the birth of my two daughters, I studied a foundation in Karuna Coreprocess Psychotherapy and completed my studies of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy in 2006, deepening a knowledge of the bodies intelligence and its expression towards health. Sometimes, during treatments, images may arise as part of the bodies awareness, wisdom and healing, its needs may be expressed in many forms physical, emotional, energetic and imaginal.

Alongside this exploration I continued my meditation practice - Tibetan Buddhism with Akong Rinpoche, Dzogchen with James Low, Insight meditation at Gaia House, and more recently an in-depth study of Soulmaking Dharma -Rob Burbea with Catherine McGee and Yahel Avigur.

Equally I see my art as my practice, bringing embodied visions of inner and outer Nature into form, I have explored this through interactive sculptures, painting and Butoh, somatic dance.

The culmination of all these areas has led to Visions of Health an onward journey of their weaving upon the loom of exploration and enquiry which is also seeding an ever-growing series of paintings.

 

Training & Qualifications

  • 2 year professional training – Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust

  • Visceral Intelligence – Body Intelligence (post-graduate course)

  • Mother and babies – Penel Lee and Sarah Nesling (post-graduate course)

  • Neurology in Practice – Working with the spine – Steve Haines (post-graduate course)

  • Emotions and the limbic system – Steve Haines (post-graduate course)

  • Dissociation and the Body – Steve Haines (post-graduate course)

  • Differentiation-Resonance Trainings (post-graduate)

  • Visionary Craniosacral Work-Hugh Milne(post-graduate)

  • Equine Cranioasacral Therapy (post-graduate)

I came to practice craniosacral therapy from my own experiences during pregnancy and for my daughter who initially had benign hypotonia, a condition that led to slow development issues. Craniosacral therapy supported us both in the healing journey until she was able to walk without support or special shoes.

I feel it is a therapy that marries the emotional and physical.

I am a mother of two daughters, and have a BA Hons in Theatre Design, I create outdoor interactive sculptures, using natural materials, and run workshops using meditation, visualization, movement (Butoh inspired) and creativity in nature, furthering an exploration into ‘Visions of Health’, by feeling into the surrounding landscape, and awakening our interconnectedness.