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25.01.2022 Today is International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day Every October 15th, we pause to remember the loss of our babies and their ongoing presence in our lives. Tonight, my heart is with each one of you who knows this experience. Tonight, I acknowledge, honour and celebrate each precious baby who remains in our hearts, and, in our significantly changed lives. You have been taken, but you will always remain. I invite you to write his or her name.... We acknowledge We honour We celebrate you precious babe.

23.01.2022 So, what does running across the Sahara Desert have to do with therapy? Well, as it turns out, more than I could have imagined. In our adventures, the activity or physical process is explicit and clear. The excitement, the challenge, the journey in to the unknown are all important parts of what make our adventures memorable to us. But further to this, and perhaps more importantly, in our adventures, the process of empowerment, growth, healing, emotional and psychological tran...Continue reading

23.01.2022 Why Do You Ride? To all my mountain biking friends, I’d love your insights! This is a long post so I will give you the gist. There is increasing chatter about mountain biking and mountain bikers in our local community because of a proposed plan for trail development in our much-loved Manning Park. It has got me thinking about all sides of this debate and opened up a curiosity for learning more about why people ride. I’ve delved right into this in the following paragraphs, but...Continue reading

23.01.2022 What Emerges to Endure I have been arguing with myself about whether or not I post anything. Truth is, I am filled with uncertainty about what is going on and what I should or shouldn’t be doing. One thing I do know, is that what I have to say now, is mostly just my own thoughts circulating and not any kind of prescription for how to tread this uncertain terrain. What I have chosen to share, is me putting out in to the universe, a version of how I hope I can walk this thing w...Continue reading

23.01.2022 NAIDOC 2020 To acknowledge is to say, this matters. This matters, and I care deeply. I don't always know the right words to say. At times, I feel I do not have the right to say anything at all. ... But I also know the deep importance of bringing sound to this despite my own fear of doing it wrong. This is far bigger and far greater and far more important than any of my words and worries about caring in the wrong way. In acknowledgment, we focus our gaze and find our voice. We remain real in all its stumbling and imperfect gestures and open up completely to what is real around us. Acknowledgment, to name and stand strong for what is right, just, and true. Earlier this year, the Australian Association for Bush Adventure Therapy (AABAT) delivered a wonderful Nature and Health Symposium. Many of the wonderful speakers were Indigenous. They have given their permission for these talks to be shared this week. This collection of presentations and conversations encourages us to think about Aboriginal and Indigenous ways of knowing and being, provides insights into the timeless wisdom of Indigenous health practices, and deepens our understanding of how nature connects, bonds, and grows us. Collectively, with all of our differences, we find our voice to bring sound to this. Always Was, Always Will Be. https://outdoorhealthcare.org.au/naidoc-2020/

22.01.2022 Born Still This is an achingly real and raw account of a story, a precious babe, and a broken family. These stories of loss so often get lost because of their complete and profound sadness. To bring sound to these stories is to acknowledge the presence and indeed existence of these most loved, most cherished, and most longed for babies. To hear this story of Miles is quite painful. There are parts of this interview that bring with it floods of tears and a broken heart in it...s remembering. For those who know this experience, this story will reverberate. It will take the breath from you. And in its echo, there remains, a most fierce and enduring love that does not fade. See more

21.01.2022 -Trail Tracing for Bereaved Mothers Day- On this day, we will run our Bereavement Hiking Group to acknowledge and support Mothers who have experienced Pregnancy Loss. Being a Mother begins long before a baby is born to be held in her arms. Being a Mother, endures through loss. On Sunday May 2nd - Bereaved Mothers Day - we at Right Foot Forward WA, would like to acknowledge, honour, and celebrate the deep and enduring connection that exists between a Mother and her Baby. Tr...ail Tracing is an approach to bereavement support that integrates forest trails, hiking for approximately 11 kms, guided navigation, mindfulness practice and supportive therapy with the intention to acknowledge, honour and celebrate who has been lost in a unique and fundamentally active way. Our hope is to provide a safe space to acknowledge and honour experiences of bereavement, and create an opportunity to actively experience and connect with nature. We open a space for tracing stories and tracing deep connection. Expanding, growing and finding beginnings around who has been lost the grief becoming a centre for lift-off, not a place we expect will ever disappear. Please get in touch with us if you would like to join us in the Boranup Forest on this day. [email protected] or visit our website www.rightfootforwardwa.com.au

19.01.2022 To all the mothers who ache today

17.01.2022 Today Today is the day my little brother Aaron tackles the longest and hardest stage of the Marathon Des sables. This is the fourth stage of six, and all of us that love him are holding our nerves. So far, he has stunned us all by running so strong and finishing each stage towards the front of the pack. Many that know him well will likely not be surprised. I have been trail tracing in a whole different way as I track his GPS position each night. There have been a few late ni...ghts for me this week. I am reminded of the complex interplay between fear and courage, ambition and rest, and tracking forward in to unknown places. This journey has indeed become a journey shared. Tonight, as I ready my children for bed, Aaron will run over 75 kms through the Sahara tracing his way toward something he has been searching for. To you Aaron, Run wildly and gently. Run fiercely and compassionately. Run with your fear and your courage and everything that lies between. So many of us are with you, number 28

17.01.2022 There are no words to describe the tragic circumstances and the utter heartbreak regarding the deeply shocking death of Kobi Shepherdson at the Barossa Reservoir's Whispering Wall on Wednesday. I was sitting at my computer half way through writing something to post about Bereaved Mother’s Day and I realised that there is nothing that I can write before acknowledging the utter grief that Kobi’s Mother must be enduring right now. The utter grief that so many Mothers experience ...at the hand of domestic violence. The truly horrific stories make it to us through the news and we feel for a moment the shock, the disbelief, the deep sadness and regret at the realisation that such utterly tragic events occur. But the truth remains, most of us, we really have no idea. So many families are touched by these senseless tragedies every day and so many lives are lost. Left behind are the broken ones. Most often, the bereft Mothers or their children. As we approach Bereaved Mother’s Day, take a moment to acknowledge how painful this day is for so many. To Kobi's Mother, there are no words. Only to tell you our hearts are with you and your precious little girl.

16.01.2022 Being present in mind, body and place

16.01.2022 What We Seek and What We Find There are many sides to a story which traces the adventure of an ultra-endurance race across the Sahara Desert. Aaron has shared stories of physical endurance and given so many of us an insight in to the nature of the Marathon Des Sables and what it takes to finish it (see: https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=2982s&v=xQa46wzzGZ4 ). However, as a Social Worker and someone who is both curious and passionate about experience-based approaches to therapy ...Continue reading

14.01.2022 Hi everyone, see below for some info regarding our next storywalking hike

14.01.2022 Tracing a Way Forward As many of you know, this page has been a collection of stories and musings mostly pulled from my personal experience of loss. I began this page to bring to life an idea for a bereavement support program and to investigate the healing potential in active and adventurous experiences. The Trail Tracing Program has been informed both by my lived experience, but also by my professional training as a Social Worker and studies in psychology. This, together wi...th a deep respect for nature, has pulled me outdoors with a hope to collaborate with others in this profoundly precious and sacred space. Trail Tracing is one way to acknowledge, honour, and navigate bereavement; and we are looking for individuals to join our next programs in November and December 2019. Right Foot Forward WA launches this program to allow for any form of bereavement. We open a space for tracing stories, tracing loved ones, tracing deep connection to who or what has been lost or changed. Expanding, growing, and finding beginnings the grief becoming a centre for lift-off, not a place we expect will ever grow smaller. Enquire at [email protected]

12.01.2022 Mumma, Take Me to The Trees Since the moment on June 8th when baby Raphael came in to this world he has sobbed. He has cried in the waking hours and clung tightly to me, as he feeds and feeds and feeds. The Doctors have told me ‘colic’, the lactation consultant has told me ‘tongue tie’, I myself driven crazy analysing every single thing that passes my lips a deep conflict in my bones about how I seem to be hurting himand about how he seems so afraid to be here. I have long...ed for him to arrive. I have fiercely fought for him to be here. I have wanted him to come and finally be in our family. I have felt a significant connection between this precious boy and the sister that came before him. The sleepless nights and the physical endurance a welcome problem to experience rather these troubles, a luxury to have. But, why is it he sobs so? Why is it he seems so afraid? Unsure he wants to be here? Is he burdened by the weight of all the tears I cried while I carried him? Or has he been filled by a fear I felt each day I carried him, that I too would lose him? He has come in to the world with a distress worn over him like a cloak. Overwhelmed by the legacy of what has passed before himfor no matter how tiny her feet were, they were indeed loaded footprints to follow. In all the joy and all the fear of my pregnancy with you precious boy, did you become soaked by my struggle with loss and now carry the mark of that sadness. Is this actually what I hear when I am again told ‘reflux’ again told ‘immature digestive system’ and again told ‘poor attachment’. And, in the whispers of my walk through the grounds of the Murdoch hospital gardens, as I waited for the pharmacist to mix a reflux medicine, yet another solutionit came. Mumma, take me to the trees. Could it be that this place the quiet of the trees might, in fact, be most needed? I have walked several days now on the bush trails of the Perth hills. These hours have been marked by a peacefulness in my tiny son. The quiet and indeed reverence of these places another cloak that settles over us all. The older boys do not complain, the still and yet paradoxically active bush land around us brings gentle relief for us all. Here, there is a familiarity that feels like the best of medicines. Today we will walk again. His sister brought me to the trees and her enduring presence in our family calls us all back. There is no denying our belonging here. Whether we ride it, we run it, we walk it, or simply stand amongst itthere has been a call to the trails and the trees that is profoundly healing for us. A call that will remain an enduring legacy orientating our way forward. Perhaps it is coincidence Perhaps it is the peace it brings in me, in all of us Or maybe it’s simply the magic of the trees

10.01.2022 Outdoor Healthcare As many of you know, I am deeply passionate about getting my feet on the earth and taking therapeutic work outdoors. The belief that we heal and grow through deep connection, meaningful experiences and contact with wild nature drives this call to take a different approach in my work; and even more so, drives a pull towards a different way of living and appreciating the simple, and extraordinary ordinariness of life. As I navigate the personal and profes...Continue reading

10.01.2022 The Trail Tracing Pilot Program On March 16th I had the privilege of testing out an idea that I have been developing over the past two years. Thanks to a small group of wonderful women who brought both professional and personal insights to the process, I was able to pilot the first Trail Tracing Bereavement Hiking Program. This program has drawn from principles of bush adventure therapy (see: www.aabat.org.au) which applies therapeutic intentions to adventurous activities t...Continue reading

09.01.2022 Simple moments There is a certain quality in the great paradox of this time. During a time of enforcement in physical distance and repeated instructions regarding how we must stay away from one another might we actually, in the most subtle of ways, be more connected, more considerate. Whether it is the kind smile as we walk at a distance past one another or the calling out over a fence at how beautiful the garden has become. These most ordinary of interactions have taken o...n a special quality that is grounding and comforting and feels somehow right. Last night, as I slowly wandered our neighbourhood with the boys, I was struck by how we have come to appreciate the simplest of things. I noticed the way each of the boys were also noticing in a different way. Their attention attuned a mindfulness of moment and place. I noticed the noisy choir of birds screeching as the sun disappeared and the trees growing just as gracefully and naturally on our local oval as they would in any bush setting. I noticed the flowers colourful in their presence in the most suburban of gardens, rainbows and messages written across driveways, and even some jokes were scrawled along the path as we walked. Each an entanglement of reaching, asking, connecting, joining. An echo of the collective journey we are all on. I wonder what will emerge from this time? What will become of a life marked by this paradox? A time of such fear, and equally, great hope. We take ourselves back from every luxury of living we have come to expect, and in doing so, realise the true extent of these luxuries. We appreciate in a new way so many of the things that so often go unnoticed. We are humbled, we seek to connect in simple ways and we become changed. Might this great disaster of humanity, paradoxically, restore it.

07.01.2022 The Spirit in Trail Tracing Grief is a messy thing. The entanglement of emotions in constant argument. Rage and gratitude, sadness and joy, regret and hope, deep appreciation for what is, and utter broken-heartedness for what is no longer. I do not claim to know how this experience feels for others, other than to recognise its mark upon another’s slowing footsteps, their quiet, their active stillness, or in the hidden depths of another’s gaze as they look upon the world with ...Continue reading

05.01.2022 For anyone who has an interest in taking therapy outdoors

05.01.2022 As we approach Bereaved Mother's Day. Not being ok is a really understandable and appropriate way to feel. There are ways to be supported and Red Nose Australia are offering this forum tomorrow night.

05.01.2022 To the boy who dreams of far off places, of great battles, and deep forces of magic. To the boy who cannot be still.... To the boy who fades out in the usual systems. To the boy who has no time for the usual practices of getting ready for school, no time for putting things away, no time for the following of instructions and the constant listening out for them. To the boy who feels everything. Forcefully. To the boy who lashes out in anger in all the ways we misunderstand him. My boy. Today I watched you scale the intricate darkness of this vast cave. I watched you become acutely present in all your questions and wonderings. I watched a grace pass between you and your older brother. Such a gentle exchange I had not seen in such a long time. In this cave, you moved and found your magic. You found an awakening in its natural systems of stalagmites, stalactites, columns and crystals. You found an ease in its quiet reverence. You were, feet on the ground, right here. May we find different ways to bring to life the gems in each child. May we remain curious about all the ways a person can shine. May we look beyond the dominant and loud systems that often dictate our abilities...or not And understand that there are so many ways to unravel the magnificent in us. The power of this cave, on this day, both so powerful and so exquisitely simple.

01.01.2022 Everlastings They talk of empty arms but there is nothing empty about the way you have flooded me. To the Mother...Continue reading