On 11 July, we are joining Heckfield Place for Gather & Nourish: Women's Health — a morning guided by eco-psychologist Amy Steadman through the fields, woodland and open meadows of the estate. It is one of three gatherings in a series that Amy has shaped around the simple idea that nourishment is not only what we eat, but how we move, where we are, and what we allow ourselves to feel.
What the morning looks like
The experience begins outside, in the early quiet of a July morning. As the group walks through the landscape, Amy offers gentle invitations to pay attention — to the softening of summer light, the texture of the ground underfoot, the movement of air through the trees. These are not abstract exercises. They are a way of using the natural world as a mirror, a means of returning to the body's own rhythms at a moment when it's easy to have lost touch with them entirely.
Along the way, guided prompts open space to explore women's health as something evolving and deeply individual. Not a fixed set of symptoms or stages to manage, but something responsive — something that shifts across a lifetime and asks, at different points, for different kinds of care. The conversation is unhurried and thoughtful. There is no single right answer to find.
This is an approach we recognise deeply at Wildsmith. Our work at The Bothy at Heckfield has always been grounded in the belief that the natural environment is not simply a backdrop to wellbeing — it is one of its most reliable conditions. When the nervous system is given space to settle, when attention is drawn outward and then gently back in, something shifts. Energy becomes steadier. The mind quietens. It becomes easier to hear what the body is actually asking for.
Closing with a shared breakfast
The morning draws to a close in the Glass House, where a seasonal breakfast brings the group together around the table. The food continues the sense of care that has run through the walk — simple, nourishing, thoughtfully prepared from what the estate and the season have to offer. It is a moment to sit, reflect and eat well before heading back into the day.
There is something worth noticing in that structure: the walk and the meal are not separate things. Both are part of the same act of attention. Both ask you to slow down, be present and treat the body with a little more kindness than the week might usually allow.
About Amy Steadman
Amy is an eco-psychologist whose work is grounded in the science of human flourishing. She creates space for greater presence, clarity and renewal, using the natural environment as both setting and guide. Her approach is subtle and unhurried — she is not asking you to transform, only to notice.
She is also the voice behind several of our Wildsmith journal entries on vitality and wellbeing, and her thinking has shaped much of the philosophy that underpins The Bothy's approach to care.
Joining the morning
The Women's Health experience takes place on Saturday 11 July, from 8.30am to 12.15pm at Heckfield Place in Hampshire. Tickets are £90 per experience, or £240 for the full three-part Gather & Nourish series, which also includes a morning on Longevity in June and a gathering around Joy in August.
You can book directly through Heckfield Place here. We hope you'll join us.
