Hello, I’m Karen Scott

Nature-inspired coach for change-makers and nature-lovers, and explorer of the Pembrokeshire countryside. May I invite you to sit down with a cuppa while we get to know one another a little?

 

Since you’ve come to this page, it may be that we share a few things in common. If you’re anything like me, you…
 

• Are concerned by the state of the world and the turbulence you're witnessing on so many fronts — climate, biodiversity, social, political and pandemic. 

• Feel sure that a more beautiful world is both essential and possible. So you focus on creating change in your own life and making a meaningful contribution, through your work, art, community action and/or activism. 

• Are tired of having to be competent, capable and always striving for something and long for more relaxing ways of being, with more balance in your life.

 

Perhaps it feels like you’re working so hard to spread kindness, to make an impact, to make this world better, but you’re not gaining ground. Then it can be easy to slip into despair or escapism, or wanting to stick your head in the sand.

 

At times like this, maybe you take a walk outside, soaking in the warmth of the sun, or the smell of rain and earth. Or you go into your garden, to lose yourself a little and revel in the beauty and wildness.

 

Nature soothes you, connects you and speaks to you — and what she has to show you is exactly what you need to receive. 

 

When you make the time to listen, that is

 

That’s the hard part, isn’t it?

 

Setting time and intention, and making enough space for clarity to come. Even though we know we really need it.

 

Have you ever had the experience of walking in nature, or sitting beneath a tree, listening to wind and birdsong, and coming back with a new insight? That’s part of what we do here — it’s the foundation of my approach to nature-based coaching.

 

Nature-based coaching helps you deepen your connection with nature so you can become more receptive to what she’s showing you, allowing her to guide your next steps.

 

In business, in life, and in playing your part to create a better world.

 

I believe nature can be a powerful metaphor, a totem, a guide on our paths of self-discovery. Connecting with the land and wildlife around you can guide your work, showing you the form it needs to take, giving you answers and inspiration. It can also support you to open your mind and heart and soothe your nervous system.

 

As a daily practice, connecting with nature can bring us into our relaxed, creative flow state where things just fall into place.

 

It’s an approach that tends to work well for people like us, people who find “fitting in” to the dominant culture to be very uncomfortable.

 

If you’ve explored regular coaching and it didn’t feel right — maybe it didn’t go deep enough for you, or felt too much, or perhaps the emphasis on action, goal-setting and competence left you feeling more frazzled than on fire— you’re not alone!

 

I’ve learned, experienced and offered standard coaching. And when you’re grounded in nature, there’s a lot that doesn’t feel too good about it. Here’s why I think that is:

 

Natural growth has a different pace. It’s not linear (it’s cyclical), and it runs differently to the corporate paradigm that governs much of how we’re expected to work.

 

When you look at nature as your model for growth, it runs counter to most of the advice you’ll find on growing a business or making a big life change. Nature-based growth is gentler and untidier than the energy that pushes and drives, that requires you to perform, to set goals, aims, objectives and targets (all those military-derived phrases used in business). 

 

I’ve always felt resistance towards the corporate model of working, like I was trying to force myself into the wrong shape. Do you know the feeling?

 

It doesn’t suit my way of being — a more feminine, yin, receptive way of being. Maybe it doesn’t suit you either?

 

In my coaching practice, I offer guidance and facilitate movement that flows more like a river. A river does need the containment of its banks (structure), and it also carves its own path,ebbing and flowing, meandering at times and rushing at others.

 

And with this balance of structure and flow, doing and being, productivity and receptivity, yang and yin comes many gifts, like...

 

• The clarity and insight that comes from listening to a wiser wilder part of ourselves

• Sustained energy to create change, balanced with deeper rest, so you can keep going

• Mental, spiritual and emotional well-being allowing you to have greater impact

• A sense of connection with the wider web of life that heals our feelings of separation

• A soothing of the emotional burden of wanting to make a difference, or save the world

• An unblocking of creative flow, allowing space for new creative ideas to come

 

For change-makers, conscious leaders and ethical entrepreneurs, connecting to our authentic natural selves and building our businesses in ways that align with who we are opens up new doors of possibility.

Want to get started?

 

Sign up for my monthly newsletter here

 

Book a complimentary nature-based coaching session here

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Learn more about my 30-day programme: 30 Days of Loving Nature  here

 

This is deep, important work — and it can be hard

 

When we connect deeply with the natural world, we can also open ourselves to feeling heartbreak at the damage and destruction humans have caused. 

 

I also work with grief — not only the grief that arises from personal losses, but also our grief and pain for the world. There’s so much heartbreak that greed, selfishness and separation have caused. Even if we’re not conscious of it, we feel it in our bodies in exhaustion, depression and anxiety. If you’re feeling this way, I’m with you

 

Part of my work is helping my clients harness their grief to fuel their passion to protect, care for and restore the natural world. Grief and loss are a natural part of life, paving the way for new beginnings, new ideas, inspiration and growth.

 

About me

 

Nature has been my solace, strength and support throughout my life, helping me move through my own grief at the sudden deaths of loved ones, and strengthening my ability to serve and support people in need. Nature offers so much more than a respite from the modern world, it offers wisdom, gentle guidance, and the answers we seek.

 

In my professional life, making positive change has been my passion.

I’ve been involved in...

• Managing and delivering social and community front-line services supporting marginalised people.

• Activism during the 1984 Miner's strike, and for CND, Cardiff Rape Crisis Centre, Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement, and latterly Extinction Rebellion.

• Event organising, community regeneration, training, facilitating and advocating.

• Rural development work - supporting people to create thriving, sustainable and connected local communities.

• Setting up and managing several charitable companies.

• Facilitating a Death Cafe (where we come together over tea and cake for conversation about death)

 

Nearly 20 years ago I began my own training and coaching practice, The Art of Change and earned two coaching qualifications. I’ve also trained with Chris Johnstone and Joanna Macy to facilitate The Work That Reconnects (aka ‘Active Hope’) helping people to experience the self-healing powers of the web of life, transforming despair and overwhelm into inspired, collaborative action — and much of this philosophy underpins my current work and perspective.

 

What brings me joy 

• Doting on my three-year old twin grandsons

• Gardening and growing food on my allotment

• Walking along the coast and in the woodland of my beloved Pembrokeshire

• Really good veggie food and a bottle of wine with friends

• Music and dancing, retreats and community gatherings   

 

I go by the name Marigold Moss on Facebook — a character I dreamed up to amuse myself in my early 20s and revived when creating a Facebook alias was a thing among some of my pals. I’m really fond of the name and so haven’t changed it for ‘business purposes’. 

 

Welcome!