Collaborating Facilitators

Holly Bracknall

The clay of my being was shaped and moulded by the wildly beautiful and starkly barren Moors of North Yorkshire, England. I learned to listen to the language of the wilds among the forest beings that cocooned my home. It was from the grandmother tree, the matriarchal guardian of that land, that I learned what it meant to be Kin, to be community, to be intimately and undeniably interconnected to all of life by the same umbilical cord that birthed existence. 

This intersubjective knowing has been the golden thread that has woven together the strands of my life, and that presently sews its way deeper and deeper, stitch by stitch, into a sense of belonging. I initially followed the thread into Scotland where I learned the subtle tones and hues of its mountainous landscape, while developing my capacity to understand and support my human kin, working in mental health and as an Outdoor Instructor. These roles called for a deeper exploration of my inner landscape and fed my longing for adventure. I journeyed through many countries adding shades and filaments to my strand of knowing, Yoga found me in India and has been a glittering fibre in the tapestry of life that is being woven through me to this day. 

In Aotearoa I have fed these strands of knowledge that have become luminous and vital, vibrating with deep and rich fecundity. I landed here in 2015 and the spines of tesselating mountains, the deep bellies of moss drenched beech forests, the verdant lush temperate rainforest and the untamed and fierce coastline of the South Island captured my soul. I am grateful to call Golden Bay home, nestled between two incomparable national parks. I continue to delve deeply into my inner world, learning to listen to the language of the wild through quest work in my personal life, and incorporating the threads of ecotherapy into my professional work, whilst studying to be a counsellor and working at a mental health facility. I follow the threads with a gentle grip as they lead me to places I had never dreamed of, most recently to a vision quest protector training in Australia, and to supporting Toni McErlane in her precious offerings.