‘I had no hope of recovery, I didn't understand what was happening. I felt very out of control and powerless in my own life. I couldn't really see what the future would bring.’

Tracey Robinson, Coach, Occupational Therapist and Post-partum Psychosis Survivor.

From occupational therapist turned coach and founder of Mother Nature Coaching Tracey is on a mission to raise awareness about postpartum psychosis. This severe and sudden though treatable mental illness effects 1 to 2 in 1,000 women in the days or weeks after child birth. She openly shares insights into her personal experiences with mania, exhaustion, hallucinations, disassociation and overwhelm as she narrowly avoided being sectioned after the birth of her first child.

This unexpected shift from NHS service provider to mental health patient gave her valuable insights that led to her role as an ardent change maker within the system. Her work helped introduce the recovery approach to mental health and peer support within countrywide specialist perinatal mental health services and maternity transformation programme.

After a period of burn out she recently re-trained as a coach and stumbled across ‘walking and talking’ coaching. Over the last eighteen months she’s intuitively followed her desire to deepened her connection with nature and support mothers who’ve experienced mental health issues during their maternity leave.

Please note: At times our conversation is difficult and emotionally charged. Please take care of yourself if you’re feeling emotionally fragile or vulnerable. The following organisations offer support:

Samaritans: www.smaritans.org / 116 123​

Action on Postpartum Psychosis Charity: www.app-network.org

Bio

Tracey uses nature connected coaching to support women returning to work after they've experienced mental health issues during maternity leave. Before setting up her own business Mother Nature Coaching in 2025 she worked in the NHS for over 30 years. She is a mental health occupational therapist who progressed to senior leadership roles in service improvement programmes across mental health and maternity services. Her passion for this career was driven by her personal experience of postpartum psychosis.

She is a trustee for Action on Postpartum Psychosis a specialist national charity who raise awareness of the illness and provide support. She has told her story in the media to raise awareness and trained as a peer supporter. Tracey’s journey into coaching and nature connection was a response to workplace burnout alongside managing perimenopause symptoms. She now balances her work with spending reflective time outdoors in local woodland and travelling to mountains and lakes whenever she can.

Linkedin profile

Mother Nature Coaching on Facebook

Charity: Action on Postpartum Psychosis

Resources

Jane Lloyd - Postpartum Psychosis Advocate

Coaching Outdoors Podcast

Dr Annette Bauer, London School of Economics

Animas Coaching Programme

Coaching Outdoors Getting Started Programme

Lesley Roberts

Jackee Holder

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘The bees started as a hobby, completely separate to work, but you know, I was also sitting outside my office one day, noticing people coming and going, and the buzz, and coming and going through a small door in a big office, and inside it's busy, and inside there's lots of communication and amazing products, and instead of honey, it was cancer medicines.

And I just started using the bee metaphor at work to help have better conversations. To help have conversations about communication, or conflict, or diversity, or decision making’ - Philip Atkinson, Found Hive Logic and Beekeeper

From a chance encounter deep in the forest when Philip stumbled across the infamous Alsace Bee Club lessons from the hive unexpectedly infiltrated across his life; then work. His work shifted from being employee 767590 for twenty-five years within a multi-national company in Switzerland to building his own consultancy and coaching business ‘Hive Logic’ - though with hindsight admits ‘Hive Emotion’ would be more appropriate.

Steeped in bee metaphors our conversation draws analogies around change, teamwork, skills, diversity and inclusion and more. Philip regales stories as a beekeeper with an emergency swarm rescue at Basel airport and the annual Honey Day harvest otherwise known by his children as the ‘stickiest day of the year’. He then strongly advocates for our individual responsibility on how to protect this vital keystone species within our world.

Bio: Philip Atkinson is a leadership team expert and organisational coach and shares his wisdom of his two great passions together in his book, Bee Wise - 12 Leadership Lessons from Inside a Beehive. All proceeds from the book go directly to the charity Bees for Development.

As a beekeeper, Philip lives in Alsace, France and loves to spend the summer tending to and observing the precious bees and spending the winter learning, reading and writing about them. Throughout the whole year, Phillip supports leadership teams and leaders to grow and develop. He is the founder of Hive-Logic Coaching and Communications. The company is run like a collaborative beehive and they support senior leaders and teams at multinational organisations to perform at their best with coaching, training and facilitation.

Website: www.hive-logic.com and www.beewisebook.com

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

So, you have this extraordinary psychedelic experience, which it's usually, like, what the hell is going on? I don't know what any of that means. And then being able to process that is crucial. Unless you want to do it just for fun, which is okay, but if you want any real juice out of it or change, integration is what is needed. And I'm quite convinced that bringing nature context into the integration process is possibly the most powerful way of doing it’ - Adrian Harris

From the hotbed of psychedelic research in Exeter Adrian joins us to trace the roots of his relationship with mushrooms that started for fun in his early twenties; then shifted into a more spiritual arena through ritual and paganism.

A chance encounter with the book ‘Psychedelic Renaissance’ lured him along this pathway and led to the job of his wildest dreams as the Director of Ecopsychology at the Synthesis Institute. Within this role he embedded nature connection practices to support the longer-term integration of psychedelic experiences. Our conversation touches on the complex realms of clinical trials, evidence, ethics and the law with a dose of animism along the way.

Bio: Adrian’s life is a journey through spirituality, activism and academia founded in what makes us human; embodiment and ecological belonging. That led to ecopsychology and training as a somatic psychotherapist. He began to facilitate nature connection workshops and later became Lead Editor of the 'European Journal of Ecopsychology'. Training as Physical Intelligence Coach came next, increasingly with nature as the ground of practice. He’s also worked in psychedelic research and continue to explore how that medicine dances with nature connection.

Much of this is distilled into his book that offers a offers a simple pathway to what the title promises: 'Nature Connection: Remembering Wholeness'. His current project is ‘The Way of Wholeness’, a nature-based, embodied approach to coaching. The journey continues!

Website: https://embodiedpathways.org/

LinkedIn

YouTube

X @dradrianharris

Instagram @dr.adrianh

TikTok @dr.adrianh

Resources

Book: The Psychedelic Renaissance: Reassessing the Role of Psychedelic Drugs in 21st Century Psychiatry and Society by Dr Ben Sessa

Book: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

Book: Science and Spiritual Practices by Rupert Sheldrake

Conference: Breaking Convention

LinkedIn: Sam Gandy

Synthesis Institute

University of Exeter – Psychedelic Studies

The Psychedelic Drugs Trial – BBC

Profile: Dr Rosalind Watts

ACER Integration process

Profile: Jon Young

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com