22 NATURE-BASED EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY
I’m from the tongue of the northwest wind
licking the lingering leaves of beech
weaving her name in the braid of my hair
carving my true name
in the curve of my bones
My roots go deep in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of
western North Carolina. In the 1700s my ancestors established
their subsistence farm in the foothills of these ancient mountains,
migrating from Ireland, England and the highlands of Scotland. The
mountains of these highlands were part of the same mountain range
of the Appalachians before the separation of the continents. My
people have always had an intimate relationship with the land. Our
Celtic heritage, as well as the necessities of daily life, taught us that
everything comes from the Earth, that the land is sacred and that all
living things are to be treated with respect. For me the landscape in
which I work, whether the strong Swiss Alps or the old and gentle
mountains of Blue Ridge, inhabits the landscape of my soul.
I am a mountain woman. I know where the sun rises over the gap
in the eastern ridge in winter, on which side of the trees the moss
clings and where the galax still grows green in the forest. I notice
the direction of the wind and the phases of the moon. I nourish my
special plant of sage, more than 100 years old, transplanted from
my grandmother’s garden, and I use it not only for cooking but also
for ceremonies and offerings. I have inherited deep gratitude for the
gifts of the Earth and an attitude that the act of creating in any form
is both sacred and communal with other humans and with the all
of nature.
Since childhood I have written and studied poetry. I engage
in all of the arts, but poetry remains my primary arts practice.
My professional education was a combination of behavioral,
psychoanalytic and humanistic counseling and psychology, shaped
by the scientific worldview that has held dominance in Western
culture for more than 200 years. My work has included graduate
teaching for 40 years as well as the practice of psychotherapy,