About Your Guide, Leesa

Let me guide you to Connect, Rest & Create.

I am a Nature Mentor, Creative Arts Therapist & Certified Forest Therapy Guide FTG.  My work background includes the arts, education, disability and community sectors. So I understand how much you give of yourself. I practice curiosity and the art of living a slower, creative and meaningful life. Nature connection supports me to live with greater ease, health and happiness. 

Let me guide you to find flow, so you may continue with greater ease, health and happiness.

I am a creative artist. I use multimodal and somatic practices, grounded in daily nature connection. I follow my curiosity in movement, writing, drawing and photography when immersing in nature. Nature awakens all of my senses and heightens my intuition while grounding my actions. I first trained in architecture. I worked in passive solar design & interpreted buildings which engage with their environment. How we respond to our environment through design and live connected to it, was my curiosity. But I wanted to work with people and understand the relationships between us. Theatre and community work has provided a meeting place for this. I work with people who are marginalised in our community to tell their story with their own voice. and have deepened my relational understanding through my study of Creative Arts Therapy with a Graduate Diploma in Experiential and Creative Arts Practice at MIECAT. For many years I have studied and practiced motional and performance improvisation with Al Wunder's Theatre of the Ordinary. I use models of 'positive feedback' and 'active listening' when companioning others. My background also includes circus, physical theatre, inclusive theatre making, authentic movement and design. I enjoy difference and I am comfortable navigating the unknown. I am a very keen bushwalker, and I know how to take one step at a time.

Let me companion you as you follow your curiosity to find your flow.

I bring a creative, inclusive and experiential approach to wellbeing. I am drawn to 'between' moments, like dusk and dawn. I am curious. I use my intuitive and analytical skills to innovate new ways of connecting people, place & experience. I nurture individual and group strengths, and build relationships for growth and understanding. I have over 25 years professional experience doing this in the arts, education, disability and community sectors.  I have worked with:
- Marginalised communities as a freelance community artist;
- Students with individual movement and learning styles as a teacher and theatre director;
- Industry to create vocational pathways for people with disability;
- Artists with disability, mental health lived experience and who are deaf as a a mentor, coach and facilitator; and
- Most recently with communities to deepen their connection with their local natural environment.

Let me customise a program for you, your event or work place

Selected Qualifications & Training::

Mental Health First Aid

Psychosocial Recovery Coaching

AITISIS Core Cultural Learning

Senior First Aid Level 2 & CPR

Nature Stewards

Mentoring for Gifts: Activating the Attributes of Deep Nature Connection

INFTA Certified Forest Therapy Guide FTG

Graduate Diploma in Experiential & Creative Arts Practice (MIECAT)

Certificate IV in Theatre Arts 

Diploma in Vocational & Educational Training

Certificate IV in Training and Assessment

Bachelor of Science (Architecture)