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. I enjoy sharing my experience & skills, through education as a Lecturer & Mentor at the Institute of Forest Therapy. My work weaves over 25 years of experience across the arts, education, health, disability & community sectors. Nature connection supports me to live with greater ease, health & happiness. My delight is creatively exploring our ways of being with ourselves, others & the wild world through simple practices for restful recovery.

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

I am a creative artist. I use multimodal & somatic practices, grounded in daily nature connection. I follow my curiosity in movement, writing, drawing & photography when immersing in nature. Nature awakens all of my senses & 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 & live connected to it, was my curiosity. But I wanted to work with people & understand the relationships between us. Theatre & 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. I 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 & practiced motional & 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 & design. I enjoy difference & I am comfortable navigating the unknown. I am a very keen bushwalker, & 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 & experiential approach to wellbeing. I am drawn to 'between' moments, like dusk & dawn. I am curious. I use my intuitive & analytical skills to innovate new ways of connecting people, place & experience. I nurture individual & group strengths, & build relationships for growth & understanding. Over 25 years, I have worked with:
- Marginalised communities as a freelance community artist;
- Students with individual movement and learning styles as a teacher;

- Theatre & circus performers as an inclusive theatre director;
- Industry to create vocational pathways for people with disability;
- Artists with disability, mental health lived experience and who are deaf as a mentor, coach & facilitator; &
- Communities to deepen their connection with their natural environment.

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

Qualifications & Training::

• Well Habit Peer Coach 1
• Psychosocial Recovery Coach
• Mental Health First Aid
• 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)