Welcome to Willow Tree Wellness!

My name is Leah and I have been an amateur artist for over 20 years, but lost touch with it for a while as I worked and raised my children. After eventually leaving my legal and higher education career, I moved to a remote cottage in rural Northumberland and rediscovered the joy, catharsis and healing power of artistic expression. I studied for an MSc in Psychology and became accredited in art therapy and coaching so that I could use my teaching experience to share the incredible benefits of creativity with groups and individuals.

When I moved to the cottage, in the large, wild garden there was what appeared to me to be a dead willow tree. It was bare, brittle and a sort of greyish shade of brown. No green, no buds, no signs of life at all. I thought perhaps when I tidied up the garden I would get rid of it, but my new neighbour insisted it was the most beautiful tree and she loved watching it bloom each year. She told me to be patient and give it time. I wasn’t convinced, but she seemed nice and I didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot, so I left it. Sure enough, a few months later, the tree was a glorious vision of deep green branches. I took it as a lesson - what appears dead, broken, beyond salvation, can not only survive, but thrive and be beautiful and strong.

Storm Arwen hit in late 2021 and landed the tree on its side with its roots up and showing. We banded together - the neighbours, myself, the kids - to stand it back up, repack the roots, put stakes in strategic places and tie it to anchor points with ropes. Sure enough, the roots did their thing and in summer 2022, it bloomed as beautiful as ever, like nothing had happened. Then came another storm that sent it over in the other direction. We rescued it again. Then another. Then another that completely floored it, snapping the roots off and leaving no space between it and the ground for us to get underneath to lift it back up. As I stood in the garden with tears streaming, I faced the fact that maybe it was time to let it go. Maybe even this resilient, amazing, tree had been beaten this time. It lay on the ground for weeks as I tried to find a tree surgeon to come and remove it. Then one day I noticed the branches were kind of burrowing into the ground where it lay and taking root. Not only that, there were some buds. Not many and not everywhere…but it was trying! Taking my garden shears I started cutting, trimming it back to essentially just the trunk and some stubby bits where the branches had been. I was terrified I was doing the wrong thing, killing it, damaging it beyond repair, but I had read that if they are pruned back to that extent they can sometimes retake, regrow, recover…and it made it small enough that between all of us, we could get it stood up again.

And it stands there to this day, a real life vision of resilience. It has just bloomed again, huge and green and stunning (I think it has ended up larger than it was before). It has yet again provided a home for various birds and has valiantly withstood the rain and wind. It still has the stakes for support but it stands solid and proud and reminds me every time I look at it that falling down does not equal defeat, struggling does not mean it’s over and connection is everything.

At Willow Tree Wellness, we believe that there is beauty and value in all efforts of creativity and connection and that making art can truly help us all to heal, recover from trauma and develop lasting resilience.