Each of our Nature Based Coaching Skills course cohorts is inspired by Nature, and is named after a different tree. Our next course follows Oak, Willow and Redwood, and is called ‘Acacia’. Acacia is coming – we launch in April – and the inspiration behind it is rather surprising!
A system of support and adaptation
Acacia are found throughout the world, but the species on the open plains of the African savannah are a particular model of community resilience. In particular, the ‘whistling thorn tree’, Vachellia drepanolobium. This tree has some special qualities.
In the savannah, everything is connected. It may look simple – just trees, animals, and open land – but beneath that simplicity is a complex system of support, challenge,
and adaptation.
Strength in partnership
Take the whistling thorn. One of its most powerful tools isn’t strength or size – it is relationships. The acacia produces a special nectar that attracts ants. In exchange for this food, the ants live on the tree and fiercely protect it. When elephants try to feed, the ants swarm them, biting and irritating them until they back off.
So the tree survives, not by resisting everything alone, but by forming partnerships. It stays rooted through the droughts, protects itself through alliances, and keeps growing despite constant change around it.
At the same time, the elephant isn’t the villain. When it feeds on acacia, it clears space in the environment, allowing new plants to grow and light to reach the ground. The savannah itself depends on that balance – growth, disturbance, and renewal.
We need a symbiotic relationship with Nature
Acacia remind us that we also need a symbiotic relationship with Nature if we are to grow and succeed. Resilience isn’t just an individual concept – it is a community one.
Our ability to address the challenges we face, our clients face, and the planet faces depends on our ability to think in systems, and create systemic change through the relationships we can influence.
This is something that Nature Based Coaching aims to do.
How our course builds resilience
Becoming a nature based coach is a process of adaptation.
You will learn how to identify your own ‘ants’ – the small, reliable supports that protect your energy – and how to work with, rather than fight against, the ‘elephants’ of pressure, change and complexity.
We explore how to grow your resilience as a coach through relationships, habits and environments, not just personal effort, and how to apply these insights in real coaching conversations. We do this together, in community – learning and developing with and through sharing and working with one another, as well as through the course content.
By the end of the course, you’ll have a set of tools to help clients strengthen their foundations, build supportive networks, and navigate challenges in a more sustainable, systemic way.
Booking is open now – I hope you will join us.