Creating mending spaces with you
Wild therapist and Soul-Growth Companion
I offer a blended approach that will support you in your self-exploration and souls’ growth. Drawing on my life experience, art and crafting skills, and various training gained over the last 30 years, I am intuitive and creative, with a deep connection to the natural world, and I love how making things with our hands can bring insights and healing. Life can be complex and we’re not meant to do it alone, we often need a companion who can act as a mirror, a guide or a gentle challenge. Using the wildness of the outdoors as a working space, or community venues for retreats, workshops and groups, I interweave wild therapy activities with art and craft, alongside oracle card messages and simple meditation to support your healing and growth. My shamanic drum is often with me, and provides a bridge that helps us to move between the human and other worlds. Together we co-create a space where you can mend at your own speed, and in your own unique way.
For individual support and to find out what I can offer you, please just get in touch, which you can do here or directly by email to support@andreahobbs.co.uk
It can be difficult to make that first move to reach out for support, so I offer a no obligation by phone or on-screen 30 minute chat to make sure that I am offering what you are looking for, and to make any practical arrangements required for your safety and comfort.
I may sometimes be able to offer an initial free short session in person if you are local to me.
I can be invited in to facilitate a slow-stitch, paper-craft or meditation group at any venue as a one-off workshop, or to run a time-limited group, or contribute to an event. Nature crafting and meditation groups and sessions can all be based outdoors. Short card readings are available for events or gatherings.
Based in Teesdale Co. Durham, I use woodlands near to my home as a preference for outdoor work, but paths are steep in places, and can be muddy after rain. I am happy to travel a reasonable distance to other suitable spaces or venues, and then travel and ‘walk-in’ times may incur an additional fee.
My events page provides information about retreats & workshops nationally and locally, and other regular craft or meditation groups I facilitate at local community venues, so please go and see what’s on offer. There might be something there that provides you with an opportunity to dip your toe in, get to know me, and meet other people.
Supporting your growth in the wild
When working with you on a one2one basis, we will usually be together for an hour’s session outside in the ancient woodland very close to my home. This is an opportunity to walk-and-talk, share a space with nature and be quiet, or make things that represent emotions or situations that are hard to verbalise. Alternative outdoor spaces can be negotiated, or when accessing inclines and muddy paths is a challenge.
Please ask me or see my charges, payment and cancellations information available here.
Wild Therapy brings wildness, spontaneity, boundlessness, and freedom for those of us who prefer being outside in nature. It is suitable for anyone who may find a traditional therapeutic approach of sitting in a room, narrow, constraining or intense – or if you just want something different. Wild Therapy is usually conducted outdoors. It allows emotional healing and growth supported by the wild environment: our more-than-human and other-than-human companions on the planet. You can read more about Wild Therapy here.
I chose wild therapy as it challenges traditional norms of sitting in a room which I found uncomfortable and un-natural, and contributed to my choosing not to pursue a career in a clinical setting. We may weave making things, oracle cards, and guided or silent meditation into sessions when you wish to explore more, and if this feels appropriate. This can open up the possibility to explore other realms and messages from your higher self or intuition. In the making of things from natural found objects, we can explore a non-verbal, tactile and visual self-expression that is not just for people who are artistic or ‘creative.’
Working outdoors invites in the ‘something other’, encouraging a dialogue with nature and the unseen energies in our world, rather than being focussed on just humans talking. As your soul-growth guide, my role is to walk alongside you on your chosen journey of growth, self-discovery, self-exploration, or for when you want to improve your emotional wellbeing, or resolve emotional challenges.
Mind Calm Meditation
I am available for small groups or individual one2one sessions, on a one-off or weekly basis for short or time-limited periods.
These usually last around 1.5-2 hours and include learning talks, experiential teaching of a simple meditation method, and a period of silence to introduce you to, practice, and gain your own experience of the Mind Calm Meditation.
Individual meetings are held at my own home, or in specific circumstances, at your own home (e.g., for health or access reasons).
One-off group workshops are sometimes available. Please see my events page.
Groups are held at local venues and therefore charges vary according to venue costs.
Mind Calm meditation can help you to be less distracted by a busy mind, encourage and experience better sleep, help you to cope with life’s stresses more calmly, and have more peace whilst living a busy life.
From time to time, I offer FREE ‘taster sessions’ at local venues – check out the Events page!
Mind Calm is not affiliated to any specific religion or philosophy but does have a wide spiritual intent. You will not be asked to sign up to or arrive with any particular belief. Meditation is particularly helpful if you suffer from endless thinking (a busy mind), sleeplessness, or if you’re just feeling that life is OK but not great, and you’d like to feel more content, peaceful or happy.
Meditating as a group is extremely supportive and helps us all to take the time out from our busy lives. I have been meditating for over 30 years, and with more commitment to my regular practice for the last 10 years, and have explored different methods in that time. I chose Mind Calm as it makes meditation accessible to everyone and anyone, and it’s so quick to learn and easy to understand; it’s fun, and it can really make a difference to your life.
See Events for more details and dates.
In the summer, meditation groups are sometimes held outside in the beauty of Teesdale.
“Working with Andrea using Mind Calm has helped me to not overthink or judge my thoughts, and to discover Conscious Awareness, which I now apply to everyday life.” Joan from Barnard Castle
Tarot and Oracle Card Readings
Readings are usually 1.5 hours at my home in a quiet private space, or on-line (Zoom, Skype, or Facetime).
Readings are not recorded, so you may wish to take your own notes.
For an additional charge, I offer a digital coloured drawing from your reading. This can help to integrate the messages you receive, and means you can carry it around with you for a while on your phone, tablet or as your screen saver on your PC. Drawings usually take 2-3 weeks to completion and are not immediately available.
Guide price: £50 basic reading; with drawing £70. Longer readings: £75
I offer personal insight card readings rather than premonition or ‘future forecasting’. I see myself as a translator or guide for the message that comes through the cards to you from your own inner wisdom, or Higher Self. A card reading can help you to clarify where you are in life, validate your own intuitive ‘hits’, help you to make better decisions for yourself, or reassure you that you are on the right path.
I currently use a combination of card decks: a modern-day Tarot deck that is based on the 4 elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth rather than the traditional symbols by Radleigh Valentine, and a super-simple Insights deck created at Findhorn. From time to time, I may use other decks, depending on your own preferences.
I am a spiritual being, but not a religious one. Since my young adulthood, I have explored the alternative, mysterious and intuitive side of life as a human. My self-exploration has always included card decks for inspiration and guidance.
“Andrea’s card reading sessions are unique and I would describe her as ‘person centred’. She invites a lot of your own understanding and imagining around the card images before any text or card information is given. This feels empowering and supports personal exploration. Then to add more into the picture Andrea seems to open herself as a channel for whatever wants to come through from spirit, like a hollow bone. The messages I have received this way have been insightful and accurate. Andrea’s own personal thoughts and ideas might be added after this, with a tentative offering which feels open and accepting. Andrea creates a beautiful space to sit and relax into the process and also invites noticing of the other than human, which are brought into the session as well.” Jayne Johnson from Gainford
Other stuff
I am available as a companion, or facilitator, for any of life’s rituals: weddings, naming ceremonies, funerals and other individual, personal, or family ceremonies. I am very open and will be guided entirely by your own vision and ideas, also bringing my own intuition, creativity and imagination to the process of shaping your ritual or ceremony. I offer a very personal approach that leans into our human need for connection, healing through ritual or ceremony, and an alternative approach to celebrating our life-cycles. Please contact me for a ‘no commitment’ chat to find out what is possible.
Groups and workshops – I often run small Slow-Stitch or Calm Craft sessions across County Durham and North Yorkshire.
Sessions are aimed at providing a relaxing, calm, and shared opportunity to come together to make things. My emphasis is not on what is made, how well it is made, or the skill level you have, but sessions are more about slowing down, having an experience that brings you out of your busy mind into a quieter space as you focus on making something, and being together with other people to chat, or be quiet as you make.
Sessions can include a very light touch relaxation/mini meditation exercise if appropriate, followed by a simple craft or creative project that everyone can have a go at.
Please contact me for more details and discussion about what you want. Prices will vary and depend on materials and travel required. Charities and not-for-profits will be offered a reasonable rate.
The serious stuff
Andrea has a BA (Hons) degree in art and design, and also gained a Post-graduate Diploma in Art Therapy in 1993. Having worked in varied social care and voluntary roles since 1989, with children and adults across England, Scotland, and in Romania, Andrea has spent the last 25 years working in the voluntary sector, mostly as a charity manager.
In more recent years, she turned her attention back to her art, craft, and therapeutic interests, running Slow-Stitch and Calm Craft groups, and training as a Wild Therapist in 2023. She is also an accredited Mind Calm Coach with best selling author Sandy Newbigging’s Mind Detox Academy.
Andrea completed Hypnotherapy training in 2007 (non-practising), and followed a Hay House card reading course online in 2020-21, with sessions from Denise Linn, Radleigh Valentine and Kyle Gray.
She is still a part-time charity manager and always will be an artist and textile crafter. She lives close to Barnard Castle with her husband, dog and chickens.
Andrea is accredited with the Federation of Holistic Therapists as a Mind Calm Coach. She is insured through Holistic Insurance Services. Andrea has an enhanced DBS check for both adults and children (refreshes annually).
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