Live Wild Calderdale- Team

Leonie is one of Live Wild’s founders and directors, and works with people of all ages to encourage confidence, competence and a sense of belonging in the outdoors. She is a qualified Bushcraft Instructor & Wild Food Teacher, with many years of experience teaching a range of programmes, including regular seasonal foraging courses in locations across the north of England. She is also a qualified Forest School Leader, and runs Calder Valley Woodland School home education days in Hebden Bridge after many years working with Manchester Forest School and The Wood School in Manchester, which provides a nature-based learning experience for urban children. Leonie is known amongst her colleagues for her particular skills in creating fire whatever the weather using traditional methods, her sharp and seemingly extra-sensory ‘mushroom vision’, and her ability to help people of all ages see the world in a completely new way through sharing her extensive knowledge and nature-based wisdom.  

Sophie is an experienced foraging and fungi teacher and has been co-leading Live Wild’s seasonal foraging courses, which come recommended by the Guardian newspaper, since 2018. Her own foraging journey began during her years living on the inland waterways where, mooring up in different locations on her boat, she became fascinated by the plants, trees and fungi that surrounded her. Foraging fit very well with an off-grid and self-sufficient lifestyle, and soon she was hooked! The unexpected gift was a depth of connection to the wild world that has been life-changing. It wasn’t long before fungi became a fascination, and Sophie studied mycology with the Field Studies Council as well as soaking up wisdom from various mentors and elders in the foraging community. Sophie is co-creator and facilitator of Live Wild’s unique long-term foraging programme, The Forager’s Journey, and is a proud member of the Association of Foragers. You can listen to her talk about foraging on BBC Sounds. Sophie also works behind the scenes as part of Live Wild's core team, sending out newsletters, keeping the website up to date, and communicating with our community across various channels.

Rachael has more than 20 years experience as a youth worker, working with neurodiverse children in and out of care, and in both mainstream and home-school settings. She has also created, and now delivers, a children's permaculture course. Rachael is part of our Monthly Nature Mentoring team. Outside of her work, she loves wild camping, swimming, canoe expeditions , foraging, bushcraft and learning what it is to be human. "My work and hobbies have shown me the power of nature to enliven and recalibrate us, young or old, and to give us increased confidence and creativity, as well as bring us closer to our grounded selves. I feel that creating a closeness with nature is key to our mental and physical health."

Viv is one of Live Wild's core directors, helping to shape the vision and direction of the organisation. Viv previously worked as a digital project manager, but gave all that up in 2012 with the birth of her daughter. After leaving the corporate world, Viv made a commitment to only ever work for organisations whose work chimed harmoniously with her ethics and needs. Alongside managing the administration and finance for Live Wild, she is an independent family celebrant, conducting non-religious, nature based weddings, funerals and other ceremonies. She is particularly passionate about trees.

Leona's passion is exploring connection, promoting healthy relationships between self, each other and the natural world. After 10 years in Social Work with children and families, she was drawn to working in nature to promote healing and connection. She loves the deeper senses of belonging and community that one feels when we have strong relationships to ourselves, each other and the natural world. Leona is trained in Forest School, Non-Violent Communication (NVC), Ecopsychology, Life Initiation and Rites of Passage, Grief Tending, and The Eight Shields model of nature connection, a holistic and earth connected way of living and working for the benefit of all beings. She has witnessed the healing, enlivening and joyful benefits of intentionally building a relationship to nature and believe in the profound impact that that this work can have as we move into uncertain times. Leona co-facilitates Live Wild's Questing With Fire programme, as well as acting as programme leader for Wildlings Holiday Club. She also practices privately as an Eco- therapist and mentor with children and adults, runs singing in nature retreats, and facilitates grief circles and other connection-based workshops. Leona hosts the Connection Matters Podcast exploring evolutionary lifestyles, mindset, culture, healing and spirituality as well as many other issues relating to personal growth, community and nature connection.

Sofie is a qualified Forest School Teacher who has worked with children in a range of environments, from mainstream schools and special education establishments to her current role with Live Wild, co-running the Calder Valley Woodland School. She has a particular interest in the therapeutic aspects of Forest School, and recently completing a course in working with Challenging Behaviour with young people outdoors. Sofie has trained in basketry and permaculture, is an RHS certified gardener with her own regenerative gardening business, cultivates willow for basketry, and worked for local tree-planting organisation, Treesponsibility for a number of years. She facilitates a range of craft activities and restorative land practices for children at the Woodland School based on her extensive experience, and is particularly passionate about promoting land stewardship amongst young people. land stewardship. Sofie has a varied background, having initially worked with a wide range of vulnerable people after first volunteering with the homeless, and previously developed a specialism for working with Looked After Young People  (children in care) particularly around issues of Substance Misuse for the NHS and Social services. Alongside this she developed an interest in food growing and alternative living and, travelling extensively, took inspiration from different cultural practices and ways to live closer to the land. After the birth of her two children Sofie travelled Europe in a van and caravan, eventually settling in Portugal where she had the privilege of living in a traditional semi-self sufficient Portuguese community. This experience also provided a great source of inspiration for her current work and outlook.

Sue is a medicine woman, grandmother, trained herbalist and plant spirit healer, celebrant and teacher. Her life's passion has been the reclaiming of ancient wisdom and ways of healing body, mind, heart and soul, and her joy lies in sharing this with others. This journey began with training in medical herbalism, and in 1983 Sue joined the National Institute of Medical Herbalists and set up a practice in Hebden Bridge. She went on to study flower remedies, aromatherapy, iridology, nutrition, shamanic energy healing practices, and soul retrieval. Sue recently retired from herbal practice, opening up the space to share the wisdom of herbs and the magic of plant spirit connection in new ways. In her life, Sue has had the blessing and honour to study and gather from a number of spiritual wisdom traditions, and is happily alchemising them into her own 'Medicine Bundle'. Inside the bundle of all she has gathered is a wellspring of knowledge and understanding that supports the healing and transformation of the Sacred Human into wholeness and balance, joy and inner peace. Sue's main pathway for the last thirteen years is that of the Delicate Lodge, a Medicine Wheel tradition that travelled from the lands of South and Central America to the North American continent, always taught through experience and memory, always evolving with each person who agrees to pass the tradition along with integrity. Sue studied with the lineage holders of the Delicate Lodge for several years and is authorised to pass on the teachings. She has been sharing them in women's circles, in person and online. Sue’s joy of learning continues to entice her to expand and grow, to deepen into what she has received, and to bring new riches to her creations. At the moment she is exploring collaborations with other wisdom holders, and the juicy topic of what is hers to do as an ‘elder’.

We sadly lost Laura in 2018. She is sorely missed. She was a founding member of LiveWild and a great influence and she is still in our hearts so we feel she is still very much part of the team, influencing and inspiring us forever. Laura began leading Burn and Brae Wilderness School (Scots Language for Stream and Hill) in September 2015.   Laura did an MA in art and illustration and enjoyed creative thinking and generating ideas. When she became a mum, she began to search for nourishing ways to grow and guide our children. She became involved with La Leche League - a breastfeeding and gentle parenting support network. She did the 'First Three Years' Course with the Steiner School in York and became inspired by connecting children with nature and gently marking the rhythms of the day. Through training as a Forest School Leader 7 years ago, she heard that there are many different ways around the world that people educate their children. She found Re-evaluation Co-counselling and enjoyed the amazing Liberation work and healing that this movement brings. Laura went to community camps, and started learning about indigenous peoples wisdom in how society can be, about community, ceremonies and marking special occasions. She volunteered at a girls wilderness camp in Wales. A few years ago, she heard about 'The Art of Mentoring', went to an introduction to The 8 Shields in Ireland, loved it and went to do Ring 1 of The Art of Mentoring in Scotland and then Ring 2 the following year. She took part in a Life Stage Honouring course led by Sal Gencarelle - learning the importance of marking life transitions- different periods in our lives and how it leads to our well being and healthy culture. She also made environmentally responsible Jewellery using designs inspired by nature, storytelling and herbal lore. She learned to read the tracks left by our wild creatures and understand the language of birds.