'In 2018, I had a spinal injury. I just stopped making artwork for, about 18 months, I was completely stuck. I couldn't… couldn't do anything. And funnily enough, when lockdown came, I sort of became unlocked. I don't know what it is. I think it was because I felt I wasn't the only one trapped indoors. I wasn't missing anything, because there was nothing to miss anymore’.

Tracey Falcon, Life Coach, Artist Educator and Wheel Chair User

Artist and creative life coach Tracey Falcon joins us from Whitstable, Kent where she lives with her youngest son, dog and a steady stream of refugees. In 2018, her spinal injury prompted an inner search to redefine value within herself and discover ‘who she is’ and ‘what she does’. How she navigated this huge life transition and relationship with grief is a testament to her perseverance and determination. Tracey speaks openly about the challenges she faces as a wheel chair user from accessibility, vulnerability and her enemy otherwise known as mud.

Discover the pun behind her business name ‘Still Life Coaching’ and her strap line based on the concept of ‘lemonading’ that brings an element of playfulness and resilience into her work. Plus, the influence of philosophical enquiry that enters her coaching; ‘what do I think I know?’, ‘why do I think know it, and can I be certain? If not, then what other possibilities could there be?’ From tadpoles to prosthetic tree limbs our conversations are filled with metaphors, perspectives, possibilities…

Bio

As an artist educator working in galleries, museums and even in a forest, also teaching at universities, Tracey creatively worked with vulnerable groups and individuals, igniting curiosity and connecting to places, people, objects and ideas.

A spinal injury in 2018 limited what she can now cope with physically and subsequently had to rethink her career. She learned a great deal through her major life change experience. A disabled, single parent, she is no stranger to a struggle. Drawing on this and her creative project work helping people gain confidence and problem solve, she decided to retrain, first gaining two counselling qualifications and then as a life coach. She has a passion for nature, especially trees and continues to make art.

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Instagam - Treesee Falcon Artwork

Resources

Disability Rights UK

Moving Social Work

The Polyphony

Give Us a Shout - text 85258

Refugees at Home

The Conversation Agency

Blog – Lemons and Lemonade

Concept ‘lemonading’ from research by Shen X and Crawley Z (2025) How does playfulness (re)frame the world? Evidence for selective cognitive and behavioral redirecting in times of adversity. Front. Psychol. 15:1462980. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1462980

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘I had no hope of recovery, I didn't understand what was happening. I felt very out of control and powerless in my own life. I couldn't really see what the future would bring.’

Tracey Robinson, Coach, Occupational Therapist and Post-partum Psychosis Survivor.

From occupational therapist turned coach and founder of Mother Nature Coaching Tracey is on a mission to raise awareness about postpartum psychosis. This severe and sudden though treatable mental illness effects 1 to 2 in 1,000 women in the days or weeks after child birth. She openly shares insights into her personal experiences with mania, exhaustion, hallucinations, disassociation and overwhelm as she narrowly avoided being sectioned after the birth of her first child.

This unexpected shift from NHS service provider to mental health patient gave her valuable insights that led to her role as an ardent change maker within the system. Her work helped introduce the recovery approach to mental health and peer support within countrywide specialist perinatal mental health services and maternity transformation programme.

After a period of burn out she recently re-trained as a coach and stumbled across ‘walking and talking’ coaching. Over the last eighteen months she’s intuitively followed her desire to deepened her connection with nature and support mothers who’ve experienced mental health issues during their maternity leave.

Please note: At times our conversation is difficult and emotionally charged. Please take care of yourself if you’re feeling emotionally fragile or vulnerable. The following organisations offer support:

Samaritans: www.smaritans.org / 116 123​

Action on Postpartum Psychosis Charity: www.app-network.org

Bio

Tracey uses nature connected coaching to support women returning to work after they've experienced mental health issues during maternity leave. Before setting up her own business Mother Nature Coaching in 2025 she worked in the NHS for over 30 years. She is a mental health occupational therapist who progressed to senior leadership roles in service improvement programmes across mental health and maternity services. Her passion for this career was driven by her personal experience of postpartum psychosis.

She is a trustee for Action on Postpartum Psychosis a specialist national charity who raise awareness of the illness and provide support. She has told her story in the media to raise awareness and trained as a peer supporter. Tracey’s journey into coaching and nature connection was a response to workplace burnout alongside managing perimenopause symptoms. She now balances her work with spending reflective time outdoors in local woodland and travelling to mountains and lakes whenever she can.

Linkedin profile

Mother Nature Coaching on Facebook

Charity: Action on Postpartum Psychosis

Resources

Jane Lloyd - Postpartum Psychosis Advocate

Coaching Outdoors Podcast

Dr Annette Bauer, London School of Economics

Animas Coaching Programme

Coaching Outdoors Getting Started Programme

Lesley Roberts

Jackee Holder

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘The bees started as a hobby, completely separate to work, but you know, I was also sitting outside my office one day, noticing people coming and going, and the buzz, and coming and going through a small door in a big office, and inside it's busy, and inside there's lots of communication and amazing products, and instead of honey, it was cancer medicines.

And I just started using the bee metaphor at work to help have better conversations. To help have conversations about communication, or conflict, or diversity, or decision making’ - Philip Atkinson, Found Hive Logic and Beekeeper

From a chance encounter deep in the forest when Philip stumbled across the infamous Alsace Bee Club lessons from the hive unexpectedly infiltrated across his life; then work. His work shifted from being employee 767590 for twenty-five years within a multi-national company in Switzerland to building his own consultancy and coaching business ‘Hive Logic’ - though with hindsight admits ‘Hive Emotion’ would be more appropriate.

Steeped in bee metaphors our conversation draws analogies around change, teamwork, skills, diversity and inclusion and more. Philip regales stories as a beekeeper with an emergency swarm rescue at Basel airport and the annual Honey Day harvest otherwise known by his children as the ‘stickiest day of the year’. He then strongly advocates for our individual responsibility on how to protect this vital keystone species within our world.

Bio: Philip Atkinson is a leadership team expert and organisational coach and shares his wisdom of his two great passions together in his book, Bee Wise - 12 Leadership Lessons from Inside a Beehive. All proceeds from the book go directly to the charity Bees for Development.

As a beekeeper, Philip lives in Alsace, France and loves to spend the summer tending to and observing the precious bees and spending the winter learning, reading and writing about them. Throughout the whole year, Phillip supports leadership teams and leaders to grow and develop. He is the founder of Hive-Logic Coaching and Communications. The company is run like a collaborative beehive and they support senior leaders and teams at multinational organisations to perform at their best with coaching, training and facilitation.

Website: www.hive-logic.com and www.beewisebook.com

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To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com