Our Story...
Hello magical souls, thank you for being here. Let me introduce myself…
I’m Laurie, and I began Of The Forest back in 2017/2018 as a creative lifeline while navigating early motherhood. At the time, I was home educating my two young children and feeling the quiet ache of having lost touch with the artist in me. Motherhood was everything I had dreamed of, yet I felt the call to reclaim my sense of self and create something just for me. That call led me to macramé, and what began as a simple love for knotting thread became the first step in a journey that has completely transformed my life.
Over the years, as I have grown and our family has grown (now a mother of four), Of The Forest has also blossomed into something much deeper: a sacred space for healing, rooted in the wisdom of the Earth and the magic of the feminine. I now offer energetic healing through Reiki, sound healing therapy, womb healing, women’s circles, and retreats. I create healing blends and potions with wild plants, hold space for yoga and ceremony, and honour the turning of the seasons in everything I do.
My plant path began almost five years ago through foraging and connecting with the wild weeds and native medicines growing around my home. I was enchanted. I started making teas and oils for friends and family and soon realised this wasn’t just a passing interest—it was a remembering. An ancestral call to bring the plants back into our homes and hearts.
As I deepened into that connection—letting my children run wild among the trees, learning from the land—I began longing for something more. A community. A sisterhood. A space to grow and remember together. That longing birthed my first women’s circle, and now, nearly seven years later, that circle has grown into something sacred and ever-expanding.
In 2023, my husband Dan and I took a leap of faith and opened the doors to The Barn Temple—a soul-rooted sanctuary nestled in the village of Pontblyddyn, North Wales. Set beside the river and surrounded by hills and woodland, The Barn Temple quickly became a beloved space for yoga, sound healing, Reiki, bodywork, ceremonies, and circles.
We dreamed of a place that felt like home—where people of all ages could take off their shoes, exhale, and receive. A space to remember our connection to each other, to the Earth, and to the sacred within. Together with a beautiful team of facilitators, we’ve been honoured to hold space for healing and transformation.
And now, the weaving continues…
In summer 2025, we will be moving into a brand-new home just over the border in Dodleston, Cheshire. This next chapter feels like a deepening—new soil to root into, new community to grow alongside. While the space will be smaller, it offers warmth, beauty, and endless possibility. It is our hope that this new sanctuary will continue to be a home for all—where families, seekers, and kindred souls can come together to rest, reconnect, and remember.