The wounded healer and wounded healing land – The on-land Writing(with)Plants workshop at the Rooted Festival 2026 in Aarhus, Denmark

Website screenshots from https://www.rootedfestival.com and https://institutforx.dk/

Last weekend, I attended the Rooted Festival in Aarhus. It was already the second time edition, and probably not the last edition.

The program

You might recognize two bloggers in the line-up:

The on-land workshop

I had the honor to give a on-land writing(with)plants workshop. I combine building blocks of the on-land forest therapy guiding and online writing(with)plants sessions. One of the big differences with the online writing(with)plants sessions is that the guest plant is not chosen beforehand. The forest bath at the beginning is all about ecological (self) listening and helps to select which guest plant would be invited in the circle. Apparently, Corn flower called the attention of the group’s wisdom and became our guest. 

After the urban forest bath, the guest plant was (literally) invited inside the circle

Yes. You read it well. The on-land workshop includes an urban forest bath. Before I can explain what I mean with urban forest bath, I need to introduce the land.

Institut for X in Aarhus

The location was marvelous. I do like places with missions such as Institut for X.

The day before the workshop, I explored the site. I learned that it used to be a former freight train station area, with goods from the whole world. Almost 20 years this area became a cultural hub. And some years ago, more plants started to occupy the area.

I could sense that the plants were growing from this place, spreading over the former wasteland. Some magic, some practices of caring were working here for some years.

Rooted is not a “typical” festival. It feels more like a (annual) ceremony to do spells and strengthen the practices of caring by plants and people in this place. As if the artists were these medicine people from different wind directions summoned in this weekend of June to weave their magic in this public place for creators and kindred spirits, which has many different energies and histories, and might still risk to transform in something else due to conventional urban development trends. At some point, I thought: Plant magic is place magic.

I was lucky to give (part of) the workshop here. It is a new little house, built in 2025, where the poetic club house is seated.

Urban forest baths

Yes, it does not look like a forest – but as I see buildings as some sort of urban forests (with materials made from trees and rocks) , I often talk about an urban forest bath experience. Last year I also gave a workshop in a loud old building in Lausanne in Switzerland in collaboration with the research and design laboratory RIOT (Research and Innovation On architecture, urban design and Territory) within the Institute of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-EPFL – as part of the RAW project. It worked.

As the opening ceremony of the Rooted festival included insights into the environmental history of the place, I skipped the introduction to the land and used the time to get to know the 10 participants better. They were all invited to share their name and why they were there. We went outside and I gave two invitations: the pleasure of the presence (which is all about sharpening the senses) and a slow silent walk. We barely did not walk far and stayed close to the little house.

Let me share some photographs as they tell more than words would:

A new thing: each participant get two postcards

The participants all got a present. Yes, an illustration of the book cover – created by Mary Feywood- became part of a postcard. At the back you can find a writing prompt and a bit of advertisement for the website and the online circles.

The participants got two postcards – one they could use at a sitting spot to imagine they shapeshifted into the guest plant and write about home. 

A few more photographs from the Rooted festival

The power of on-land workshops

I feel that on-land workshops can be more powerful as we are on the land itself and we can listen what the land needs.

Is it coincidence that a participant selected the corn flower, a healing flower, which inspired some people to name her after Chiron the centaur, the wounded healer… in a place that still feels a bit troubled and wounded but is also a place of and for healing? A plant which is hiding in plain sight, like the fairies, and was actually overlooked by me (To be honest I was expecting that the daisy, the national flower of Denmark, would be invited inside.)

I let go control. I did not prepare anything about corn flowers and had to listen and learn from the group’s wisdom. Only later I learned about the Latin name and made a connection between the wounded healer and wounded healing land.

More on-land workshops will follow this summer – in Belgium 🇧🇪, the Netherlands 🇳🇱 , Ireland 🇮🇪 and Norway 🇳🇴

As the book is now with the graphic designer, I have more time to start to organize on-land (and also again online) workshops. There will be separate blogpost, with all locations and dates, but it is good to subscribe to the newsletter if you haven’t already. 

The locations:

• Dublin and Cork, Ireland 
• Eindhoven, ‘s Hertogenbosch and Amsterdam, the Netherlands 
• Vorselaar, Schilde, Schoten, Wijnege, Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent, Belgium 
• Trondheim, Røros, Oslo, Norway 

Last call to pre-order a book (and get some free postcards as bonus)

All crowdfunding backers get two empty postcards and one with a handwritten thank you note. The campaign is successfully closed, but when you visit this campaign’s website, you see there is an extension and a package for late comers. The extension allows you to pre-order the book until June 28th. You will get a package with the book, postcards … just in time to join the new series of online writing(with)plants workshops in the next 6-9 months.