Rainbow Community Projects and its founder Chiara Santin

I am a community-based family therapist who is passionate about promoting EcoTherapy as a friendly way of accessing therapy and help individuals, couples and families reconnect with Nature and each other.

I have also been a tutor and a visiting lecturer on systemic and family therapy post-graduate courses for 12 years. I love writing as a therapeutic tool e.g. journalling and poetry, as well as for academia to share my developing ideas and practices. In May 2024 I have published a book Rewilding Therapy. Ecosystemic Theory & Practice to share my personal and professional journey of reconnecting with Nature and its healing power by taking therapy outdoors.

I am Italian and grew up in a small village in the North of Italy, near the Alps and the lakes where I was involved in a lot of community work e.g. organising leisure activities for young children, youth group leading, children and family camps in the Alps.

This is where I most feel at home: in Nature. I have always had this strong bond with the landscape around me, contemplating the stars at night as a small child whilst everybody was sleeping, picking lilies of the valley in the woodlands with my Dad, observing the nearby big river with its beautiful flow and dangerous currents, spending as much time as possible with my best childhood friend in a wood nearby, enjoying its sense of awe and beauty, the peace and quiet.

I didn’t know that my connection with Nature was so important to me until I came to the UK. Everything felt different, the outdoor smells, the wet weather getting in the way of going out regularly, the different places and landscapes. I didn’t feel at home even in Nature. I missed the Italian Alps, the smells in the air, the long sunny days of Summer, the challenges of treacherous trekking paths, the views from above, the whiteness of snow transforming the landscape, the calm of lake waters, the vitality of the mountain streams and the solidity of the rocks.

Slowly by exploring the greenspaces around me, getting curious and familiar with the landscape and the unpredictable weather, I started appreciating the beauty of Nature in Sussex where I live, feeling more rooted grounded and safe, and developing a deeper relationship with the English landscape.

Since I moved to the UK in 1998, I retrained from accountancy to becoming a psychotherapist as I always wanted to help children, young people and their families through dark times. I wanted to help people find their rainbow, to bring some colour and hope back into their lives so the rainbow has inspired my work with many diverse people, children and families and restore hope in their lives.

Here is a short story.

Tell me, my friend

Have you seen colours in search of their rainbow?

I don’t feel like myself without my colours: what am I? Am I still a rainbow?

I’m lost and don’t know who I am any longer. I beg you my friend please help me find my colours!

I wandered in the sky, in the seas and oceans, in the midst of woods, forests and mountains and each one of them had their colours but no trace of mine.

I’m desperate and I can’t live in the dark. My friend could you please give me some light so I can find my colours?

You gave me your light and suddenly I have become a rainbow again! You told me: "You were born as rainbow, you’re full of colours that can’t live apart from you.

Just change your dark glasses which are making you see the world as dark and colourless."

Thank you, my friend, light of my eyes. I now know who I am. I’m your rainbow!

In addition to Ecotherapy I also offer traditional therapy for individuals, couples, children and families.

More specifically:

  • Intercultural couple and family therapy,
  • Attachment-based therapy,
  • Specialist parenting for neurodiversity and developmental trauma, Non-violent-resistance (NVR)
  • Post-adoption support and
  • Trauma treatment i.e. EMDR and Polyvagal informed.

 

For more information please visit Rainbow Family Therapy Services website

I am also a published author. Most recent publications: Co-editor of Context, December 2025 on Ecotherapy, Environment, dystopian futures.

I am part of a small international group of academics and clinicians aiming to develop and promote ecosystemic thinking and practices within the field of systemic and family psychotherapy and beyond.

Given my expertise in developing ecosystemic therapy, I have been asked to co-edit a special issue with Dr. Hugh Palmer, esteem systemic colleague.  It has been published in December 2025 featuring a wide range of articles and poetry covering eco-relational practice, outdoor group supervision, relational healing through nature, rewilding, ecosystem and climate emergency, meditation, nature supported therapy and more… Contributors include Hugh Palmer, Chiara Fortina Santin, Roger Duncan, Imelda McCarthy, Leah Salter, Joanne Hanrahan, charlie chapman, Paul Andrews, Chloe Constable, Jenny Cove, Rob Moore, Sigurd Reimers, Joanna Law, and Sophie Hicks.

Peer reviewed Journal Contribution - Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (November 2025)

I have also published an article on ecotherapy and climate change i.e. Letter to the Alpine Glaciers and Ecosystemic Therapy. Abstract:

Through a love letter to the glaciers that have shaped the author's inner landscape as a child, this article shares reflections on the ecological context of climate change, our relationship with the more-than- human world and the implications for ecosystemic therapy. This paper will argue that embracing ecological thinking will lead to redefining therapy as dual hospitality where nature becomes the host and co-therapist, whereas clients and therapists become co-explorers of inner and outer landscapes. Nature, as a diffractive mirror, will reflect the tight link between our sense of well-being, mental health and our sense of belonging to Mother Earth. This process of rewilding our personal and professional lives will contribute to restoring our shared identity as earth dwellers and activate our commitment to care for the planet. This, in turn, will lead to becoming actively engaged in imagin-action, that is, as systemic therapists/activists imagine and create new landscapes of mental health services rooted in social justice and ecological change.

You can download it here, or click on the image.