Comments by participants
‘This training is a fantastic deep time journey within the Work that Reconnects (WTR) as well as within your facilitation skills. Step by step you dive not only deeper within the spiral of WTR but also build up your confidence and skills to bring it into the world.’.   
David Jelinek, ecotherapist, Belgium   www.animamundi.be 

"With their rich array of skills and gifts, Jenny and Chris were able to foster a wonderful atmosphere of mutual support and encouragement, where our own talents and confidence could flourish through cross-fertilisation of ideas, deep sharing, experimentation, networking opportunities, and much creativity and fun. It’s been a delightful journey with two superb guides, and the feeling of support is on-going."
Annie Leymarie, Devon.

"The nurturing environment for personal development has been great, I've learned and had opportunity to practice skills to connect with and enable others to journey individually and in different sized groups. Jenny and Chris strike a perfect balance between practical elements and sharing their extensive experience. They breathe fresh life into Joanna's exercises and have encouraged us to experiment and make them our own." Pete Black, Bristol.

First steps in facilitation

The best starting point for facilitator training is to gain experience as a participant. Knowing a workshop process from the inside helps give you the confidence to later lead it. See our workshops page for details of some workshops happening soon.

To find our more about the Work That Reconnects, we recommend reading Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown Young. We also recommend Joanna Macy’s DVD The Work That Reconnects, which has over four hours of material introducing key ideas and demonstrating practices. You can watch it on-line for free at this link.

There is a journey to growing in confidence and competence as a facilitator; it is helped by good company, experienced guides and plenty practice. That’s why we set up our year-long Facilitator Development Adventure. Here are the details.


The Facilitator Development Adventure:


A nine-month Training Group for people facilitating, or wanting to facilitate, transformative processes and connections with nature in service to life on Earth.
Dates (TBC)

Nov 29th - Dec 1st 2019, March 27th-29th 2020, June 19th - 21st 2020.


With Kirsti Norris, Jenny Mackewn and Chris Johnstone

The Vision:

The Facilitator Development Adventure is for people who are either already facilitating transformative group processes and nature connection in service to life on earth or who wish to do so.

The programme offers:


    The Learning Community:

    Participants will include both experienced and less experienced practitioners.  The workshops will be run as a learning community so that the experienced can learn from the fresh approach of the inexperienced; while the inexperienced can learn from the experienced.  We tutors expect to learn as much as any participant.

    The Purpose:

    To support both experienced and less experienced facilitators to deepen skills, learn from us and each other, strengthen support and grow in confidence and competence in facilitating transformative processes in the service of life on earth.

    Eligibility:
    Being able to answer yes to the following questions:

    1) Are you facilitating, or wanting to facilitate, transformative individual/group processes and connections with nature in the next 12-18 months?
    2) Are you willing to commit to a group journey involving three residential weekends, plus distance learning, peer support, study time and practice - in the service of your development as a facilitator for life on earth?

    3) Have you experienced deep transformative work as a workshop participant?

    We normally recommend participation in at least one or two deeply transformative workshops before joining the Facilitator Development Adventure. (Some participants will have already attended many workshops and training as facilitators).
    The type of workshops we recommend are:

    • Work That Reconnects workshops
    • Constellations workshops (family, organization, or eco-constellations)
    • Other experiential workshops that include an emotional as well as a cerebral journey
    Keen to attend even though you have not yet attended these kind of workshops? We can provide you with examples of the sort of workshops that would be suitable preparation, and let you know of ones we are aware of happening between now and December.

    The Facilitators:

    Kirsti Norris:I bring a lifetime of working with others in the Great Turning, as activist, trainer, sustainability professional, facilitator, mother and researcher*. I believe strongly in the power of hearing from ourselves and others in safe spaces as a means of finding our steps to a more life-sustaining society. I trained in eco-facilitation and empowerment work to deepen my offerings to individuals and groups seeking to find strength and inspiration in these challenging times. I set up Action for Sustainability to facilitate the understanding of sustainability and empower change in organisations (see www.actionforsustainability.com ) and work with other facilitators to offer workshops based on the Work That Reconnects (see www.findingstrength.org.uk ). I also facilitate guided quests to wild places (see www.wildtimeadventures.co.uk).

    *Documented in a contributed chapter of Stories of the Great Turning, edited by Peter Reason and Mel Newman, with an introduction by Joanna Macy.

    Jenny Mackewn: I am a creative catalyst : I have facilitated and catalyzed breakthrough in many different groups and contexts. I love the continuous creative challenge of discovering what is needed in each unique situation. And I look forward to supporting you to try out new approaches and develop your own unique power as facilitators and catalysts of Connecting to Nature and Living with the Wild.

    I am currently convening: a Masters Programme in Leading and Facilitating transformative Change; a Schumacher Certificate : Leadership & Facilitation in Service of the Future; Training in Constellations and Systemic Coaching; Creative Catalyst Training in organizations;

    Chris Johnstone: I have been involved in facilitating the Work That Reconnects and similar workshops for over twenty years, working with Joanna Macy many times in this. By background I trained in medicine and worked as a group therapist in an NHS addictions treatment team over many years. I’ve trained in a wide range of transformative psychological processes and now focus on writing and training, particularly through developing online resources. I’m author of Find Your Power – a toolkit for resilience and positive change, and co-editor of The Great Turning Times, a free email newsletter I set up to spread the word about the Great Turning. My most recent book, Active Hope: how to face the mess we’re in without going crazy, was coauthored with Joanna Macy.. I have websites at www.chrisjohnstone.info and at www.collegeofwellbeing.com

    The Dates (TBC):
    29th Nov - 1st December 2019: Residential weekend from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon at Southstoke House, near Bath.
    27th - 29th March 2020: Residential weekend from Friday eve ‘til Sunday afternoon, at Hazel Hill Wood in Wiltshire.
    19th - 21st June 2020: Residential weekend from Friday eve ‘til Sunday afternoon at Southstoke House, near Bath.

    Support in between the residential sessions:
    Online space:  For discussions, sharing resources, developing themes and exploring questions together.
    Learning groups:  We encourage learning groups of participants to keep in contact, and mutually support each other throughout the programme, e.g. giving feedback on exercise or workshop designs; working together to co-facilitate (location depending!); supporting each other in our practice; and listening, supporting and challenging each other.

     The Venues:
    To give good experience of practice at facilitating in different environments, the programme is held in two venues:
    Southstoke House, near Bath is a family home, in beautiful countryside with 5 acres of grounds and stunning views, yet only 2 miles from Bath station.
    March venue: Hazel Hill, near Salisbury     is a wonderful, secluded 70-acre wood and sustainable retreat / education centre, seven mils from Salisbury, offering unique scope for people to deepen their connection with nature.

    Simple Meals are included in the overall fee and past participants have loved the food. We all contribute to some preparation and to clearing up - as part of learning to build sustainable communities and leave no trace.


    The Fees (to be confirmed):
    £935 Full Rate (Or £850 if you pay in full before 1st September 2019)
    £750 plus work exchange (For those who are on benefits or low wages, we offer a hybrid money and work contribution)
    Fees cover all the training dates and activities listed above plus food and basic accommodation (upgrades additional).

    Application:
    If interested, please, in the first instance, email Kirsti Norris
    at kirsti (at) actionforsustainability (dot) com
    or click on the contact link at the bottom of this page.