Our role as mothers as leaders of our families and in our communities is critical to moving humanity toward regenerative cultures and ecological sustainability. Over this week we will explore tools of leadership, Mother Nature circles, design and nature connection to support us personally and collectively.

Each participant will have practice leading Mother Nature circles and/or nature connection activities. Over the week each person will be designing their pathway into leadership.

• This is a 5 day residential training course for adult learners.

• The course will be held in English.

• You can attend either the training in Slovenia or UK (but not both).

AIM

The aim of the course is to share the tools we developed in the Mother Nature project, for mothers and professionals supporting mothers, to spread the culture of women circles and local actions for a sustainable future led by mothers.

The aim of the course is to empower us to own our leadership stories and feel ready to share our skills with the world.  

during the week you will

• Practice facilitating Mother Nature circles and nature connection activities, and increase your skills and confidence in holding space

• Create a design for yourself and your action plan after the course to bring what you have learned and experienced to your everyday life and personal development

• Receive tools to design and implement projects in a sustainable way

• Gain an embodied experience of Mother Nature circles in a natural setting

• Embody yourself as a leader and change agent in our complex, changing and unpredictable times 

• Experience the holding power of Nature and the circle and solo time outdoors

• Co-create a container that allows collective wisdom to come through

• Listen and be listened to, sharing our experiences and challenges and finding ways to reframe them.

lara kastelic

Lara is a facilitator, graphic facilitator and project manager. From early on she was interested in nature and that led her to study biology. After finishing her studies she became interested in sustainable models of living and she ended up as a volunteer in a German ecovillage. 

Between 2012 and 2019 she was deeply involved in ecovillage and permaculture networks in Slovenia and in Europe. 

She is a facilitator and trainer since 2015, leading international trainings for EVS/ESC volunteers in Slovenia and trainings within ecovillage network about volunteering and youth leadership. The methods she uses are the Art of Hosting, Sociocracy, Non-violent communication, Dragon Dreaming and permaculture.

She is a visual practitioner and facilitator since 2018. She believes that anybody can draw well enough to communicate a message. In Slovenia, she is running introductory workshops on visual facilitation and is part of a small community of visual practitioners.

She brought to Mother Nature her facilitation skills and desire to support women by running women's circles.

www.larakastelic.com

sara galeotti

Sara is a facilitator, a graphic designer and yoga teacher. She is the mother of Greta and Livio and works and lives at Casa del cuculo, a community of three families based on the lovely hills of Emilia Romagna in Italy.

As a facilitator and a trainer, her main focus is to explore how concrete changes in actions are always supported by inner change, and how this inner change can be supported and nourished. She leads Mother Nature circles and designs self- and group- exploring activities with the aim to make them simple and beautiful.

She loves travelling, baking vegan desserts, and drawing with her children . She has been designing Mother Nature visual identity with love and care.

valentina cifarelli

Organiser, fundraiser & buena onda Valentina is a dynamic doer and passionate visionary.

In 2005 started her journey designing, managing and facilitating international projects for young adults. Since then, she has been researching and developing ways to support and guide people "in transition" to become aware of their talents and potential so as to be able to take part authentically and freely in a world rich with challenges and opportunities.

To coach and empower people she loves to use non-formal education for mutual and dynamic learning and permaculture to grow social, environmental and economic resilience.

She is the mother of 2 little stars Remì and Lucio, and since 2017 she has been part of the Mother Nature team to serve and celebrate motherhood as the most profound “transition and transformative experience” in life. 

After several working experiences in different contexts such as in private and public sectors, since 2014 she is the captain of her own adventure, leading and working for Paradiso Ritrovato the organisation she co-founded.

She lives with her precious family in a lush valley surrounded by olive, fruits and chestnut trees at the foot of Mount Amiata in the south of Tuscany, Italy.

We will be hosted in Homestead Tešnak, a renovated family house on the edge of the forest and in close proximity to the town Škofja Loka. Owners aim for local, fresh food and they produce part of it themselves. Food will be vegetarian. 

Participants will be accommodated in cosy rooms. Several people will share a room, each room has its own bathroom. 

Training will be held partly indoors and partly outdoors. Be ready to spend time in nature.

Write to Lara at info@matinarava.si for more information.