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.

Applewood Permaculture Centre is a beautiful 20-acre smallholding, in Herefordshire, UK. Many different courses are run here. We will be spending our days in the marquee in the orchard surrounded by trees and birdsong. And evenings spent around the fire connecting, sharing stories, laughter and songs together. There are also various indoor spaces that we can use. 

There are many diverse habitats, woodland, orchard, forest gardens, pastures, pools and kitchen gardens. Applewood is a tranquil sanctuary for wildlife and people alike. They are blessed with night times filled with owl hoots and immense starry skies that you’ll get to enjoy around an outside fire. 

Accommodation is camping or there are a limited number of indoor beds in a shared dormitory. Delicious vegetarian food will be served. Specialist diets may be catered for on request.

Write to Emma (emma.gorbutt@yahoo.com ) for more information.

Looby Macnamara

Looby Macnamara is mother, author, facilitator, designer, gardener and song leader. She is author of Cultural Emergence, People and Permaculture, 7 Ways to Think Differently and Strands of Infinity. 

People and Permaculture Is the first book globally to translate the use of permaculture principles and design for people based systems. She is creator of the Design Web, a holistic design framework that has been used thousands of times globally for all sorts of personal and social designs. 

She lives on a 20 acre smallholding in Herefordshire, where she runs an education and demonstration centre - Applewood Permaculture Centre. She is a mother of 2 wonderful daughters aged 14 and 22.  Looby has co-developed the Cultural Emergence toolkit with Jon Young to support personal and global shifts towards a regenerative culture.

Learn more on www.cultural-emergence.com and www.LoobyMacnamara.com

emma gorbutt

Emma has been a Project Worker for the Mother Nature Project since 2021.She is part of the team which created the Leading Mother Nature Circles Online Course and Co-facilitates the UK course. She has also co-facilitated Mothers as Natural Leaders training and supported the Cultural Emergence Effective Design Course. 

She has had a varied career working for organisations supporting and creating community projects working for positive social and environmental change in the UK, including the Permaculture Association, a Women’s Centre and delivering Children and Young People's activities for borough councils. 

Since 2011 she has been living and working at Earthworm Housing Co-op, Herefordshire UK helping to develop their housing and land to be more environmentally sustainable where she also began her exciting mothering journey. In 2018 she has been working with Looby Macnamara on her courses. Emma is a mother to a 10 year old and in her spare time she has volunteered widely, leads Mother Nature Circles and is nourished by gardening, cooking vegan food and nature connection practices. All these threads both manifest and feed Emma's continuing passion for creating community resilience to climate change and social inequality and bringing about positive social change.