Residencies and Courses
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We are running and hosting a series of residencies and retreats that are a spiritual cooking together of various ingredients: people, practices, workshops, art, community life and actual cooking. The residences open a space, a vacuum filled by people and practices too spiritual for politics, too “political” for the monasteries, where we sit with our trouble without giving into the narrowing impulse to “save the world”.
Upcoming Residencies & Courses
Ouroboros Residency #1, May 2023
- When: 7th – 28th May 2023
- What: Considering the question 'What is the posture beyond internalised patriarchy?' The patriarchal structures and systems built over centuries have been internalised by all humans. The unfortunate reality is the values and expectations of these patriarchal structures and systems have resulted in a posture where we as a species have sacrificed our capacity and yearning for greater agency, connection and engagement at all levels of society. The seismic shifts we need to effectively respond to this meta-crisis, are systemic, global, and urgent, requiring us to access our intuition, creativity and imagination. The Ouroboros residencies will be dedicated to creating the conditions to strengthen our connection to these innate capacities by bringing our attention moment by moment to our “posture” and noticing how it in-forms us.
- How: Creating the conditions for the posture to arise. Your attention each day will be directed to harnessing the capacity moment by moment through practices including meditation, contemplation, sitting, pausing, cooking, gardening, playing, working, celebrating and ritualising, noticing how, through the way you practice, a new posture is embodied. We will harvest the new narrative that wants to express itself through our collective experience and produce an “artefact “ reflecting our expression.
- For whom? This residency will speak to anyone who is interested and energised to explore the posture that lies beyond internalised patriarchy and are open and ready to experience, experiment and create collectively.
- How many: 12 participants max
- How much: From 750 to 1350 euros
- Facilitators: Valérie Duvauchelle, Victoria Wilding, Lauren Uba
Pioneering the next Food culture, June 2023
- What: A 3 weeks residency to empower yourself by learning plant-based meal preparations which nourish mind, body and soul.
Deconstruct and redefine our relationship to food and have an impact on our collective mental health. Through a series of hands-on workshop, retreat, participatory cooking, and communal living you will learn to ease food anxiety and the general scarcity mindset in us and around. - When: 09/06/2023 - 02/07/2023
- Where: Life Itself Praxis Hub, Bergerac, France (near Bordeaux).
- Who: cooking activists , bodhisattvas , people interested in food in conscious co-living communities, people curious to let themselves be in-formed by food and act from its teachings. (11 persons max)
- Facilitators: Valérie Duvauchelle
- Cost: From 1,200 € to 1,650 €, including 3 meals a day. Early birds: 25% off for signing before the 25th of April. Prices are for 3 weeks of retreat, training, and community living. For shorter stay please contact us.
Emergent dialogue residency, July 2023
- When: July 8th - 18th 2023
- What: Emergent dialogue residency follows summer training intensive with Elizabeth Debold & Thomas Steininger. Deepen and develop your capacity to catalyze synergy and emergent potential in groups through this 10-day Summer Training Intensive. This offering is for persons familiar with Emergent Dialogue or those who have significant experience in facilitating groups. Attendance is by application. This training may be used as part of the certification process to become an Emergent Dialogue Catalyst. The Intensive will be held at the Life Itself Hub in beautiful Bergerac, France. Near the luscious Bordeaux region and next to which Thich Nhat Hanh’s Buddhist enclave, Plum Village, this distinguished riverside villa creates an environment of serenity helpful for a deep dive into the mystery of emergence.
Learn more and apply Space is limited. Apply early to secure your place.
Previous Residencies
"Setting the World to Rights Residency", April 2023
- When: April 5th - May 2nd 2023
- What: A one month residency to focus on having exceptional big picture discussions. (The kind of discussions that draw the comment “You’re setting the world to rights!” Questions like: How do we address polarisation? How can we address global warming? How do we address the massive economic equality, racism and historical injustices that are rife across the globe? We won’t answer these questions, but we will do our utmost to have discussions that are really about getting somewhere together rather than scoring points. We will joyfully take up the neglected responsibility of citizens in a democracy, rather than a parlour game or indulgence
- How much: Dependent on rooming (around €1100 for accommodation, food, facilitation and practices)
- Facilitator: Liam Kavanagh, Victoria Wilding
Relational Embodiment Residency, March-April 2023
- When: March 19th - April 2nd
- What: A two-week residency consisting of intensive small-group and whole-group workshops, discussions and experiential sessions. We will create as safe a container as possible to enable the emergence of relational insights and attachment resiliency. The immersion format allows for insights from structured experiential sessions to be integrated in relationships during the residency itself. There will be plenty of Open Spaces for residents to learn, practice and share skills with one another. The residency includes time and space for you to continue your daily personal work and projects (35-40h/week).
- How much ? around 1400 for accommodation, food, training and practices.
Intelligence collective: Gouvernance partagée (in French), 4-5 March 2023
- When: March 4th - March 5th
- What: 2 journées pour découvrir et expérimenter des pratiques, processus et dispositifs pour une autogouvernance inclusive.
- How much ? 120 euros for accommodation, food, training and practices.
Intelligence collective: Conseil de tous les êtres (in French), 11-12 March 2023
- When: March 11th - March 12th
- What: 2 journées pour vivre la pratique fondatrice du TQR (Travail Qui Relie – Joanna Macy) et mieux se reconnecter avec nos émotions et notre pouvoir d’agir
- How much ? 120 euros for accommodation, food, training and practices.
Embodying collective transformation : a 3 months residency organised by the catalyst network team
- Question: How to Share personal and collective practices to address the challenges of our time and help create a world that works for all life
- Facilitators : Karl Steyaert , [Nadine Helm](http://www. embracing-life.com), Jocelyn Ames, Catherine Tran
Sympoiesis #8: Light and shadow integration, August 2022
- Question: how can we playfully and lovingly dwell in "spiritual" shadows?
- Facilitator: Liam Kavanagh
Open House Residency, June - July 2022
- What: Experience a taste of life and belonging in a co-created community of practice, and enjoy summer by the river in southwest France.
- Hosts: Valérie Duvauchelle & Marc Santolini
Sympoiesis #7 : Nourriture - back to basics, juin - juillet 2022
- Question: How to reconnect to the basic human activities as cooking , eating simple cuisine for community
- Facilitators: Valérie Duvauchelle , Ona Maiocco
Sympoiesis #6: Insight, Interbeing and Science, May 2022
- Facilitator: Liam Kavanagh
Conscious Food Workshop / Integration, Apr - May 2022
- Question: How to nourish community today for tomorrow?
- Facilitator: Valérie Duvauchelle
Sympoiesis #5: Making Eco-Spirituality Accessible, Mar - Apr 2022
- Question: How can we foster an eco-spirituality that is inclusionary to all?
- Facilitator: Rupert Read
Sympoiesis #4: L'intelligence collective, Feb - Mar 2022
- Question: Quelles pratiques offre l'intelligence collective au service de la transition ?
- Hosts: Coomics (membres de la coopérative MIC)
Conscious Food Retreat: Culture Broth #1, Feb 2022
- Question: How do we seed new narratives through fermentation?
- Facilitator: Valerie Duvauchelle
Sympoiesis #3: Patterning Conscious Community, 4 Jan - 4 Feb 2022
- Question: What are the patterns and practices to cultivate conscious community?
- Facilitator: Karl Steyaert
Sympoiesis #2: Contemplative Activism Writing Residency, Nov - Dec 2021
- Question: what contemplation could bring to the current complexity of our time?
- Facilitators: Liam Kavanagh and Naresh Grandjiande
Sympoiesis #1: Daily Collective Practices, Oct - Nov 2021
- Question: How can collective practices in everyday life nourish another way of being in the world?
- Facilitator: Valérie Duvauchelle
