Roots of Resilience
Are you looking for a personal and professional development and renewal experience in the New Year that will give you clarity, grounded purpose, and energy for living and working in turbulent times?
If so, you might like to come to this.
My Roots of Resilience workshop, underpinned by Active Hope and The Work That Reconnects, offers a safe and relational space to experience and cultivate practices of individual and collective resilience, care, mutual support, and shared meaning by facing reality, together.
Why Reality Matters
Much of the Minority Global North lives in a psychological state I call Asifia: an unconscious defensive mindset where reality is denied, and thoughts, choices, and actions are shaped by wishful fantasy, entitlement, and a narrow, “safe” worldview.
Asifia isn’t a personal failing — it is systemic, reinforced by wealth, political power, and global structures that have externalised harm to other regions. It numbs care, shrinks ethical imagination, and sustains a belief in infinite growth and technological fixes. Meanwhile, communities in the Global South are already living with ecological breakdown and social instability. Their knowledge and resilience are often excluded or sanitised in Northern narratives, leaving real lessons on adaptation and living within limits invisible.
The Work that Reconnects (WTR) offers a counter to Asifia.
Developed by Joanna Macy, it is a relational, experiential practice that helps people confront grief, fear, and moral discomfort together — without illusions of rescue. Through the Spiral — Gratitude → Honouring Pain → Seeing with New and Ancient Eyes → Going Forth — participants reconnect with what matters, feel their pain, expand perspective, and return to life with grounded, ethical action.
WTR also fosters Active Hope, not as optimism, but as a practice of choosing how to live and act responsibly within unequal and collapsing systems. It encourages those insulated from immediate harm to reckon with privilege, responsibility, and their capacity to act with integrity.
In a world shaped by profound inequality and accelerating ecological strain, the Work that Reconnects is quietly radical: a space to stop pretending, metabolise grief and fear, and participate in life-affirming ways — not despite collapse, but within it.
Are You…
Grappling with the complexity of these times and the powerful feelings it brings up?
Feeling stuck, anxious, numb, burned out, or alone, especially when friends, family, or colleagues don’t want to talk about what’s happening in our world?
Keen to connect with like-minded people who want to tap into creativity, courage, and care for greater purpose?
A changemaker — current or aspiring — seeking to build your own resilience and support others?
Curious about how systemic inequality shapes global challenges, and how ecological, social, and political crises affect communities differently across the world?
Interested in exploring ethical ways to learn from Global South resilience and knowledge, without falling into saviourism or appropriation?
Come Along and Explore
The Spiral – a journey that moves gently from pain to purpose, clarity, and agency.
Active Hope – not naïve optimism, but ethical, grounded action within unequal systems.
Three Stories of Our Time – Business as Usual, The Great Unravelling, and The Great Turning.
Global Inequalities – recognising the uneven impacts of collapse and implications for ethical participation, and how to engage with marginalised knowledge sensitively and without appropriation.
Evidence-based Practices – mindfulness, compassion, effective communication, and relational exercises.
Useful Tools – frameworks and insights to foster purpose, clarity, and collective strength in your own Teams and Communities.
Practical Aspects
The workshop is trauma-informed and designed to accommodate all learning styles. Activities include listening, sharing, drawing, journaling, short meditations, and guided rituals. All activities are optional, and there is no pressure to share what you do not wish to.
Being online (via Zoom), there will be plenty of short breaks. Follow-up resources, including exercises for yourself and for others, will be sent afterwards.
This is a small-group event, with no more than 6 participants.
It will be confidential and not recorded.
For participants 18+. Under 18? Contact me for alternative resources.
Cameras
I ask that you have your video camera on during this workshop if you are able and willing, especially at the start and end, and for the pairs and small group exercises, as for many - not all - people - it aids in creating and maintaining connection and safety. However if that doesn’t for you, please send me a message when you book and together we can explore ways of making it work for everyone.
Self Care
This will be a profound and valuable experience but is not intended as a substitute for personal therapy. If you’re experiencing extreme anxiety please contact me via the Contact page, with a message, and we can book a confidential discussion about how you can get the support you need.
Fee per person
£195 (corporate ie paid by your employer)
£145 (standard, self funded rate for the self employed or employed by a charity or in the social or health care sector)
£65 (1 place offered at a subsidised rate, if you are on a low income, and not through choice)))
There is no VAT.
(If you are not able to pay anything you will be very welcome to attend any of my free, frequent events on Active Hope, Thinking Environment or other offerings - sign up for my newsletter below or check this website).
Optional - 1:1 Follow Up Coaching / Mentoring session
After the full day in person workshop if you wish you can book a 1:1 online session to have some personal time and space for reflection and deeper pathway building with me. The fee is £175 for 1.5 hours, reduced rates are available for those in hardship.
Comments from previous participants:
"If you are looking for a way to develop or find some new meaning in your world I can recommend this as an antidote to despair and cynicism. It is a lovely, meaningful way to reflect with a few like minded people and take stock. Linda is an experienced facilitator and coach with the knack of leading you to discover new ideas and insights for a changing world."
"It really helped me to find some resilience and a sense of personal agency around the climate crisis. It was a wonderful day, with wonderful people, skilfully and sensitively facilitated by Linda (in a Thinking Environment, of course!). I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you’re feeling overwhelmed in the face of the climate crisis and world events, perhaps a bit lonely in your feeling of “why is no one doing anything?” and want to take some positive action, I doubt there are many better places to start."
“This offered a beautifully held and welcoming space to connect with each other and reconnect with ourselves. I loved the journey through the spiral, coming away with a greater sense of possibility for our lives with this earth.”
“Good coaching has to be ethical in a sensitive, connected way that enables insightful communication and clarity of curiosity that has a truth and braveness to it. This too is the approach that will bring a truly determined energy to change our business as usual world of human pretence at life into being real life. This workshop has that energy.”
“This was a brilliant introduction to the Work That Reconnects. The mix of theory and practical exercises allowed us to fully experience the work for ourselves, whilst also understanding some of the underpinning theoretical framework. At the end of the day, I felt reconnected with my interest in environmentalism, in a way that was both gentle and powerful.”
“.. a fantastic opportunity and experience, to connect with others, reflect deeply and make sense of my own personal experience in the world today. It was challenging but equally beautiful in the sharing of wonderful conversations with great people. I really appreciated my own learning about gratitude and considering the contribution I can make to a life sustaining society. Super facilitator. Thank you!”
“Linda is a wonderful guides to this empowering and profound work. If anyone is thinking about giving this a try, I would encourage you to just do it - you won't be judged and you will definitely connect with others and be both reassured and inspired.”
To Book a Place:
Please read our Terms and Conditions including our cancellation policy before you book, then complete the form below and we will be in touch. If you have any questions before you book, please get in touch via the Contact Us page.
