'One thing to remember is to talk to the animals. If you do, they will talk back to you. But if you don’t talk to the animals, they won’t talk back to you, then you won’t understand.'

― Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation

The Invitation

And how it works

This is a small group circle where you can bring any enquiries that are alive for you and have them held in supportive ritual structures and tended to by your own benevolent Guides. Each workshop you are invited to bring an enquiry, issue or question from a different area of your life. Any enquiry is welcome and we will be prioritising the neuroception of safety to maximise usefulness and impact. 

Each workshop is structured so that you don't need to reveal your own subject matter to anyone else in the group (unless you'd prefer to). Your material is between you and your Guides. I am there to steward the experience, hold ritual safety, structure your enquires and support your integration. 

The material is yours for life so you can come back to do more work on which ever topic is relevant to your life. The structures are open and flexible enough to be applied again and again. 

There are two possible pathways though the program. The basic pathway is the group only experience which includes 9 x 90 minute group circles plus live integration sessions following every other workshop. 

The plus+ pathway includes the group sessions, the integration sessions, plus discounted individual sessions to be used at any time when needed within the course time frame. Individual work can be beneficial for making the insights more relevant and to aid problem solving. It can better support integration, on going practice and meaning making.

Live workshops run for 90 mins and happen on a Tuesday 4.30pm - 6pm afternoon UK time / morning US. 

The weekly flow each month is Workshop / Workshop / Integration Call / Rest Week. 

Integration sessions happen at the same time on a Tuesday as the workshops and run for 1 hour. 4.30pm - 5.30pm UK time. If we get folks joining from the Southern Hemisphere, we will be adding Integration calls at 10am in the UK morning on Thursdays. These will happen in the same rhythm as the rest of the course and take place on the same weeks as the Northern Hemisphere ones. 

You don't need to have any experience of anything to join or get benefit. Just some curiosity and an open heart. Once signing up, you will be invited to an off Facebook private sharing space on Mighty Networks. 

A bit more about the course

from Rachel

The Principles Behind it

This course supposes an animist world view. By this we mean that we practice doing our living as if we are part of a universe that is profoundly alive. Let's suppose we are a part of a complex web of inter-being where consciousness is always wanting to evolve itself, be known and come into connection with life. This happens through us, in and around us and through our connection with everything in a myriad of ways.

Our bodies are doing it (seeking connection with life). Our cells are doing it. The microbiological beings in our guts are at it. Animals are at it. Plants are at it. Oceans are busy doing it. Mountains. Rivers. Our most ancient ancestor the Planet is doing it too. We might even imagine the so called 'inanimate' Ones are doing it too.

To participate you dont need to be well versed in these principles. It is not important where you believe or disbelieve. In a way those are the least interesting question. The most interesting question might be something like 'what brings the world more alive in your experience?' or 'which way feels more connected and less alone?

And our species has this profound tool - our imagination - that supports our connection to all life. A bridge between conscious and unconscious. Between sleeping and waking. Between the mythopoetic, the symbolic, the sensory and the pragmatic. Our imagination is a shape shifting, multi-dimensional portal linking our embodied experience to all life.

This way of working is very natural for our species and only very recently from an evolutionary biology perspective, we were doing it. It is waiting for us to remember. All you need to participate is a body and an imagination.

'Everything in nature is alive and speaking. Our spiritual practice is about opening our eyes, ears and hearts to hear, understand, and communicate back. The elements, the Ancestors and the spirit beings that surround us want us to communicate with them. They want to work with us to heal the Earth, but they need our invitation.'

― Starhawk

Course curriculum

    1. What to bring, Where to find everything & how to prepare

    1. Remembering the connection - it isn't lost & wants to be remembered

    2. Beginning With Allyship: Meeting an Animal Guide

    1. Attuning to a Guide for support with a burden of the heart.

    1. Integration 1 - 23 Sept

    1. Attuning to a Somatic Anchor and letting a Guide Tend it.

    1. Inviting in New Insights on A Relationship / Relational Question

About this course

  • 9 Group ritual tending circles around specific topics + 4 integration sessions
  • Life-time access with downloadable audio recordings for working offline
  • Optional discounted 1:1 sessions for bespoke application

Mini Taster Workshop + Q&A - free

Somatics & Ritual for Activating a Desire or Longing

If you'd like to try a short workshop exploring using somatics & ritual in a safe, nervous system informed way, to invite in support for something that you long to have happen, you can download a free taster session via the button below. 

Bring along a sense of something you want to cultivate, a notebook and pen and a willingness to play. 

What past students are saying:

'Gentle, accessible & supportive'

V.A.

"Rachel has an incredible way of bringing together grounded, trauma-informed somatic approaches to the numinous. As someone who has not had a strong relationship to spirit – one might even say I’ve been a sceptic – this way in has felt gentle, accessible and supportive. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is curious about their relationship with spirituality and wants to include the body in that inquiry."

Definitely recommend it big time

I.M

"This was a beautifully supported journey gently familiarising the support of opening self to bigger, older supporting structures and to animism with very personal neuro-secure resources to venture. I have found strong spirit resources through this course, from developing a safe relationship with a sacred space to exploring strong mycelium connections. Rachel whole heartedly supported and guided this exploration - Thank you! Definitely recommend it big time."

A well designed exploration

M.R.

"Rachel's Cultivating Healthy Connection with Spirit course is a well-designed exploration of many ways in which the powerful energies of the spirit world may be accessed for guidance in daily life, in a safe and healthy manner, however the beliefs each individual brings may lead. Throughout the course, Rachel provides caring presence and accompaniment to all participants, with time allowed for valuable one-to-one peer conversations and a platform for group discussion."

Pricing Options & Pathways

There are several options for signing up for this program. If you want to do the live group calls only, choose the regular price or one of the regular monthly payment plans.

If you want individual support alongside the group work, choose one of the course + 1:1 options. These can also be purchased as a single payment, or as a month payment plan. Individual sessions will be available once the course starts at £100 each.

If you signed up for my Summer Guides Package, you can access the basic course for half price.

If you have done or are doing FYG or have previously completed the Cultivating Healthy Spirit Connection course, you can access £100 off any of the payment options below. Please email us to receive that discount code.

If you'd dearly love to do it, but money is preventing you, get in touch.

FAQ

  • I live in a time zone / work schedule that makes attending live tricky. Will I still get value out of the course?

    Yes. The workshops and Integration sessions are staggered to make the content easier to absorb across multiple time zones. Everyone should be able to turn up to at least something live for some of the time. The recordings will be uploaded within 24 hours of the live calls to make re-visiting easy. It is recommended that you do things more or less in the order they are laid out. Regular rest weeks are scheduled to aid catch up and integration. All participants have the materials for life.

  • If I buy the basic package and then decide after the course starts, that I want to take some 1:1 sessions too, can I switch?

    Once the course has begun, you can't swap, but you can right up until we start and still buy 1:1 sessions once we have begun. Individual sessions while the course is running are £100 each. If you want to book sessions beyond the course they are £120 each. So if you think you might want 1:1 sessions, the cheapest way to do it is to choose a payment plan that includes them from the start. If you have already brought one package and changed your mind, we can swap it for you right up until the course begins.

  • Do I have to have had any kind of experience with this kind of thing before to get benefit?

    This way of working is very natural for our species and easily accessible. All you need is a curiosity and a willingness to explore. The way we work is very gentle and guided by your personal sense of what feels easy and right sized. From the outside it looks like mediation - you close your eyes and go gently inwards. From the inside, the experience is a little like lucid dreaming or shamanic journeying, however we stay seated and fully awake through out. You remain aware and within your own agency the whole time. Anyone with an imagination and a body is welcome.

  • Is this a replacement for therapy?

    No. While this work may have healing and therapeutic benefits, it is not a replacement for therapy. In a therapeutic relationship, your therapist gets to know your material intimately and supports your healing directly. In this course, your material remains private (unless you choose to share it) and the insights or healing happens via benevolent Guides. I am not a therapist. I am ritual practitioner, nervous system attuned coach and guide. I am trained to support you to meet Guides from a place inside yourself that feels relaxed, attuned and safe.

  • I think my partner / friend / colleague would really benefit from this work. Is it OK to share some of these materials with them?

    No. Please keep these materials to yourself and do not share them with people outside of this program. We advise this for several reasons including confidentiality and wanting to ensure you are doing things in a safe, contextualised way.

  • I am actively struggling with mental health and /or have a CPTSD diagnosis. Is this program right for me?

    It depends on where you are in your healing journey. If you are finding you are easily triggered or have trouble settling yourself, this program will likely not be right for you at the moment. To get the most out of this course you will need to be in a resourced enough place in yourself to be able to explore and follow your curiosity. Occasionally material might emerge that offers some kind of unexpected inner challenge. So as well as having the willingness and capacity to play and explore, it is also recommended that you have some robustness to process and work in what ever way works for you. This might look like a contemplative practice, or a therapeutic relationship. If this doesn't sound like where you are at right now, this course may not be right for you at this point in time.

  • Do I need to prepare myself or my space in anyway before the live sessions?

    Just come as you are. We will mostly be sitting comfortably, or resting back in a supportive way through most of the work. You might like to consider the space you are working in - as it is a bit like inviting people into your home. You will want a private space with a door that closes. Paper, pen & art materials can be very helpful. If you like to curate your space for setting the scene ritually, you might consider lighting a candle.

  • How is this different to your course Cultivating A Healthy Connection With Spirit?

    This course is more for folks wanting to tend to specific questions. In this course, I do all the background and structural work for you, so you can just bring the questions that are on your heart and play with your Guides safely.
    In CHSC i teach how to create your own rituals and the many different ways you might approach ritual technology in a safe and embodied way.
    Think of it like a playground. In this one, I do all the architecture, so you get to just be the kid in the playground. In CHSC you find out more about how to create the playground itself and then play in it. If you'd like to understand more about how they differ, watch the video at the top of the page.

Hello! I am Rachel

I am your facilitator. Here's a little bit about my journey with this work.

I am a daughter, sister, wife, aunty and proud bonus mum. I am descended from - way back Scottish, Scandinavian with some more recent English ancestry. Most of my living people inhabit Australia: some were fairly recent migrants by choice, others had migration forced upon them as convicts.

I am a Somatic Coach, Trainer of coaches, Theatre Maker, Somatic Educator and Feldenkrais Practitioner. I teach coaches to work with embodied intelligence at The Somatic School and have been supporting clients to work with Spirit as a resource in my 1:1 sessions and group somatic coaching workshops for about a decade.

I've been slowly gathering this material into a teachable format over several years in response to nudges from students and Spirit teachers.

It has taken a while to feel like I am ready, but I am being shown that it is now time to properly emerge from the spiritual closet.

My connection to the metaphysical has always come naturally from very young. But my personal entry into working with Guides specifically, began with the sudden appearance of one, when I was 30 - so 21 years ago(!). It was vivid and significant, but, having no clue how to work with him I kind of ignored him and hoped for the best.

He hung around. :-)

Always standing guard to my left. Always a very powerful, benevolent, sub-bass presence. Over the years, he began to show me how to work with him via my body work practice - I would often let him guide my hands. Show me what was needed with clients. He also helped me with boundaries and discernment.

I began exploring how I could nurture this connection via pagan ritual practices and hands on healing trainings. I thought I was getting the hang of it.

Then, about eleven years ago, I experienced a kind of cataclysmic deluge of Spirit information coming through me in a way that was quite overwhelming and very difficult to ground. It lasted for three days and was so strong it became immediately apparent I needed a much more robust tool kit! I urgently sought out teachers, ritualist, healers, practices and lineages that prioritised healthy ethical and spiritual boundaries.

Parallel to this and for many years prior to it, I was doing a lot of somatic trainings, trainings in performance and improvisation and also nervous system healing. I begin to notice a connection. At first, I noticed how well it supported me in this kind of work, then eventually how absolutely foundational it is to it.

When journeying, or working with Plant medicine, or doing intensive awareness practices, I 'knew' ways of working choice-fully and safely, because of my somatic trainings and creative practice. Some pieces began to re-connect. This course is a weaving together of some of these knowledges for the curious student.

My work is not rooted in any one tradition, but is supported by many and is a synthesis of many teachings, trainings and experience. Please take a look at the 'honourings' section below for more detailed lineage acknowledgements and gratitudes.

I stand downstream of giants and am a daughter and a student.

Gratitudes & Honourings

I honour the original stewards of the unceded territories of my birth & childhood - The Muwinina, Bungalung & Eora Nations. I express deep gratitude for the ancestral and spiritual lineages and trainings I am blessed to carry forward with this work.

I'd like to honour the following wisdom holders and teachers, who have helped me to earth this material and work with it in more choice-ful, healthy ways.

My maternal Grandmother, Joyce Voysey, and the wider council of Ancient Grandmothers and Grandfathers, Sankan Usna at Onyana Joni Shipibo, Comprehensive Resource Model, Dr. Amber McZeal at De-Colonising The Psyche, Dr.Daniel Foor at Ancestral Medicine, Francis Briers, Uwe Hirschberg, Moshe Feldenkrais and Gabrielle Roth. The many teachers of Theatre and Ritual Technologies. The generative environment at The Somatic School. Also the Medicines of Crow, Stone, Olive Tree, Big Waters and Song.

And to Shad and Akash and the beloved chosen family that holds me so well here by the sea on Albion Isle.