Courses Overview >> Short courses >> Soulful Connection with Trees 2020

Soulful Connection with Trees 2020

Large Southern Oak
Key Info: 
  • Identify common tree species using a range of techniques
  • Learn about different tree species' place in myth, legend and folklore
  • Learn how to interpret tree ‘body language’, how the shape of a tree can tell you its life story

With Kara Moses and Robin Bowman

A weekend of connecting deeply with trees in diverse ways, from identifying species and understanding basic tree biology, to intimate sensory experience and deep soulful connection.

Booking Deadline: 31 July 2020*

11th Sep to 13th Sep 2020
Fee: 
£ 360.00
Course fees include all meals and accommodation, field trips, materials and all teaching sessions. The programme will run from Friday to Sunday afternoon, and includes two nights simple and private accommodation and all vegetarian meals from th
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e first lunchtime you arrive through until the lunchtime before your departure. We recommend attending this course as a fully residential participant however you may choose to book as a non-residential participant. Please call 01803 847237 for more details. Collapse
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Trees have always held a special place in human culture as sources of not only food, fuel and practical use but creative inspiration, mythic symbolism and spiritual significance. Have you ever wondered if trees can communicate, and how? Or how they grow, and what their shape tells us about their lives? Or how to identify different species without even looking at the leaves, and what their presence might tell us about the soil, water or other living beings in the surrounding landscape? Or perhaps even what it feels like to be a tree.

Over this weekend we'll connect deeply with trees in diverse ways, from learning to identify species and understanding basic tree biology to intimate sensory experience and deep soulful connection. We'll learn about their uses and services, myths and folklore associated with them and cultivate a whole new appreciation for our wooded friends.

This weekend course uniquely blends practical field ecology and deep nature connection. Together we'll learn to:

  • Identify common tree species using a range of techniques
  • Learn about different tree species' place in myth, legend and folklore
  • Learn how to interpret tree ‘body language’, how the shape of a tree can tell you its life story
  • Understand basic tree biology – how they grow, live and communicate with each other
  • Step into the secret world of trees
  • Connect with trees using dynamic multi-sensory awareness techniques for heightened awareness and deep connection with nature
  • Tune into the subtle energies of trees for spiritual healing • Develop nature observation techniques to build into your daily life

 

*The Booking Deadline gives us an accurate idea of course participant numbers at approximately 6 weeks before the course is due to run, at which point we confirm the course, add additional time for people to book on or cancel the course. We encourage people to register early for courses as places are limited.

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With Kara Moses and Robin Bowman
Kara Moses

Kara Moses

Kara Moses is a facilitator of social change, nature connection and spiritual ecology, combining all three wherever possible. She is passionate about rewilding, seeing the transformation of self and society to be more deeply connected and life-affirming as an essential part of this work alongside widescale ecological restoration. Her passion for the natural world also finds expression in writing, political activism and practical ecology.

She is particularly interested in real-world applications of nature connection and works with diverse groups to bring the natural world into spheres of society including architecture, activism and social change, creative arts, personal resilience, spirituality, sustainability, and climate change adaptation.

She teaches and facilitates at various education centres including EcoDharma, St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, and the Centre for Alternative Technology, where she also manages woodlands.

Robin Bowman

Robin Bowman

Robin has run nature connection and wilderness skills and awareness events and camps with a variety of organisations, charities and schools for 15 years. Many moons ago he was also one of the founding members of Landmatters Permaculture Community, and lived in a bender he made out of hazel for 5 years. Nowadays as well as being an integral part of the Art of Mentoring and 8 Shields movement in the  UK, Robin currently runs Hunger Games themed camps for teenagers through WildWise as well as working with young prisoners and recovering adult addicts for the charity Write to Freedom. Robin manages a large woodland called Moor Barton Rewilding Project which he manages as a venue for organisations to run camps, to rewild people and for the land to rewild itself and increase bio-diversity. In his 'spare time' (ha ha ha) he lives with his young family in the middle of Dartmoor running a smallholding.. Robin shares his skills, knowledge and experience with passion and humour.

If you would like to book onto one of our short courses, you will need to create an account. This is a simple process of choosing a username, email address and password. Once you have created an account you will receive a verification email. Please click on the verification link within to have full access to the site and to make your booking. (You may need to  check your spam folder if you do not see this email.)  We will email you confirmation of your payment and any further communication about your course application.

Residential accommodation for "Changing the Frame"  is at Higher Close, a 20 minute walk from Schumacher College. All meals will be provided at the college.

A place can not be guaranteed unless we receive your deposit or payment on your chosen course. If you would like to apply for a bursary, please do this before making your course application.
 

Short Course Bursaries create an opportunity for an individual to experience the powerful transformative learning by joining a course that assists the participant to inspire their wider community and benefits from the participant’s own unique contribution. It is our hope that our bursaries support a wide cross section of participation on our short course programme. The number of bursaries available is limited, competition is strong and funding is not always available for every short course. Please be aware that most bursaries are in the region of 10% – 20% of the course fee so please be prepared to raise funding from other sources.  A bursary award is not intended to cover travel or incidental expenses.

Applications are viewed on a case-by-case basis and we are unable to enter into discussions on any decisions. We generally have many more applications for bursaries than we have funding available. We can only offer one bursary per person per year and priority is given to those who have not attended the college or received a bursary before. To help us support as many people as possible, please only apply if you would be unable to attend the course without a bursary.

How to apply for a bursary

NB: Please do not pay your deposit for the course yet. Any applications received where a deposit has been paid will be rejected and the deposit refunded.

Six weeks before the course is due to start all bursary applications will be considered and responded to.  If successful you will be required to accept our Bursary Terms and Conditions.

Please answer the following:

  1. What does a bursary mean to you?
  2. How will your attendance on this course benefit the wider community?
  3. If your financial situation justifies you applying for a bursary, how much are you able to contribute towards attending this course?
     

Please be prepared to supply an appropriate reference in support of your application.

More about our growing areas and philosophy

We follow ecological cycles as much as possible. Much of the food is grown in the five and half acre agroforestry field – in a system of alley cropping and in the developing forest garden. The field also has fruit trees and bushes; young nut trees; a flock of pasture fed poultry; two wild life ponds, a craft and pollinator garden and a hazel and willow coppice.

Other areas include two herb gardens; four polytunnels; a perennial no dig vegetable garden and several fruit areas. We compost our garden and kitchen waste for use on site, and use green manures for fertility building.

Our students find their time engaging with food growing, and all it entails, a truly transformative time.   Our gardens are as much about nurturing people as plants, and hundreds of students have found the contact with the land and soil to be a rich learning journey.

Integral to the College’s international learning community, you will get to know students, staff and volunteers through daily meetings and shared activities. There is also a diverse programme of events and evening talks, offered by college residents, visiting teachers and local experts.

Help & Enquiries

 Admission Enquiries
email us  
+ 44 (0) 1803 847212