Empowering Stories
embodied facilitation
Embodied facilitation takes the lived reality in the bodies who are present as its starting point. Commitment, co-creation and collective action become possible from there. I design spaces that welcome the plurality of voices existing in each individual, team and gathering. I facilitate each voice to bear their important contribution to the Whole. Collective intelligence is often skewed by social conditioning, implicit hierarchies and societal structures of oppression.
Through a decolonial ecofeminist lens, it becomes evident that personal and ancestral histories shape the physical experience of being in a space, team or project. I am dedicated to enabling the wisdom of all bodies to engage in co-creating a just and regenerative future.
I work in English, German, French and Dutch. Welcome to Empowering Stories!
Ana Gaïa
How I work
In my work the purpose is the compass. When I design a process with you, we will always start with clarifying the purpose to then use it as a measuring rod for making right choices. Co-creation is at the heart of how I work. Be it a large-scale gathering or organisational development or stakeholder activation – I co-create the specific process with a small group representing the key voices.
Embodied facilitation and process design need strong values: my trauma-informed lens, decolonial efforts and ecofeminist practices are core to designing and holding spaces that actually allow everybody to participate fully. Fostering resilience and nourishing a sense of community are necessary conditions for fulfilling the purpose and achieving intended results.
My preferred methods include:
- the council way
- participative visualisation
- dynamic facilitation
- art of hosting
- presencing theatre
- active hope rituals and eco-self practices
- visioning journeys and deep time work
- mindfulness practices
I employ the methods in a way that centers movement and somatic integration and enables neuroplasticity, so that participants and collectives are changed by the experience.
Embodied Facilitation Services
facilitation training and mentoring
I train facilitators in innovative, embodied approaches since 2016 in Belgium and Germany. Facilitation is a skill that serves teams and (event) organizations on all levels, so that reliable in-house capacity for facilitation and an understanding for group dynamics can't be underestimated. I offer accompaniment for facilitators to learn new methodologies and develop their skills. I mentor facilitators in the process of embodying effective and inspiring facilitation.
deep ecology facilitation
Today more than ever we need to reconnect to a sense of our ecological selves. My orientation in life and my facilitation are rooted in the insights and practices of the *Work that Reconnects* initiated by the groundbreaking and earthhealing Joanna Macy. Since 2011, I dedicate myself to enabling humans to reconnect to themselves, each other and our more-than-human nature through active hope practices. I offer this work for any kind of context to make the experience of resurging life-energy and grounding in purpose accessible wherever it is needed.
team and organisational development
I work with teams to step out of adversity and into complicity. The implicitly expected team culture is often to try cooperate without expressing grievances until it’s too late. When too much has accumulated, all well-intended attempts at updating the work process, the decision-making structures and management goals are in vain. It is possible to prevent this vicious cycle and instead develop habits and structures together that reinforce the atmosphere your team wants to work and live in. I guide and practice the reflexes with you to co-regulate out of situations of distress and thereby step into a flow spiral that fosters active hope and makes incredible things happen.
embodied design for large-scale gatherings
Many large-scale gatherings have huge potential: in the chosen angles to crucial questions, in the expertise in the room, in the diversity and commitment of those present. But far too oftern the actual effects remain negligible. With a little courage to step out of the known, it is possible to design large-scale gatherings where real-life experience and embodied intelligence create collective insight and commitment to action. These are gatherings where everyone has an impact on each other, so that the effect is exponential in the small-scale behavioural changes as well as in large-scale choices in organisations and policy-making. I advise you in the design of your large-scale gatherings and implement this design, train your facilitators and co-facilitate with you, as needed.
Somatic Ecotherapy
click here to visit Spiralling Life - my therapeutic work
The Foundations of my Work
Deep Ecology *Work that Reconnects* by Joanna Macy (workthatreconnects.org)
Theory U – Leading from the Emergent Future by Otto Scharmer (PresencingInstitute.org)
Dynamic Facilitation by Rosa Zubizarretta and Jim Rough (wisedemocracy.org)
Art of Hosting (Open Space Technology, World Café, Deep Democracy)
Mindfulness Teachings by Thích Nhất Hạnh (PlumVillage.org)
Post-Activism by Bayo Akomolafe (theemergencenetwork.org)
Dragon Dreaming by John Croft
Systems Thinking by Donella Meadows
Biosystemic Approach by Dr Jacques Fradin
Neurosystemic Integration by Verena König
Interpersonal Neurobiology by Daniel Siegel (mindsightinstitute.org)
Past and ongoing Projects
Contact me
I look forward to hearing from you!
Life unfolds
according to
the stories we tell ourselves
about the creative power we wield
about the magic we wage
about the extractive destruction we perpetrate and endure
about the oppressions that shape us
about the liberations that enable us
about the interbeing that creates us
about the deep knowing that unites us