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ANNIE SPENCER, MA Oxon, PGCE London, Dip IDHP, is a ceremonialist and workshop leader. Annie has been running groups and trainings for 30 years and with a background in humanistic psychology and earth-based spiritual traditions, she is skilled at moving between spiritual teachings and the disciplines of psychology. She works here and in the US and writes regularly.
Annie has always been an innovator. In the 1980’s and ‘90’s she ran a series of two year trainings in humanistic psychology through Bath University and has a chapter on Self and Peer Assessment in Implausible Professions: Arguments for Pluralism and Autonomy in Psychotherapy and Counselling (1997). In the 1980’s she co-founded Openings, a centre for psychotherapy and groupwork that today is an integral part of the Bath psychotherapy landscape. In the 1990’s she was a founder member of the Independent Practitioners Network (IPN). From the 1980’s to the present day, Annie has had a private psychotherapy practice and supervises both individual and groupwork practitioners.
In the early ‘80’s a metis man found Annie in her homeland way in the far west of Cornwall. H introduced her to the teachings and practices of the First Peoples of North America. These teachings immediately resonated with her and their practice has been a part of her life ever since. She was apprenticed in a North American tradition in the ‘80s and has studied Mayan teachings from Guatemala for the past 11 years. Annie has undertaken ceremony at Macchu Picchu, sat sweatlodge in North America with elders from the Mi’kmaq and Ho Chunk Nations and has worked with Lorraine Mafi Williams, the Native Australian elder.
Annie does not forget the traditions of this land and hopes to enliven and strengthen them with the teachings she brings from other ancient ways. A well loved storyteller, Annie brings alive the old myths of this land and enthralls us with tales from across the world as she creates magical spaces for change to happen.
In 1997 Annie was invited to visit Romania to work with adolescents about to leave their orphanage. There she learnt how transforming time spent in nature can be for disturbed and angry young men. Since then she has been developing her work with young people and has been co operating on a programme of initiation for young people in the States for the past nine years. Annie is deeply committed to working with young people in a way that reconnects them with the land and instils in them a sense of belonging; that kindles their imaginations and sense of hope; and inspires them to look beyond the life they know in a creative way.
Currently, Annie works with groups, runs vision quests and other rites of passage, and works with individuals, either creating individual ceremonies or helping clients heal by working with them on the land. Annie also takes adolescents out onto the land to find their home and remember who they are (www.circleofliferediscovery.com).
As a teacher, Annie opens pathways for others – illuminating their life’s journeys. Her primary interest is the renewal of ancient ceremonial forms for creating a path of beauty upon Grandmother Earth.
Christiana is a shamanic healer, holds degrees as a Music Therapist, Breathwork Therapist, Beekeeper with a diploma in Women’s Consciousness, as well as a shamanic drum-birther. She has been working in the field of shamanic healing for almost thirty years. Her path is woven with Land and Song, through Tuvan shamanic initiation with deepening paths into the Spirit of Song: the keener, the healer, the birther, the journey-er, the stinger. Christiana is passionate about supporting and guiding people to find their path, heal, remember and re-connect with Mother Earth and all Beings. Visit her website: www.solavoima.fi
Ellie has completed a 5-year apprenticeship with Annie. With humility Ellie seeks to create ceremonies of beauty that resonate in the heart. In times of broken lineage, we are all shoots on old roots. Where our indigenous connections have been cut we seek a way to bring our self into good relationship with the Earth. Ellie’s passion is for creating healing ceremonies for the Earth and people and she is interested in crafts, storytelling and plant healing. Ellie spent 5 years learning at Bolads Kitchen, the school of Martín Prechtel in New Mexico. This has deeply nourished Ellie's being and informs her love of story, ritual and nature. Ellie is also a trained therapist offering bodywork and spiritual healing, reflexology, womb/ abdominal therapy, flower essences and offers classes and workshops. Connect and reach out for treatments here: www.awenhealingarts.com
Michelle was apprenticed to a Canadian First Nation storyteller throughout her 20’s. She travelled with him and supported in sweat lodge, dances and pipe ceremonies. Later, she spent 5 years as an apprentice to Annie. This focused on creating ceremony on these lands and has formed the basis of her sacred activism. These experiences gave her a different way of looking at the world, deepening her love of the land. They also inspired her to take action, so she returned to university in her late 20's to study Countryside Management. Weaving together her spiritual background and her scientific study, Michelle has become a devoted environmental activist and campaigner. She has promoted sustainable agriculture, spent a year on an anti-fracking protest camp in Yorkshire and is currently working for Somerset Wildlife Trust. Her connection with spirit and love of the land is at the heart of everything she does, no matter how subtly.
Christianne is a Healer, Teacher and Ceremonialist. As a young girl, Christianne always had a Spirit guide and friend. Her formal training started in 1998 at “Shamanka” shamanic training for women. Christianne was apprenticed to Annie and continues to enjoy Annie’s teachings and their strong friendship. She has also worked with many other gifted and inspiring Shamans from North America, Peru, the Amazon Rainforest and these lands. Christianne’s training has empowered her to work locally in Kent for Mind as an art therapist, undertake four years training in Counselling skills, working with counsellors and staff at a counselling charity service. She is a qualified Kinesiologist and Aromatherapist and currently teaches Yoga and Meditation. She always looks to incorporate her Shamanic gifts into all her practice. Her love of this work and her deep connections with Spirit continue to make her heart sing.
Andrea is a secondary school teacher with 10 years’ experience of encouraging young people to create community between themselves and a different relationship with the Earth, be it by learning survival skills, to learning about sustainability, to sleeping out under the stars. Andrea was Annie’s apprentice for 5 years and now aspires to moving into elderhood graciously, passionate about facilitating a more honouring way of giving back to Earth, our source, through ceremony.
John was lucky enough to stumble upon on the nascent mytho-poetic men’s movement 30 years ago, learning from Robert Bly, Michael Meade, Malidoma Some, Robert Moore, James Hillman and Martin Prechtel. He went on to study extensively with Pretchtel and Some, developing his own deep sense of ritual and the sacred, which he has sought to weave with traditions here, tapping into his skills as story teller, writer and life coach. He is now exploring how to create ‘life stage marking’ events. A sportsman and lover of the outdoors, as often as possible in his native Northumberland, he is also very aware, from over 35 years in banking and business of the need to ground these learnings in the practicalities of the day to day world we live in.
Cathy Shea has run workshops and trainings for over two decades. Cathy discovered Native American teachings in the mid 90s and these brought spirituality into the centre of her life. Being Irish by descent, she has long had a love for our Celtic Heritage and the two traditions have consistently fed one another on her journey. Cathy holds a deep love for our Mother the Earth and all that she provides.
Roger Duncan, MSc, trained as a biologist, Waldorf educator, wilderness rites of passage guide and a Systemic Family Psychotherapist. He was one of the pioneer tutors of the Ruskin Mill Education Trust working for ten years as the woodland manager and setting up the wilderness experience and transition programs. He is former Deputy Principal and Head of Education and Therapy at Ruskin Mill College and currently works as a Family Therapist for Oxford Health Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.