EMPOWER: Women's Facilitation Training 2024

Our deepest wounds become our greatest gifts

Welcome to Empower. This is a three month container for women to learn embodied facilitation; holding space for groups to experience deep transformation and healing.

This training consists of three residential weekends and thirteen weekly online zoom calls designed for you to: 

• Practice a wide range of techniques and learn how to structure powerful workshops, ceremonies and retreats
• Form a tight knit community of supportive women as you learn and grow
• Undergo the inner work required to step into your role as facilitator

“This training is incredibly exhilarating, demanding, heartfelt, deep, meaningful and joyful. It will ask of you commitment, courage and surrender. In return you get amazing practical guidance and advice on how to create and facilitate workshops of any kind guided by the wonderful Gaia. The safe haven she created allowed every women in the training to find her gift and transform into a future facilitator to continue helping women connect and grow.” - Emel Gunay

Apply Here

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What You Will Gain

1. This training will empower you to be able to hold workshops and rituals of deep transformation
2. You will develop your own unique offering that is an authentic expression of who you are, and utilises your passions and gifts
3. You will be part of an online global network of femme leaders who are committed to empowering others, and creating spaces for growth and healing
4. You will deepen your relationship with yourself and be supported to work through fear, self-doubt and many other blocks that you will face when stepping into this work
5. You will reap the fulfilment of being in greater alignment with your purpose, whilst also serving others

You will have the necessary tools and experience to guide people in:

• Rituals to mark significant moments in their life - bringing depth and meaning to both challenging and celebratory transitions
• Meditations and visualisations that connect people to their inner worlds for grounding and insight
• Embodied and vocal expression which leads to greater confidence and freedom of being
• Feeling and expressing through the body, leading to a deeper understanding of self and somatic healing
• Regulating the nervous system, reducing anxiety and boosting immunity
• Connecting authentically with others, creating a sense of acceptance and belonging

Book a Free Discovery Call

If you want to speak to Gaia about the training programme, to learn more, and get a feel for her work you can book a free 20 minute discovery call. Click on the link above.

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The Mission

“What the world needs right now is more women in their power, believing they have something worth contributing, and the confidence to lead the way.”

Over and over in my work I see incredible, talented, wise women, longing to step into service and offer their gifts, who feel unable to do so because of paralysing self doubt, imposter syndrome, and a belief that they are not good enough.  

My mission is to support women to empower themselves, and each other, to realise that they are good enough, and that what they have to offer is exactly what the world needs.

If you recognise yourself in this, then you’re in the right place.

The power of this training is to help you realise that self doubt and imposter syndrome is normal, and in fact, most of the women who join, are here because they feel it too. 

This work helps you to strengthen the ability to hold yourself in that fear, and to coach you through it, so that you can find the confidence to feel the fear and do it anyway.

Who is this for?

If you have been touched by the healing power of group work and ritual, and you feel the calling to offer workshops that promote authenticity, vulnerability, connection and liberation, this is for you.

If you are ready to challenge yourself and be held accountable then you’re in the right place. 

This training is not a walk in the park, and many women have come face to face with some of their biggest demons, and critical voices, that are trying to protect you by keeping you small. This training offers you practices to help you move towards these feelings, and learn how to hold yourself in them. This is essential groundwork in the process of stepping up.

Many of the women who join this training are already offering some kind of group work or space for healing. This training will expand your skill set and teach you how to take people even deeper into their process of transformation.

This training is open to women/ femme flavoured folk of all backgrounds, including those identifying as non-binary womb folk, trans and cis women. If you’re not sure if this is for you, or you have any questions/ concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

"I feel like I am finally becoming the woman I had ignored and silenced for years and years. I trust life in a way that I hadn't done in a long long time. And it's true that some fears and insecurities are still with me sometimes. But I feel that now I am equipped to face them with love and compassion, to work with them and in time, to let them go. This training has let me hungry for change and I am determined now to be part of it, every day." 

- Mar Estrellas

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What You Receive

Contact time:

• 3 x Residential training weekends in Dartmoor
• 13 x 1.5 hour zoom calls in pods (groups of 4) led by your pod leader who is a graduate of this programme
• 2 x one-to-one hour long coaching sessions with Gaia to discuss your personal offering
• 2 X bonus Q&A zoom sessions
• On site photoshoot for headshots
• Photos of you facilitating that you can use to promote your work
• Testimonials from other participants
• Access to Gaia for troubleshooting 5 days a week by direct message for 4 months
• Access to private Whatsapp group to share with the group and ask questions

Lifetime access to the training portal which includes:

• The EMPOWER Training Manual (you will get a physical & pdf copy)
• 15 + 10 - 30 minute pre recorded videos
• Weekly homework activities and rituals
• Guided meditations and visualisations
• Ritual ideas and structures
• Access to my playlists for circles
• Reading list of essential books to develop your practice

Post Training Support and Opportunities:

• You will get the opportunity to submit applications to offer your work on True Nature - our online events platform for women (coming soon, soft launch planned for November) - You will get 1-1 support from one of our event coordinators with developing your offering, writing event descriptions, choosing good cover images, marketing advice, and being featured on a reputable platform.
• Be part of the growing Wild Woman community with access to a private channel for previous graduates to support each other and share offerings
• The opportunity to gain experience holding space on retreat by volunteering on our True Nature weekend retreats
• The opportunity to become a Pod leader for upcoming training programmes.

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I would wholeheartedly recommend the women's circle training. I feel so honoured to have been part of this. I didn't really believe it when we were told how much we would be stretched, and this turned out to be a genuinely life-altering experience both personally and professionally. Gaia is a wise, empathic and grounding facilitator and I learnt so much from her and the other women in the training.

-Roxy M

More Info about the EMPOWER: Embodied Facilitation Training

Guiding Principles

1. We are non-pathologising in our approach and welcome all parts of ourselves and each other
2. We encourage autonomy by advocating that every individual is capable of self-healing
3. We value the body and the mind equally, and see them as an integrated system that works together for deeper levels of healing
4. We hold compassion and curiosity as the keys to unlocking self acceptance as we journey towards uncovering our inherent wholeness
5. We actively lean into our edges and challenge ourselves to grow beyond our smallness into our full potential

The Four Pillars of the EMPOWER Approach

The EMPOWER approach to holistic healing and transformation can be boiled down to four pillars that work across the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual spheres of a person. While there is, of course, a huge overlap within each pillar, for the purposes of learning, they have been separated as follows:

Authentic Connection: Emotional Sphere

Authentic connection speaks to our basic need for connection and belonging. This module offers techniques to drop the masks and social scripts to create intimacy between participants. Participants build emotional literacy through deepening their connection to their body, and develop a culture of authenticity through sharing circles and embodied exercises that promote vulnerability. Through these practices participants are able to experience the healing effects of sharing past trauma with others, feeling less alone in their pain, feeling seen and heard, and most importantly, feeling accepted as they are.

Meditation: Mental Sphere

Meditation, as taught in this training, is about cultivating a relationship with our inner world. This means learning to understand the correlation between our thoughts, emotions, beliefs and behaviours. Meditation is an essential practice to cultivate as it supports participants to; develop a propensity for self-reflection, cultivate a strong centre that is essential for holding space in highly emotional settings, and equips students with the tools necessary to work through fear and self doubt that may arise during the process.

Embodiment: Physical Sphere

Embodiment is a wide topic, and in the context of the training programme, is about supporting participants to deepen the mind-body connection through an experiential understanding of how emotions show up in the body as physical sensation. We then explore how to work with the body and the nervous system to express emotion through movement, breath, voice and meditative practices. Embodiment is a highly creative aspect of the training, and students are taught how to employ different kinds of warm ups, techniques and exercises that work with the biology of the body, to shift group energy, and guide a group through the intention of a journey with greater skill and success.

4. Ritual: Spiritual Sphere

Ritual is the vehicle for creating an experience contained within time and space within which a transformational process can occur. Ritual allows the participant to suspend who they are in the rest of the world, and enter a liminal space, where they can connect to something greater than themselves, and invite in the possibility for change. Ritual is an important process for marking life transitions and can assist in making that change feel more real, through the clarity of intention and the experience being witnessed in community. Ritual often contains the other three pillars, and brings them together to be more than the sum of its parts. Reviving ritual in the West is core to this programme as it reconnects us with an ancient way of living, that supports us to feel a sense of belonging to ourselves, each other, and our planet.

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Experiential Learning and Support Structure

This programme has been designed to equip you to facilitate spaces that meet the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual spheres of a person. 

The programme itself has also been designed to meet your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual needs, so that you will grow and develop, not just in knowledge, but also in emotional and psychological depth.

Skills Learning (Mental)

You will learn tools and techniques from each of the four pillars; Authentic Connection, Meditation, Embodiment and Ritual. You will experience these tools on retreat, so that you understand their effects first hand, and will be given opportunities to practise guiding each other through various exercises. 

You will learn how to structure your workshops and retreats to create a programme that is capable of taking participants on a deep transformational journey with lasting impact.

As part of the skills learning you’ll be given a handbook, pre-recorded videos, and homework to complete.

Personal Growth (Spiritual)

Alongside the learning process you will come to experience the healing potential for the work we do, and you will inevitably gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your blocks. It is not uncommon to be faced with self doubt, imposter syndrome and fear as you move towards your goal of becoming a facilitator. This is a natural and necessary part of the process.

As we go through this journey you will be encouraged to lean into the aspects of the programme that feel more challenging for you, so that you can grow in experience and confidence. 

It is likely that your growth in this programme will affect many areas of your life, including your personal relationships, your priorities, your decision making processes, and how you move and operate in the world.

Peer Support (Emotional)

During EMPOWER you will get to know the other participants intimately, and form a strong sense of sisterhood. The learning process is greatly enhanced by the support of others, and offers a testing ground for you to try out new things, get things wrong, feel nervous, and ultimately better understand your unique gifts and way of space holding.

The programme is for 12-16 women in total, and you’ll also have a smaller pod of 3-4 women, who you will meet with weekly between retreats to check in, trouble shoot, and practice facilitation. Pods will be led by a graduate from this training who can offer their own experience, and support you through the process.

Practice Group (Physical)

You will be required to start your own circle, for you to practice and experiment with the techniques introduced in this training.

Experimenting with people you love and trust is an excellent way to find what works for you, and where you really shine. In this part we learn to befriend failure and find the courage to be bold.

This is one of the most important and challenging aspects of the training. This is where you will learn the most about yourself as a facilitator, and where you will develop an offering that is uniquely yours.

Training Dates

Level 1

Four Pillars Introduction

19 Mar - Opening Circle (Online) - 7-9pm

26 Mar - Authentic Connection (Online) 7-9pm

2 Apr - Meditation (Online) 7-9pm

9 Apr - Embodiment (Online) 7-9pm

16 Apr - Ritual (Online) 7-9pm

19 - 22 Apr - Residential Weekend (Dartmoor UK)

Level 2

Four Pillars In Depth

23 Apr - Authentic Connection (Online) 7-9pm

30 Apr - Meditation (Online) 7-9pm

7 May - Embodiment (Online) 7-9pm

14 May - Ritual (Online) 7-9pm

17 - 20 May - Residential Weekend (Dartmoor UK)

Level 3

Collaboration & Retreat Design

21 May - Retreat Planning (Online) 7-9pm

28 May - Retreat Planning (Online) 7-9pm

4 June - Retreat Planning (Online) 7-9pm

7 - 10 Jun - Residential Weekend (Dartmoor UK)

11 Jun - Pod Check In (Online) 7-9pm

25 Jun - Group Check In (Online)

9 Jul - Group Check In

This training is a full-on transformational journey! Gaia has a wealth of knowledge and she's an exceptional facilitator. In fact, what I'm truly here for is the depth she can present. Her beautifully crafted, educational, practical and emotional spaces were teaching me in ways that's been challenging, and still comfortable enough to open up and show myself from the very first week. I am now confident to step into a facilitator role either alone or with others, and feeling the support of sisters all around. Thank you so much, this program brought me a sense of aliveness I haven't had in my life before!

-Orshi Szeverics

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Investment

To join the training you must book the course fee, and an accommodation option

Course Fee

£2200 standard course fee

*There are 2 scholarship places offered at £1000 for people of colour, people with a disability, those from marginalised communities or challenging socio-economic backgrounds. Please get in touch to apply for a reduced rate place.

Accommodation Price

There is an additional retreat cost depending on which room type you select. This additional cost covers accommodation, food and use of facilities.

Own Room (Only 3 available) - Price for 3 retreats: £1650 (£550 per retreat) 

Twin Room (Sharing with 1 other) - Price for 3 retreats: £1350 (£450 per retreat)

Dorm Room (Sharing with 3 others) - Price for 3 retreats: £1000 (£333 per retreat)

Outdoor Pod (Private) - Price for 3 retreats: £1200 (£400 per retreat)

Camping - Price for 3 retreats: £1000 (£333 per retreat)

Payment Plans 

3 month, 6 month or 12 monthly payment plans are available. This can be discussed during your application interview if you are accepted onto the programme.

Deposit

The full cost of your accommodation option will be required as a deposit to secure your place on the training. This is required prior to the training start date and is non-refundable due to the overheads of the retreat venue and staff costs.

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Apply Here

Fill out this form to apply for the EMPOWER Training Programme.

Once we have received your application we will be in touch to arrange a 20 minute 1-1 interview. This is an opportunity for us to get to know you better and figure out if this course is right for you at this time. This is also an opportunity for you to ask any questions. 

Book a Free Discovery Call

If you want to speak to Gaia about the training programme, to learn more, and get a feel for her work you can book a free 20 minute discovery call.

"I also learnt so much about how I want to work with women in the future and how share my leadership skills. I also really appreciated having the opportunity to receive both feedback and appreciation from other women in the group. This helped my confidence grow and new skills and tools to be embodied for the future."

-Alice M

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Venue

Brimpts Farm lies literally at the heart of Dartmoor.  It is surrounded by both farmland and wilderness, with ancient monuments and river spots on the doorstep.

Travel

We create a whatsapp group in advance so that you can arrange a lift share or taxi share with other women on the retreat.

Public Transport

Train or bus to Newton Abbot (30 mins away) then taxi or car share.

Driving

From London Go to Exeter, then follow directions.

From Exeter (40 minutes) take the A38 towards Plymouth:

Take 2nd Ashburton turn off onto the B3357 to Two Bridges/ Princetown. Follow the road for 7 miles, past Dartmeet, up the hill, we are the 1st drive on the right.

From Plymouth (40 minutes) take the A386 towards Tavistock:

Take B3212 at Yelverton to Two Bridges (via Princetown). At Two Bridges turn right onto the B3357 towards Dartmeet. Follow the road for 5 miles, turn left immediately after the Hexworthy turning.

Meet the Team

Gaia Harvey Jackson - Lead Facilitator

Gaia is a retreat and workshop facilitator specialising in women's empowerment and embodiment. 

She has been holding playful and deep spaces for transformation since 2016. She is the Co-founder of True Nature, and a co-director of Symbiota Collective, the organisation behind The Psychedelic Society.​​

Gaia works with movement, dance, voice work, meditation, tantric practices and ritual to create spaces for people to test their edges, shed their skins, and find belonging in those they meet along the way.

Other organisations I have worked with include Medicine Festival, Morning Gloryville, Togetherness, Alter Ego Network, Ecstatic Dance UK, Noisily, Kilifi New Year Festival Kenya, Ecosystem Restoration Camps, Pinky Promise and Midwifing the Veils.

Training and Experience

• Trauma informed practitioner
• In relational therapy for 4 years
• Certified coach with the MOE Foundation
• In training with the Relational Life Institute
• Regular supervision to support practice
• Graduate of Yoga of Sound and Chocolate and Midwifing the Veils
• Worked with thousands of people over 8 years delivering group work
• 100+ hours with clients working 1:1

Find out about all Gaia's offerings here:

www.gaiaharveyjackson.com
 

Faye Gould - Lead Support

Faye is a creative writer, group facilitator and mother of three.

Years of leading charity work, religious community gatherings and corporate events lead to her dramatically burning out and struggling with her mental and physical health. Through unleashing her inner ‘wild woman’ and finding a new way of being in the world that isn’t performance driven, she has found a new radiant way of living that is aligned with her body, soul and spirit. One of her greatest joys is to create safe gatherings of women who support each other to access their inner truth and deepest power.

Maya Bahoshy - Pod Leader

Maya is a youth development and education professional with a focus on social innovation, experiential learning and leadership development; proven ability to design, manage and deliver complex projects; passionate about updating education to ensure the younger generation develop the skills and experience to design the future they need.

Experienced in the design and delivery of leadership and innovation focused trainings, working towards developing social leaders. Trainings have included user centred design thinking, innovation, leadership, public speaking, confidence, identity and diversity.

Nuvola Tivola - Pod Leader

Nuvola is a life coach, psychedelic assisted facilitator, mum, dancer and pastry chef

In the past few years Nuvola started a profound process of self-love discovery and personal growth which led her to train as an embodied facilitator on Gaia’s EMPOWER Programme, which had a deep impact on her life, both personally and professionally.

Nuvola’s purpose is to be in service and hold space for others with compassion, empathy and an open heart.

She has launched a mentoring program called "love designer". Through love, with authenticity and integrity we will grow to be the best version of ourselves.

Jenny Kirby - Pod Leader

Earth lover, artist, forager and apprentice herbalist.

Jenny facilitates women to reclaim themselves during mid-life and after. Jenny is passionate about myth, storytelling, and earth-based practices as a way to rediscover our lost wild and wonderful selves.

Jenny completed the EMPOWER programme in 2023.

Friedel Fink - Chef

Friedel Fink is a Holistic Health Educator specialised in women’ s health and Relationship and Sex Educator in schools and the community. She founded Big Sis CIC in 2020, a UK based wellbeing platform developing girl empowerment initiatives supporting girls 8-12 and their immediate support networks.

Through her interdisciplinary background, rooted in the arts, education and interactive community projects, she is passionate in finding creative and accessible ways that inspire for a positive body image, emotional resilience and a growing self-esteem cross culturally.