Facilitator Development Program

Spiral Journey International Facilitator Development Program

A 7-Month Foundational Program in the Art of Work That Reconnects Facilitation
Every year September through April

Co-Facilitators: Molly Brown, Constance Washburn, and Yulia Smagorinsky
(We are currently expanding our facilitation team; new members to be announced soon.)

Join an international cohort of people dedicated to the Great Turning towards a just and thriving future for all beings. Participate in our 7-month online learning community to develop facilitation skills in the Work That Reconnects.

“This Spiral Journey program has been life-changing. It expanded my experience and understanding of the art of facilitation, deepened my commitment to the essential work of decolonizing our minds and culture, and brought new inspiration, purpose and friendships into my life.” ~Carol Russel, 2021 cohort

The Spiral Journey International Facilitator Development Program (FDP) is designed to meet the needs of people who aspire to facilitate the Work That Reconnects, supporting emerging and experienced facilitators in deepening their theoretical understanding of the Work and developing their skills in facilitation so they feel confident in bringing the Work to their communities.
We give special attention to social justice issues and reframing the Work That Reconnects so it can serve to foster liberation for all. We especially welcome People of the Global Majority from around the world..

One’s ability to guide others through the Work That Reconnects is enhanced by one’s own personal work, knowledge of and engagement in social and ecological challenges, developing one’s skills as a facilitator, and working to dismantle the social systems and conditioning that induce oppressive and compliant behavior (often unconsciously). Our intensive program weave all these dimensions together.

Program Details:

An intensive 7-month online learning experience

The FDP will guide you through the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects while providing training to you as a facilitator. This is transformative, deeply engaged and experiential work. You will work toward your own liberation and decolonization of your mind.

We will actively work with difficult themes that will often be emotionally challenging. You will be expected to stretch and work with the discomfort that learning often entails. While we will support you in your learning and healing processes, we want to make sure you come prepared with skills to self-regulate your nervous system and support yourself through difficult emotions.

You will expand your capacity to facilitate the Work That Reconnects, which provides a framework for group processes, and creates a strong container in which workshop participants can show up fully and vulnerably to:

Reconnect with their inner truth as well as their greater human community and with the Earth and the more than human realms
Discover and affirm what they deeply care about and what is theirs to do in the Great Turning
Strengthen their creative and moral imagination
Actively envision a more beautiful livable future – name what they want for our world and our great-grandchildren.

The curriculum addresses four major “threads”:

I – The Work That Reconnects concepts and practices
We will review and expand on the core texts and deepen our understanding of the underlying concepts, theories, and practices of the Work That Reconnects.

II – Facilitation skills
This thread will explore group facilitation techniques as they relate to the Work That Reconnects with particular focus on creating a strong and safe container for working with strong emotions and diverse populations.

III – Decolonizing Our Minds and Building Inclusion
The evolutionary edge of the Work That Reconnects at this time is understanding the intersectionality of social injustice, racism, and environmental crises. In order to live in peace with the planet, we must learn to live in peace with our human siblings.

IV – Living the Great Turning
This thread offers suggestions for deepening our mindfulness and spiritual practices, our nature connection and human connections as well as expanding our activism and joy.

Our program offers monthly webinars and affinity caucuses, an online learning platform, study circles, prep work, and optional “cafes.” Webinars will be held the second Saturday of the month at two different times to accommodate worldwide participants. Caucuses will be offered on the fourth Saturday of each month.

The 2025/26 FDP will begin with opening webinars on September 13, 2025. The following webinars, homework, and study circles will follow the decolonized expanded Spiral of the Work, moving through Gratitude, Self Awareness/Social Location, Systems of Oppression, Honoring our Pain for the World, Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes and Deep Time, Liberation and Going Forth. The closing webinars will be in April 2026.

You will be expected to read one core textbook for each of the four threads along with other materials on environmental and political challenges, anti-oppression, social justice issues, facilitation skills, working with trauma, and living the Great Turning with support from mindfulness, nature connection, diversity, and joy.

This program was transformative and deepening in so many ways. It has nourished my commitment to Work that Reconnects with the wisdom of those guiding this program, and all of the Teachers they brought into it through readings, videos and podcasts. It has broadened the myceliums I am part of with fellow facilitators and those contributing to the great turning from all over the world. I feel especially grateful for having been connected with the five other women in my study circle – what an absolutely joyful, empowering, and encouraging space that is, and I am sure this is only the beginning. I have grown as a facilitator and as a relational being, and I am forever grateful to Mutima, Molly, Constance, and Joanna for continued commitment and love to this work!

Liene Jurgelane

Denmark/Latvia

Program Topics Include:

WTR theory
Systems thinking
Deep time
The Decolonized Expanded Spiral of the WTR (as developed by Mutima Imani)
Deep ecology
Confronting and exploring together current social, environmental, political, economic and spiritual crises
Facilitating WTR practices
Workshop design
Principles of inclusive, respectful facilitation,
Group processes
Awareness of power privilege, and systemic white/western domination and racism, as well as “best practices” for counteracting this social conditioning.
Exploration of how each of us makes the Great Turning real in our personal, spiritual and community lives.

Core Textbooks

Coming Back to Life, by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown
Facilitating Group Learning, by George Lakey
My Grandmother’s Hands, by Resmaa Menakem
Sacred Instructions, by Sherri Mitchell

Prerequisites:

The Facilitator Development Program is open to beginning and experienced facilitators in the Work That Reconnects. Prerequisites include:

1) Participation in at least 3 days (or 12 hours) of experiential practice in the Work That Reconnects retreats, workshops, ongoing study groups, or online workshops. The WTR Network maintains a calendar of upcoming events.

2) Read books: Coming Back to Life and Active Hope;

3) Diversity/Anti-Oppression study or training.

To learn more about how you can meet these prerequisites please go to our Resources page.

Our recurring workshop LIBERATION IN THESE TIMES is designed to meet both training prerequisites: 12-hour full spiral WTR as well as Anti-Oppression training.

For white-bodied applicants, we offer also FACING FRAGILITY – a recurring workshop that is designed to meet both training prerequisites: 12-hour full spiral WTR as well as Anti-Oppression training.

Structure:

Monthly 3-hour interactive webinars on Zoom (held at two different times) include experiential practices of the Work as well as presentations and small group discussions, and a midway 15 minute break.
Webinars will be held on the second Saturday/+1 day (UTC) of each month, September through April.

Webinar A: 3pm-6pm UTC Saturday, 8am-11am PDT/7am-10am PST, 11am-2pm EDT, 3-6pm Ghana, 4-7pm UK summer time/3-6pm UK winter time, 5-8pm Central European summer time/4-7pm Central European winter time, 6-9pm Egypt/Ukraine, 8:30pm-11:30pm India
Webinar B: 1am-4am UTC Sunday, 6-9pm PDT/5-8pm PST Saturday, 3pm-6pm Hawai’i Saturday, 8-11pm CDT/7-10pm CST Saturday, 6:30-9:30am India Sunday, 9am-12pm Peking Sunday, 11am-2pm Sydney Sunday

Affinity caucuses for white-bodied folx and people of the Global Majority will be offered on the 4th Saturday/+1 day (UTC) of each month, to process any issues of prejudice and oppression (racism, classism, patriarchy, sexism, ableism, white supremacy, etc) that have arisen within the program or within participant’s lives and work. One caucus will be for white-bodied people; the other for People of the Global Majority. Other caucus groups may form as needed.

These facilitated affinity caucuses will be offered each at two different times:

UTC: 4-5:30pm Saturday
UTC: 2-3:30am Sunday

Study circles will meet between monthly webinars for 2+ hours (time to be determined by study circle participants).

Participation in online forums, recommended individual practices as well as prep work (readings and videos) will require about 3-4 hours per week.

Participants will also plan and present a Work That Reconnects workshop (practicum). This practicum can be offered either in partnership with other participants or solo depending on location and resources

Application Process:

Applications are accepted on a first come, first serve basis, May through August 15th with a $50 non-refundable application fee. The application process includes an online or phone interview to mutually assess whether the course is a good “fit” for your learning goals and life situation as well as whether your experience will support you on this journey.

Tuition:

The cost of the 7-month program is on a sliding scale between $1,800 and $6,000. The more people who participate at the higher level, the more scholarships we’ll be able to give. If you are economically secure, we respectfully ask you to offer what helps you feel generous, rather than contracted, so as to support those who are experiencing financial hardship or live in less resourced regions of the world. (Thanks to Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams for this economic model.)
Once accepted into the program, a $750 deposit is required to hold your place. Scholarships are available on an as-needed basis and no one turned away for lack of funds.

“The world needs this practice now more than ever. Taking this course in the midst of such a pivotal moment in history really drove home how much it’s needed. Having entered in a state of burnout desperate for new direction, I now feel steadied like a lighthouse in the storm ready to help bring this nourishing way of metabolizing what we are living through to others. So much coming at us right now is intentionally nefariously designed to separate and isolate, seed fear and despair, accelerate collapse and suffering. Divided we fall has never felt so visceral. And this existential crisis of hope for a future is so clearly a turning point. The Work That Reconnects is more relevant now than all of its prior decades as we collectively find the will to carry on in service to the continuation of life on this beautiful precious planet.“

Shiloh Grace