“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 FDP-cohort
The 2026/27 cohort Facilitator Development Program will begin on 12 September 2026.
Facilitated by: Molly Brown, Sara El-Sayeh, ian goh, Rukmini Iyer, Yulia Smagorinsky, and Constance Washburn
Join an international cohort of people dedicated to the Great Turning towards a just and thriving future for all beings.
Participate in our 8-month online learning community to develop facilitation skills in the Work That Reconnects.
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 8-month online learning experience
The FDP will guide you through the decolonized expanded 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 – Liberation from Oppression
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 expanding our mindfulness and spiritual practices. It invites us to deepen our commitment to the four dimensions of the Great Turning.
The Facilitator Development Program includes monthly live Webinars and live Liberation Labs, an online learning platform, study circles, prep work, and a practicum. Webinars will be held the second Saturday of the month (+1 day) at two different times to accommodate worldwide participants. Liberation Labs will be offered on the fourth Saturday of each month (+1 day).
The 2026/27 FDP will begin with opening webinars on 12 September /(+1), 2026. 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 2027.
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
Core Textbooks
- Coming Back to Life, by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown
- Facilitating Group Learning, by George Lakey
- Coming Together in the Great Turning, by Molly Brown, Aravinda Ananda, and Kurt Kuhwald
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
- Holding space and the inner work of a facilitator
- Meditations, visualizations and somatic practices
- 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.
Prerequisites:
The Facilitator Development Program is open to beginning and experienced facilitators in the Work That Reconnects. Prerequisites include:
- A minimum of 12 hours of embodied experience of the Work That Reconnects, facilitated by a qualified practitioner, with strong encouragement towards 18 hours where possible. This may include in-person workshops, multi-session online programs, or sustained study groups that engage the full Spiral.
- Completion of at least one core WTR text prior to the start of the program: Coming Back to Life and/or Active Hope
- Prior experiential learning on social location, power, privilege and systems of oppression.
- Completion of a short pre-program learning module (60–90 minutes, asynchronous), that will be shared after acceptance into the program. It will introduce:
- Community agreements and repair pathways
- Distinctions between safety and comfort
- Calling-in practices and harm-awareness
- Intersectionality of privilege, and of oppression
Strongly recommended (but not required)
- Prior experience with grief-work in a facilitated setting (Truth Mandala or equivalent).
- Experience with meditation, somatics, self-regulation
- Regular spiritual or grounding self-care practice
How to find workshops to meet the 12-hour WTR experiential practice prerequisite:
- any 12-hour plus offering at Spiral Journey programs
- any 12-hour full-spiral program (WTR Network Events)
- another way to meet the 12 hour WTR prerequisites is to take the free online Active Hope Training PLUS a minimum of a 3-hour WTR-based grief ritual, such as a truth mandala.
To learn more about how you can meet the Diversity/Anti-Oppression study prerequisites please go to our Resources page.
Spiral Journey offers the following anti-oppression/liberation programs that meet the prerequisites:
- Inner and Outer Landscapes of Oppression, facilitated by Rukmini Iyer
- Facets of Being, facilitated by Sara El-Sayeh and Yulia Smagorinsky
- Facing Fragility, facilitated by Leah Pearson and Yulia Smagorinsky
Program Structure:
The Facilitator Development Program includes monthly live Webinars and live Liberation Labs, an online learning platform, study circles, prep work, and a practicum. The live sessions are based on Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), therefore the start times will shift in countries that practice daylight savings. Please find your local times here.
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 March.
- 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
Liberation Labs
In the spirit of WTR, our Liberation Labs are monthly spaces of inquiry and practice, where we come together to explore the intersections of inner work, social justice, and collective healing.
These sessions are not about achieving quick fixes or resolutions. They are laboratories of courage and care, places where we can name what is alive, experiment with new ways of being in relationship, and reflect on how systems of oppression and liberation show up in our lives and in our facilitation practice.
By calling them labs, we acknowledge that this work is emergent and experimental. We do not arrive as experts, but as learners willing to stretch, stumble, and grow. Together, we engage in dialogue, embodied practice, and reflection, resourcing ourselves to face the challenges of facilitation in a fractured world.
Liberation is not only about dismantling what harms, but also about nurturing what makes us whole. These sessions invite us to imagine and practise more liberatory ways of working and living, rooted in interdependence, reciprocity, and the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
These facilitated Liberation Labs will be offered on the 4th Saturday/+1 day (UTC) of each month at two different times:
Group A: UTC: 4-5:30pm Saturday/ 9am-10:30am PDT/8am-9:30am PST
- Group B: UTC: 2-3:30am Sunday(=4th Saturday + 1 day)/7-8:30pm PDT/6-7:30pm PST
Study Circles
FDP participants will be assigned a study circle to practice facilitation aas well as giving and receiving feedback. The study circles are self-organized. They will meet between monthly webinars for 2+ hours (time to be determined by study circle participants).
Prep Work, Study materials and Practice in between live sessions
FDP participants commit to engaging in online forums, recommended individual practices as well as prep work (readings and videos) Please expect about 3-4 hours per week or more.
Practicum
Participants will plan, facilitate and submit a report on a 3-hour Work That Reconnects workshop as their practicum. This practicum can be offered either in partnership with other participants or solo depending on location and resources. They can be offered in person or online,
Goal-setting and the Participant Centered Approach
FDP participants will be asked to set their own goals to follow, review and adjust throughout the program.
Spiral Journey takes a participant centered approach. As a participant, you will get the most out of the program by assessing where you are and where you want to go. Spiral Journey offers an abundance of resources and learning modalities. You will choose what is most important to you. You will NOT be graded.
Application Process:
Early bird reduced application fee through April 30th.
Applications are accepted on a first come, first serve basis, April through August 15th with a $50 non-refundable application fee (reduced application fee available for those applying for a scholarship). The application process includes an online 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.
- Fill out and submit the application form and pay the application fee
- The Spiral Journey Team reviews your application and you are assigned a mentor
- Invitations to an interview are sent out
- Online interview with you assigned mentor one of the SJ facilitators
- If you are accepted, you will receive an invitation into the FDP and you will be asked to pay a deposit by August 15th.
Returning participants please use the abbreviated application form.
Tuition:
The cost of the 7-month program is on a sliding scale between $1,800 and $6,000, with an option to apply for partial scholarships. 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