Findhorn Nonviolence Intensive
14th – 20th July 2012

In this workshop we will explore the inner work that NVC opens the door to, refining our connection to our deepest dreams and hopes for a better world. We’ll explore the changes in relationships that this work invites, the light it can shine on all the ways we interact – with lovers, friends and colleagues, as well as with the social systems and power structures within which we live. We’ll look at ways to ground this new awareness in social change work and other practical action that can move us towards the kind of world we want to live in.

This is the sixth annual Findhorn NVC Intensive, and follows on from the 2006 visit of the founder of NVC, Marshall Rosenberg, to Findhorn.

For more information and to book, visit the Findhorn Nonviolence Intensive course website.

NVC Community Camp
Saturday 2nd June – Saturday 9th June 2012

From the “Our Vision” page on www.communitycamps.org:

“Our vision for these camps is to offer spaces for adults and children to experience community together whilst also learning and living NVC. Our intention is to stay ‘learning live’: we anticipate that the many joys and challenges of day to day living together, with people of all ages, within a natural environment, will be fertile ground for new insight, understanding and a very practical experience of NVC consciousness in daily life. Within this we intend to move away from resorting to strategies such as children being asked to be quiet or excluded so that adults can “learn” and rather explore creative and compassionate ways to support self-connection, self empathy, choice in the moment, and find new ways of meeting everyone’s needs.”

For more information visit www.communitycamps.org.

Theatre of the Unknown
18th May 2012, 18:30 pm

Venue: Filosofisk center/Cafe Gaia, Vestergade 43, Aarhus C, Entre 100kr
Cost: 100 DKR
Contact/ enquiries: Mathias Granum, mathiasgranum@yahoo.dk.

It looks like I will be performing at the Norre Vosborg festival, the biggest storytelling festival in Denmark, in September. More news when we have it….

Prayerful Singing with Leo and Stella Sofer
27th March 2012, 7.30 – 9.30pm

Time: 7.15 for prompt 7.30 start
Venue: Studio One, Hawkwood College (view map)
Cost: A contribution of £5 to £7 (sliding scale) is requested

We will sing songs from Taize, a monastic Christian community in France, whose simple four part songs are easy to learn and sung over and over in a prayerful, heartfelt way. We also love the Harmonic Temple songs of Nickomo Clarke, and also songs from the Gospel tradition. The evening will feature a mix of these and other sources.

Theatre of the Unknown
11th February 2012, 7:00 to 8:45pm

Venue: Filosofisk center/Café Gaia, Vestergade 43, Århus C
Entré: 70kr
Kontakt: Mathias Granum: 505545467, mathiasgranum@yahoo.dk

Theatre of the Unknown
23rd March 2012, 8:00pm to 9:45pm

Venue: The Open House Hall (formerly The British School)
Five Valleys Foyer (opposite Star Anise Arts Cafe),
1 Gloucester Street, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 1QG (view map)
Cost: £8 on the door, £6 in advance.

Tickets for the performance can be purchased at Star Anise in person
or by calling 01453 840021.

Star Anise will be serving Tapas from 6.30pm, for those wishing to have something to eat before the performance. The event will last approximately one and three quarter hours.

We all have an inner guide inside. Sometimes this guide speaks to us in dreams, and at other times in whatever interior language we are open to: images, words, music, flashes of inspiration. Stories are another such language. When we open to this language inside ourselves, our guide can become an Inner Storyteller.

Would you like to strengthen your connection to your inner world and your creativity?
This workshop will offer you the chance to open up more to your intuition and inner guidance. Working with the language of fairy tales, we will learn more about creative energy, deepest longing and our heart’s desire. Practicing the skills of Intuitive Storytelling, we will open up to our inner visualising and inner listening, and invite our intuition to express itself through us. Telling such stories requires presence, self-compassion and trust. Together we will create an atmosphere of safety and mutual support that facilitates this tender, powerful exploration.

• Venue:  Oslo
• Language: English, with the possibility of partnerwork in  Norwegian/Scandinavian
• Tuition and full board cost: 2000 NOK
  Concessions available for students/ unemployed.
• Booking: contact Ylva Sjaastad, +47 9759 5978, ylva.sjaastad@gmail.com

Feedback from Previous Introductory Workshops…

“I signed up to this course with a feeling that this retreat was not any ordinary storytelling course – and it certainly was not. By the end of the course I felt unusually inspired and nourished, and that my creativity and love for stories had been renewed.

The working method which Leo introduced felt a bit like combining meditation with creative storytelling with an emphasis on fantasy and connection to the intuition.

Leo’s years-long studies into both the outer and the inner stories has made him a gifted storyteller, a patient and kind teacher and a creator of touching tales and wonderful stories.

A safe and heart-opening atmosphere was quickly built up in the group due to Leo’s honest and generous and wise presence.

This retreat gave such joy to my soul, and I hope to continue this type of work in other workshops with Leo Sofer.”

Ina Eskildsen, Psychotherapist, Teacher and Storyteller, Denmark

“When I went to Leo Sofer’s course on intuitive storytelling I had already worked a bit with improvised storytelling, but the workshop changed my attitude towards the work and gave me a new and much more meaningful approach that made it much deeper, alive and colorful. We entered a place where new stories came alive in an effortless way even though it was quite shaky to make stories on the spot in front of a group. I have continued the work with a colleague and entered a new unknown world of wonderful spontaneous stories from a store that never dries up. I get suprised over and over again that it is possible to ask a question or raise a topic and get answers from the intuitive stories. I have also told spontaneous stories in front of different audiences together with my colleague after the workshop and am amazed that it is possible to make interesting stories that work on the spot. I am very grateful for Leo’s workshop and his work has inspired me deeply.”

Ylva Sjaastad, Storyteller and Singer, Norway

I like how Leo, with great sensitivity and insight led us, the participants, step by step into the world of intuitive storytelling. From the very first day Leo managed to create an atmosphere of openness and trust in the group, which was a great help in overcoming psychological obstacles to the endeavor of telling intuitively. I learned to value the scary thrill of ‘being at the edge’, and leaving my comfort zone in order to follow where the stories led. I was amazed that every participant on the last day was able to tell an interesting and vivid half-hour-long story, completely from intuition. But more than telling stories, these 5 days have given me a chance to experience the value of honesty, presence and deep acceptance, in relation to creativity and communication. I feel I will take some of that with me in my way of communicating with groups, and in my life in general. I am grateful for that experience.

Mathias Granum, Music Therapist and Storyteller, Denmark

I was one of the two danish participants that have sneaked into the fairlytale house where this course being held in Norway, and it was really worth the travel. Leo Sofer’s intuitive stories are something quite special, but we all have intuition, and now we have got inspiration to use it in new ways in our stories.

Anna Grethe Bech

I had the great pleasure of attending this course. It was very good training in listening to what arises spontaneously from within – and wouldn’t you know, it was stories!! But not only that – I have become better at following what spontaneously arises in many situations – and it is incredible useful! I´m looking forward to next time I get the opportunity to attend a course again.

Anne Hungnes

I am super hungry for more. This was so good for me, for I was incredibly scared when I arrived, and just so positive when I left. And the people were fantastic!

Yngvill Sandnes

I experienced Intuitive storytelling as a way of being together which connects people together in harmony. It was like going into a new and unknown world. It was deeply meaningful and calming to find inward springs and allow them to pour forth. The treasures in the inner landscape took forms that were alive, multitudinous and full of meaning. Our different natures became so clear, like musical instruments with a deep, different beautiful sound. The openness was pleasant, full of meaning and educational.

Inger Nitter

The deepening trainings are intended to help people develop their skills of intuitive storytelling. The group size is limited to eight participants, to give all participants the opportunity to tell a story to the whole group and receive feedback from Leo, and to work one to one with Leo (on personal or practical aspects of their work with intuitive storytelling. There will be many opportunities to practice telling intuitive stories, in pairs and small groups. These retreats are also a chance to deepen into the experience of a supportive creative community as we live, cook, eat and work together for four days.

The next deepening training will be:

Friday the 10th of February from 5.30pm to
Tuesday the 14th of February, 5.30pm

However, there is the possibility to stay until Wednesday morning. That way we can enjoy a Tuesday evening of celebration and informal storytelling experiments. No extra fee will be charged for dinner tuesday evening or breakfast wednesday morning.

Location:
A modern and comfortable holiday house in peacefull surroundings at Ajstrup Strand, Rughavevej 19, 8340 Malling (10km south of Århus), Denmark.

Travel:
Nearest airports are Aarhus Airport and Billund Airport. There are trains and buses going to Malling. Bus 302 from Aarhus stops 500m from the venue. You can check the times at http://www.rejseplanen.dk/
If your journey from Malling to the holiday house isn’t smooth, we can also organise to pick you up at Malling station.

Practicals:
Mathias Granum is organising the event, and will take charge of cooking. All participants are asked to help out twice per day with tasks such as dishwashing and chopping vegetables. The meals will be healthy, vegetarian and to a large extent organic. It is the intention to take care of special dietary needs you might have, and you can contact Mathias to express such needs.

Costs:
Single room: 4600 DKK
Double room: 4200
Mattress in living room: 3800

(Depending on the number of participants, we can not guarantee single rooms for everybody.)

These prices include all meals, accomodation, teaching and attendance at a public performance with Leo on Saturday evening.

Booking:
To apply: Contact Mathias Granum, mathiasgranum@yahoo.dk.

Feedback from the last Deepening group

“Leo Sofer is a heart-warming mix of a humble teacher, a powerful storyteller and a compassionate human being with a true longing to reach out to his listeners and convey meaning and love through the stories he receives. In the ongoing workshops on intuitive storytelling splendidly and caringly lead and facilitated by him, he is part captain, part co-explorer in a true voyage of exploration into the realms of the unknown and the unseen. As a professional storyteller with a longing that echoes his own, I can’t stress enough how invaluable these workshops are for me and the development and tuning of my craft and my connection to the vast landscapes of symbols, myths and images that we all share on a deep, deep level. The workshops are intensely meaningful for me, both as a human being and as a conveyer of stories. Well, not that there’s a need to separate the two. The telling of stories is intrinsic to being human. The main question is: What stories DO we tell? And how do they affect our world, both inner and outer? Through Leo’s workshops, I am strengthening my bond to the stories that are told from the heart. The stories that mend and the stories that reveal.
We need those stories.”

Torgrim Mellum Stene, Storyteller, Norway.