Re-Gathering
A retreat to bring us together, when so much is breaking apart
Next weekend: 26th - 28th September 2025, Sevenoaks, Kent
Are you concerned for the future?
We’re witnessing global politics, ecosystems, and societies unravel as technological advancements storm ahead, how do we prepare?
Re-Gathering is a place to explore how to respond to this time of meta-crisis together with others.
The Issue
In a world that feels confused and divided, our connections become more vital than ever. Yet the demands of ‘modern life’ mean we’re only becoming more disconnected from the people we live with, and the places we inhabit.
Research shows us that in times of crisis, strong ties in our communities help us resource ourselves and recover better, providing the care and support we need as our lives change around us.
The Invitation
‘Re-Gathering’ is a weekend exploration into the intersecting crises we face in our society, grounded in the local landscape. It is s a place to slow down and ask:
How do we prepare for a future we cannot know?
Join us amongst the trees, waters, plants and animals of the region, and consider what this time means to you, and how you might like to respond and contribute.
Re-Gathering, Bath, August 2025
Why ‘Re-Gathering’
To ‘Regather’ means to ‘prepare to continue to do something difficult’ or to ‘bring back together again’ - this is what we’ll explore; how ‘togetherness’ helps us do something we can’t do alone.
We use the word ‘retreat’ because it helps people find us, but language is limiting - while there is space to stop, slow down and simplify, it is not a place to switch off from the realities of life, in fact, it is a chance to face into more of life in all it’s contradictions and possibilities.
As a small group of people with shared questions, concerns and hopes for our futures, we will ask how we might steady ourselves in our bodies and minds as the world become mores complex. We’ll spend time sharing between us, the resources, ideas and practices we’ve found helpful in our own lives, and how they shape the ways we, in our organisations and communities, can take action.
Re-Gathering, Bath, August 2025
“This… is a call for action - difficult, courageous, contentious action. It is a call to find our moral compass, face what is happening in the world, show up and play our part. It is a call to nurture our humanity, value life, value others, value the future and stay true.
We must embrace our agency, however tiny that may feel.
We are all complicit in co-creating the future.”
— Jean Boulton, Author & Academic, from her work on The Dao of Complexity
Jean joins us at Re-Gathering to share her thinking on complexity and navigating change in September
Over the weekend, we’ll ask questions including;
‘What it is to be where we are now’ and ‘How might we co-create the future’.
Blending experiential learning with relevant theories and frameworks to explore:
Our Selves
What is our personal relationship to what is happening in the world, what do we want to offer and how might we care for ourselves at this time of such change?
Our Place
What do we know of our ‘bio-region’ and how might a closer relationship to the nature in our area help build resilience & sustenance for the future?
Our Community
What can we achieve together that we can’t alone? What binds us together? What keeps us together? What does our community need from us?
What can I expect?
As well as working experientially and with nature we spend time exploring the theories and approaches that help us navigate this territory of change, resilience, futuring. Our work is gratefully informed by many great thinkers and teachers who’s ideas, thinking and practices we’ll learn from over the weekend. We also share a resources pack to read before arrival. Click the links below to learn about our main influences.
— Jean Boulton, Complexity Thinker, Academic & Author, Jean joins us at Re-Gathering
— Joanna Macy, The Work that Reconnects, practices we’ll share throughout the weekend
— Otto Scharmer, Theory U and the Presencing Institute, which shapes the retreat design
— Nora Bateson, Warm Data, Katy & Juliet are both trained Warm Data Hosts
— Rob Hopkins, Unleashing the imagination to create the future - forms part of our final day
What will we do?
Have the opportunity to face some difficult truths in a supportive space of group care and mutual understanding
Creative and nature based exercises to physically connect you to the local area; its geology, ecology, flora & fauna, waters and soils
Group conversations to share personal experiences, fears and hopes about the future of our species, homes and families
Nourishing communal meals, using locally sourced ingredients cooked and served with care
Grounding relaxation practices to calm, centre and balance; qi-gong and gentle movement
Solo time to contemplate, journal, reflect, draw, read or think
Regathering, Summer 2024
What might I leave with?
We’re careful not to assume outcomes, they will be unique to each of you. We do aim to create a spacious and safe environment for personal shifts in perception, knowing and understanding. In our experience, you will leave feeling different than you arrived with increased capacities for navigating our complex world, such as;
Skills to calm and regulate your nervous system, and practices to carry back with you
An understanding of what resilience means to you and how to work with it
A greater understanding of some theoretical frameworks from systems and complexity thinking and how they might support us at this time
Inspiring stories, ideas and resources to put into practice where you live
An informed ability to hold different emotions together at once
A renewed sense of the importance of relationships at this time, and some new companions
"If you want to affect and impact outer change, you need to cultivate the interior dimension first. That’s the leverage that will transform our relationships. And if we transform our relationships, we transform everything."
— Otto Scharmer, Senior Lecturer MIT, Founding Chair Presencing Institute, Author of Theory U.
The design of Re-Gathering is based on Theory U, and we’ll share from this work during the September weekend.
Facilitators
We are Katy & Juliet, friends and collaborators who care deeply about supporting others to learn, grow and adapt in our changing world.
We are hosts and guides for the weekend, not teachers or experts. We intend to create a space for easeful conversation and an environment where ‘in the moment’ learning is able to happen amongst the group.
We bring complimentary skills from combined decades of supporting individuals, organisations and community groups navigate emotional terrain to explore possibilities for the future.
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Psychologist, Coach, Facilitator, Artist, Mother, Music Lover, Avid Learner
I’m interested in what it means to re-discover community, as we ready ourselves for the complex challenges ahead. How do we hold eachother as we confront sorrow and potential of this time? How do we sow the seeds for a more connected, life-affirming future?
As a business psychologist I’m fascinated with how we evolve our culture and systems for a more joyful world. I bring expertise in learning and personal growth enabling people to become more aware of where they are now and the possibilities between them.
I bring 20+ years working in private and public sectors, for organisations large and small.
As a certified Warm Data Host, I’m continuously discovering how a shift in our perception can ripple out to new possibilities.
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Network Weaver, Coach, Embodied Facilitator, Forest Therapy Guide
After a decade working in advertising in London, leading brand campaigns, I was drawn to the complete opposite life and worked in remote corners of the world for an outdoor adventure company. This is where I found my deep appreciation and concern for nature and the extractive relationship our western culture has with it.
Since then, I’ve trained in ideas and methodologies that help people connect to themselves, each other and nature, and be in closer contact with what they feel about their futures - and our collective future as a society. I believe that we protect what we love, and if we can recognise that we are not separate from nature, we’ll care more respectfully for it.
I am a Network Weaver with social enterprise Onion Collective, working towards a new economy in West Somerset. I lead climate and leadership retreats for people in the creative industry, host climate conversations in my community and deliver learning programmes for organisations looking to have better conversations and listen with skill.
Our offering ‘in the gift’
This is the third weekend we’ve run - we are doing it because we feel strongly that we want to offer our skills and this is our contribution. We offer Re-Gathering ‘in the gift’ - the costs you see are to cover food and accommodation only, we will not financially benefit from the event, we don’t yet have a funder.
It’s hard to reach the people who might really benefit from these spaces, so we ask for your help - we have shared posters in schools, workspaces, community centres, but your word of mouth is so appreciated.
Perhaps you know someone who would benefit from being here? Or are you someone who would like to contribute financially to help someone else attend? Please email us if so.
Where we will be?
Re-gathering weekends are ‘place-based’, in different regions of the UK.
Drawing on the geology, history and ecology of the local area as a lens to view the effects of our environmental and social crises, and how connection to nature is such a needed part of our response.
Our next retreat is from 26th - 28th September in the Kent Downs
Based at The Quadrangle, a peaceful retreat centre in Shoreham on the River Darent nearest station is Sevenoaks.
There is a welcoming communal atmosphere, we share meals, spaces, river swims, walks, creative activities, and conversation.
The accommodation is a choice of your own room, or spacious dormitory style rooms, which sleep up to 10, and is a nice way to get to know others and further conversations.
Past Participants Say
Ready to Book?
Early bird pricing below is available until August 28th, after that price increases by £50 each.
All places include all food & activities but not transport.
Payment options available, please don’t let cost be a barrier to attending, lets chat about what’s possible.
Shared
A shared room
£350
SOLD OUT
Solo
A room to yourself