Unfolding Together
Transformational Catalyst Gathering
How can we respond open-heartedly to the challenges and opportunities of our times? By leaning into a wider web of belonging, practice and collective action.
Unfolding Together is a 4-day experiential gathering and a welcome to a global network of transformational practice and action. We hold the paradox of witnessing the breakdowns in our world while sensing the deep interconnectedness that unites all life. From this deeper intelligence, we embody a range of practices at the intersection of the inner, interpersonal, and systemic, and catalyze projects and collaborations that care for the web of life.
Upcoming Dates and Location:
15-19 October 2025 - Casa Tilo, Barcelona, Spain (full; apply for waitlist below)
2026 dates in Europe and North America coming soon (sign up for our newsletter below)
Why?
The purpose of Unfolding Together is to cultivate a living network of conscious changemakers rooted in shared transformational practices, where we unfold together into our deepest potential and bring forth projects that serve life.
This initiative grew out of a deep longing for companionship and mutual support, to take compassionate and courageous action to contribute to the world. Our intention is to co-create an empowering community of practice, to face the complex social and ecological challenges of our times.
Beyond personal growth and interpersonal belonging, we aspire to collaborate in co-creating more life-affirming societal structures, including economic, justice, and governance systems that are cooperative and restorative.
What the Gathering Looks Like
This gathering is both a practice field and a creation space. We weave together transformational practices with hands-on project work, so that what we create arises from deep connection to self and life.
Daily Rhythm
Morning: Practices in the personal, interpersonal & sourced realm.
We ground ourselves in safety, love, presence, and connection. Through embodiment and relational practices (Nonviolent Communication, Internal Family Systems, Transformational Connection, etc) we create a shared framework and language that support us when we meet obstacles.
Afternoons: Co-Creation & Project Work
Longer sessions are dedicated to collaboration and project incubation. We’ll have the space to move our shared and individual projects forward, alone or together. Options include one-on-ones, mini-incubators, and collaborative creation time. We practice grounding in already-here-ness, so we create from trust.
Evening: Nourishment & Celebration
We come back together to restore and connect through singing, dancing, or simply enjoying each other’s presence. Of course, if inspiration flows, you can keep on creating.
Why We Hold It This Way
We believe that when we are resourced enough, when we are nourished by community, love, and presence, we can step fully into our potential and create from integrity and aliveness. Alone, much of our energy goes into survival and we get way less done. Together, we create the ground where life can unfold and projects that serve humanity can truly come alive.
About Self-Responsibility & Emotional Safety
A core intention of Unfolding Together is to invite us all into self-awareness and self-responsibility. While we’ll be co-creating a powerful and potentially transformation space, it will not be a held therapeutic container.
In moments of intensity, challenge, or triggering, our invitation is that all of us stay connected to our bodies and needs, and take space when needed. The hosting team will be available for support while also caring for their own energy, and we also trust the mutual flow of support within the entire group. Ultimately, we invite all of us to take responsibility for our own emotional regulation, choices, and boundaries throughout the weekend.
We welcome you to bring your full self, and ask that you come with maturity, presence, and care for the whole field.
By registering, you agree to:
-Taking responsibility for your own experience during the event
-Practicing honest self-check-ins and honouring your limits
-Seeking additional external support, before, during, or after the event, if needed
Who is it for?
This gathering is for you if you feel the call to:
Be part of a community of conscious changemakers committed to taking action that serves humanity and all life.
Step into a nourishing and potent group field where you feel supported and invited to unfold into what truly matters.
Practice together in presence, truth, and embodiment, creating a shared framework that helps you move through challenges.
Own your own experience and acknowledge your projections.
Overcome obstacles and bring life-serving collaborative projects into the world, or take them to a next level.
Unfold collectively into what is possible and needed - for us, for humanity, for life itself.
Orient to a shared North Star: creating a world that works for all.
What comes next?
Regular in-person gatherings with abundant opportunities for co-creation and shared leadership, as well as apprenticeship learning and deepening practice
Monthly Zoom calls for community learning and connection
Weekly pod meetings (in person or on-line) of a small peer group for regular practice, support, and feedback
Collaborating on life-enriching projects in the world
For those who are so inspired, the option of a community-based journey toward CNVC Certification in Nonviolent Communication (more info here)
What are people in this network doing?
Here are some of the ways co-creators in this network are taking action:
supporting young community activists in El Salvador with tools for trauma healing
raising their children with as much love and presence as they can
facilitating multi-stakeholder natural resource disputes in the Western US
leading healing groups for men and women in prison
tending permaculture gardens and food forest projects in China and Japan
creating transformational residential communities and ecovillages
supporting nonviolence training in the Middle East
coordinating local cooperative economic exchange networks
training women doing domestic violence prevention work in California, USA
offering individual, couples, and family therapy and coaching
designing and facilitating integral sustainability educational programs for young adults
helping develop a nonviolent direct action climate and racial justice network in North America
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Sources of Inspiration
We draw on and integrate various practices, including:
Nonviolent Communication
Internal Family Systems Therapy
Aletheia Unfolding
Microsolidarity
Transformational Connection and Circling
Thomas Hübl’s Collective Trauma Integration
Restorative Circles
Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects
Permaculture and the Transition Movement
Multiple forms of meditation, embodiment, creative expression, and group ritual
Our Team
Emma van den Boogert is a group facilitator, purpose coach, and community builder with a deep passion for creating sourced and resourced spaces in which people can connect to the deeper intelligence that’s here. Her work is about emerging and embodying new ways of being; creating practices, frameworks and systems sourced from this field of presence. She studied Political Science and has a background in Nonviolent Communication, different we-space practices like Circling and Transformational Connection, parts work, bodywork, music and community building. She’s currently working as a career coach, facilitating The Singing Field and passionate about projects in the field where collective emergence meets societal and planetary impact.
Karl Steyaert is passionate about supporting people, communities, and organizations to thrive, fulfill their highest potential, and contribute to the well-being of all life. For over 25 years he has facilitated personal and collective transformation – catalyzing transformational community projects and offering coaching, training, group process & conflict facilitation across North America, Europe and Asia. A CNVC Certified Trainer and Assessor in Nonviolent Communication and a Level 1-3 trained Internal Family Systems practitioner, Karl has also undergone intensive training in Process Work with Arnold Mindell, Collective Trauma facilitation with Thomas Hübl, and Aletheia Coaching. More on Karl at www.karlsteyaert.com.
Richard Bartlett is enthusiastic about co-ownership, self-governance and building relationships of partnership instead of domination to create collaborative workplaces. Cofounder of The Hum and the Loomio coop, and Director of the Enspiral Foundation. He has a unique way of seeing patterns and speaking about complexity in simple words. More about Rich at richdecibels.com.
Martina Pesce discovered the transformational power of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) when it allowed her to reconnect with her mother in conflict—feeling love for her for the first time in 20 years. After three years immersed in neuroscience research, and facing the lack of meaningful mental health support in that field, she chose to shift paths. For the past four years, she has been sharing an embodied approach to NVC through courses, workshops, individual sessions, and mediations. Her work emphasizes practice and lived experience over theory, offering small, digestible steps that invite deep integration. In the past year, she has also begun teaching tantra, and she supports the spread of healing embodied practices by organizing events and managing social media.
Testimonials
Thank you from the depths of my heart for doing and sharing this work in the world. I am feeling reconnected to the essence of what truly matters to me – life, care, awakened consciousness. It feels so good to care about the well being of myself, others and the planet. Thank you for the reminder of the need for collaboration and community in the re-awakening process.
- Erica Kriss
Sustainability Entrepreneur
What did I gain? An enormously clearer and deeper understanding of my interior landscape, confidence in my ability to work with tension and conflict, willingness to ask for support, and how to show up vulnerably and authentically as a leader. Compared to before, I feel like I have relational super powers. These competencies will make me a more effective collaborator on everything I do going forward.
- Johnson Hsieh
Relational Adventurer
This experience has given me hope in human connection. The world needs people who have the courage to go inward and to be with others even when it's difficult. We have been offered many tools to do that. It really moves me that what we do here on a very small scale can really ripple out and lead to more understanding, healing, connection, tolerance and compassion.
- Leni Cellini
Mindfulness Teacher
The training and community immersion have taught me so much about how to live more consciously! They have supported me to grow into a more full-hearted and alive human being, to learn to move toward and transform conflict, and to take bold action to contribute to the world.
- Henry Kellogg
Sustainability Entrepreneur
“The ultimate goal in life is to become the truest expression of ourselves, to live into authentic selfhood, to honor our birthright gifts and callings, and be of service to humanity and our world.”
Upcoming Dates and Location:
15-19 October 2025 - Casa Tilo, Barcelona, Spain (full; apply for waitlist below)
2026 dates in Europe and North America coming soon (sign up for our newsletter below)
We would love to have you join us!
If you have any questions, please contact us at info@culturalcatalystnetwork.org.