The Regenerative Practitioner Series
EUROPEAN COHORT WITH INTENSIVE IN LISBON, PORTUGAL

Virtual Sessions November 3 – April 13; Intensive March 25-28 2021

ENROLLMENT IS NOW CLOSED

Enrollment for this course is now closed. If you would like to be notified when enrollment is opened for 2021, you can sign up for our notification list here
Welcome!
The Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon, and the growing Lisbon based regenerative community of practice, in collaboration with the Regenesis Institute for Regenerative Practice, warmly invite you to join us for the third European-based offering of The Regenerative Practitioner (TRP) series.

The journey of bringing the vision and practice of this approach of regenerative development to Europe started in 2018, in Palma de Mallorca.

As a local host team, our intention in organizing this third European TRP is two-fold. We want to support the evolution of this community of practice by continuing to spread regenerative seeds throughout Europe, as well as to grow the community of regenerative practitioners in Portugal. This TRP series is therefore aimed at participants based in both Europe as a whole and in Portugal, in particular.

We hope you’ll join us to explore how we can evolve our thinking and doing to become communities of people and place that are breathing harmoniously together as a living system. Please feel free to share this course with potential interested people in your network. And if you are unable to attend this year, please know that we will have other offerings in the future.

What is regenerative practice?
Regenerative development works to align human activities with the continuing evolution of life on our planet, reversing ecosystem degradation while growing community well-being. As a practice, regenerative development is based on the premise that we cannot make the outer transformations required to create a truly sustainable world without making inner transformations in how we think, how we work, and who we are.

The Regenerative Practitioner is a distance-learning seminar series for practitioners interested in integrating regenerative development into their practice. The series introduces and explores proprietary regenerative development concepts and frameworks that have been developed and extensively field tested by the Regenesis Institute for Regenerative Practice over the last two decades.

How does the series work?
The Regenerative Practitioner provides a deep dive into the fundamental shifts in how we work and how we think that underly a regenerative approach to development of all kinds. Participants work together deeply over a four-month period to engage with the course curriculum, Regenesis instructors, and one another.

The series consists of ten online videoconference sessions culminating in a three-day, in-person intensive workshop. The videoconference sessions include preparatory reading assignments and exercises. The sessions themselves combine live instruction with open group dialogue and one-on-one “fishbowl” time, where a single participant works with our instructors to explore a project they are actually working on as a way of bringing the frameworks to life for the entire group. 

The sessions are recorded and made available for download, so you can catch up if you miss a session. Participants typically spend between 5 and 7 hours per week preparing for and engaging in the sessions and course assignments while this portion of the course is underway.

The Intensive is a 3-day residential session, and takes place at Biovilla, a sustainability project near Palmela, about 1 hour south of Lisbon by train or 45 min by car. The series is limited to 20 participants, so that everyone has the option to engage around his or her work. Participants are organized into study cohorts that are encouraged to work on course assignments together as a group. Each study cohort receives two resourcing sessions with Regenesis instructors.  

This is amazing and inspiring work that is immediately useful and life-changing on multiple levels. I am deeply grateful for this work coming into my life and into the world.
Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann

The experience of studying regenerative development has filled me with hope for the future….Regenerative development is a shining light of hope in sustainability – a story worth sharing.
Ash Buchanan

Is this course right for me?

We encourage potential participants to self-select around whether or not this course is a good fit for you. To help with this, you might ask yourself whether some or all of these statements apply to you:

  • You often see bigger potential than is being realized on the projects you’re involved in but haven’t found a way to help your collaborators and/or clients see and align with that potential.
  • You know that sustainability will never accomplish its aims if we can’t change the way we think and work, but you’re not sure how to achieve this.
  • Your work is important and meaningful to you, but you still feel the drive to learn and develop along a path so that your work and the essence of “who you are” become further and further integrated.
  • You have a track record of accomplishment, and yet you continually see possibilities beyond the level that you are currently able to realize.
  • Your schedule provides you the time necessary to commit to 5-7 hours per week preparing for and engaging in the sessions.

If so, you may be a good candidate for the series. If you are considering enrolling in TRP but unsure as to whether the course is right for you, you may request a conversation with a faculty member to mutually assess whether it’s a fit.

What material does the series cover?

The series is structured around a systemic framework that has been drawn from and tested through decades of working on regenerative development projects in communities all over the world. The framework integrates four core elements that enable regenerative thinking and working across the nested systems in which we work. The learning outcomes of the series are as follows:

  • Greater ability to assess design and development practices for their regenerative potential
  • A deeper understanding of how regenerative development unfolds at the project and community level;
  • Greater ability to define how a regenerative approach would apply to various sectors and fields of practice relevant to your work;
  • Increased capacity to manage complexity as a means to deliver greater value to clients and stakeholders;
  • Strategies for growing a successful regenerative practice; and
  • The support of a local learning community of peers and colleagues who share your commitment to creating profoundly innovative work in service to a healthier community and world.

For more information about the content covered in the series, you may download the course syllabus.

About our Intensive Location

The intensive will take place in Biovilla (near Palmela, about 1h south of Lisbon by train or 45 min by car). Biovilla is a pioneering cooperative for sustainable development in Portugal founded in 2006, and responsible for 55 hectares of the Arrábida Natural Park. As local hosts for the TRP, we want participants to experience a place which strives to be a living embodiment of regenerative principles, as captured in the Biovilla 2020 vision:

To achieve a thriving regeneration of our ecological, social and economic landscape with a living, autochthonous and edible agroforest, a strong and resilient local learning community and a thriving, real and sustained economy that serves as a model for creating social value worldwide. We also want to be a place of convergence and sharing of sustainability best practices in Portugal and in the World.

Note: While we are hopeful the Intensive will be an in-person event, we will monitor the world pandemic situation to determine if it is in everyone’s best interest to deliver the Intensive in a virtual format. This will be decided further into the program.

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Schedule for 2020 Europe Series

All Videoconference sessions are held on Tuesdays from 1500 – 1700 pm WET. The dates are as follows:

  • Videoconference MeetUp: November 3
  • Videoconference Sessions: Nov 17, Dec 1, Dec 15, Jan 12, Jan 26, Feb 9, Feb 23, March 9
  • Intensive: March 25-28 (whether the intensive will be in person or delivered via zoom is TBD).
  • Final Videoconference Session: April 13

Investment/Tuition Fees

Tuition for the Lisbon TRP series is €2700. The tuition includes all costs for the intensive, including accommodation for 3 nights, as well as main meals and refreshments, but does not include your personal travel expenses. Meals will be organic, mainly vegetarian and from local producers. The accommodation will consist mainly of shared rooms, although there are limited possibilities for single accommodation (for an additional fee) depending on the number of participants.

You may pay in full or via six-month payment plan. We are able to offer a limited number of partial scholarships to practitioners and organizations who require financial support. These are prioritized for those working at non-profits, those doing community work, and to promote inclusivity and diversity among the participants for the mutual benefit of our regenerative community of practice and the greater community. All scholarship applications must be received by August 19.

Note: In the event that the Intensive is delivered over Zoom, we will refund to each participant the per-person cost of the accommodations, meals and refreshments served during the Intensive.

Reservation Process – Deposit Required

In order to confirm the series, we need to fill the cohort by obtaining a minimum of 20 reservations by September 9. There is a €100 deposit required to reserve a space and be counted towards this enrollment target. To reserve a space, you’ll need to complete a reservation form, pay the €100 deposit, and set up your preferred payment arrangement for the tuition.

Once we’ve notified you that the course is confirmed, your account will be billed automatically on September 16 for the remaining tuition, either in full or via a six-month payment plan, according to the arrangements you set up when you make your reservation.

In the event that the minimum enrollment target is not met and the course does not proceed, the €100 deposit will be refunded to you.

  • Reservations Open: July 6
  • Reservation deadline: September 9
  • Scholarship applications due: August 19 Scholarship applications are now closed
  • Spaces confirmed: September 9
  • Tuition billed: September 16
  • Series begins: November 3

Do you live outside of Europe? Apply via our Seeds Program!

Photography credits, top to bottom: aerial bridge, courtesy New in Town; TRP intensive participants, Elkk Photography (2) and Stefanie J Studio; Biovilla courtesy Biovilla.

All illustrations by Ian Durneen.