meet borage
about me
I care most about seeing us all be who we truly, most authentically are.
I believe we all came to Life to be imaginative, purposeful, meaningful and creative, free from all the ‘shoulds’ we were given, just so we could fit in.
I believe we each have a unique voice and unique gifts to give to Life on Earth.
My calling is to serve an emergent, compassionate life-affirming human culture that no longer seeks to dominate, but seeks to belong to this whole Earth community. This is a commitment to what we could call humanity and how we define this right here and now and for those who come after us.
I worked for fifteen years providing employment related support to people living with mental health needs, chronic illnesses and impairments. Over this time I resolutely kept moving upstream to address problems closer to source and less after the harm had been done. In the end I came to the conclusion that it is our modern culture that needs tending to, rather than the ways we attempt to remedy the problems caused by it.
At the same time, having gone through a divorce and experiencing my own struggles with chronic ill health, I had the vital realisation that I needed to move away from the noise of the city and from my old career. This was a huge step away from the familiar and into the unknown and it took me on a journey into nature, grief, fear, soul, ancient and indigenous cultures, mythology, community, activism, men’s circles and more.
Now my aspiration with both myself and how I show up to support others is to find where I can live from love and compassion instead of fear, with cooperation instead of competition and seeking support instead of believing I must do everything on my own.
I believe in giving our grief the space it needs and in choosing to actively relate with our certain and assured death as a path to being more fully alive right now.
I believe in reviving an intergenerational culture in which our young ones are loved unconditionally for being the gifts to Life that they are, just as they are
(as we all are), including and especially when they are simply different to the way things have been.
I believe in a fully inclusive, post-patriarchal, post-oppositional and binary thinking culture. I believe in ‘village building’ so there will be an equal place around the hearth for everyone.
The approaches I offer weave together experience and skills gained from work, personal life experiences, training and education; including:
experience:
- Nine years working as a mentor and group facilitator
- Twelve years coaching and training in mental health services and with workplace equality, accessibility and emotional wellbeing
- Nine years participating in, learning from and facilitating Men’s Circles, Men’s Work events and processes
- Three years mentoring young changemakers and activists with the Resilience Project, following on from a year supporting Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate movement.
education/training:
- Bachelor’s degree in Behavioural Science (Psychology & Zoology)
- Year long programme facilitating nature connection for individuals and groups (Natural Academy)
- Year long programme in nature-inspired mentoring and cultural healing (8 Shields)
- Counselling skills certification, with training in Brief Solution Focused Therapy and Motivational Interviewing
- Non-Violent Communication (NVC)
- Facilitating Conflict Transformation
- Trauma Informed Facilitation
- Applied Suicide Intervention Skills (ASIST)
- Democratic Decision Making (Consensus and Sociocratic Consent Based)
- Racial equality and cultural competence in delivering services
I live in west Devon, just north of Dartmoor, where I work as a veg grower / market gardener with my partner, alongside undertaking this Hearth work. Working close to the soil, stewarding land and growing food is important for my health and wellbeing and is a foundation for how I root into community.
“Borage possesses breathtaking intentions to honour and care for those around him. Human and otherwise. If he’s called to attend a task, he brings all of himself.