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ROOTED IN WONDER
Transformational Practices for Nature Connection
& Social Emotional Learning
A space to explore, heal, and co-create.
This two-day training is for educators, parents, counselors, therapists, or anyone who seeks simple, effective tools to enrich group culture, support mental health, deepen nature connection, encourage inquiry, and guide people to build inner-strength within community by learning the art of storytelling. We will offer core nature connection and SEL practices, activities, and games that you can easily incorporate into your professional setting or at home.
You will spend two days enjoying the beautiful Kiva Center outdoor learning space in Lefthand Canyon. This 80-acre captivating property features towering rock formations, dense pine forests, and the calming flow of the Lefthand Creek. The area offers a pristine and wild expanse, providing a picturesque backdrop for outdoor adventures and exploration.
In this course you will:
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Explore storytelling’s impact as a tool for building empathy, fostering peace, and strengthening community connections.
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Tap into the wisdom of the land through land attunement exercises, sensory engagement, and self-reflection.
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Through myths and legends, explore human development and how it relates to community, raising youth, and education as we navigate the challenges and potential of our present time.
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Develop storytelling skills through improvisational exercises, identifying key elements of engaging stories, and crafting narratives from personal experiences.
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Express your unique voice by practicing your story with an audience and receiving constructive feedback.
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Why Join This Journey?
We are living in a time of stark contrast. Despite instant access to information, goods, and digital connection, many of us feel more isolated, burnt out, and disconnected than ever before. Beneath the surface of our busy lives, something deeper is stirring—a quiet call to remember, to feel, and to reimagine.
This offering is an invitation to pause and ask: What remains when the noise quiets, when the distractions fall away? What truths emerge in the stillness?
Nature teaches us that life is not linear—it moves in cycles of life, death, and rebirth. This is true not only for the seasons and ecosystems, but also within us. Something is dying in our modern way of life—old stories about community, child-rearing, education, and success. As these narratives collapse, we are left to ask: What will take root in their place?
Together we will explore:
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What wants to be felt, honored, and released within us right now.
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How we can create space for renewal in the midst of exhaustion and overwhelm.
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What stories—ancient and emergent—can guide us toward wholeness and reconnection.
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How we might root ourselves in practices that align with nature’s rhythms.
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What wisdom we can carry forward to the next generation.
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Receive Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credit for hours completed​
*more information below
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Through storytelling, nature connection, reflective practice, and community dialogue, this experience offers not answers, but a path—a space to witness what is falling away, to honor what is rising, and to navigate the in-between with courage, clarity, and heart.
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Cost of training:
$325
*$280 Early Bird - ends June 30, 2025
Tuition is waived for all Title 1 school employees.
Email info@thekivacenter.com to secure your spot (please include your job title and name of school you are employed at in your email).
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Schedule Overview
Day 1:
Introduction to the land and each other
Group exploration outside -- the art of observation
Nature journaling
SEL activities: sit spot and council
Reflection
Day 2:
Connection to nature, ethos of relationality
Expanding on learning from nature (biomimicry)
Sharing activities and resources
Weaving together learnings from both days
Participants practice facilitating activities
Closing
Meet the Facilitators
Kasey Schelling (she/her) is the Founder and Executive Director of The Kiva Center. Throughout the past 10 years, she has passionately dedicated herself to developing the organization's nature-based educational model, an iterative process that has combined professional development with the dynamic process of responding directly to the needs of the children. With experience as a public school educator in both the USA and Spain, she has a unique ability to see education from a birds-eye view to create transformative learning spaces.
Throughout these past 15 years of working with youth, she has seen that when the conditions are right, there is an immense potential for children to channel their inner-genius in service to something greater than themselves. She founded The Kiva Center in 2014 with a vision to create a culture that uplifts one another to embody the gift to the world that we are, living lives full of purpose and love.
Lorene Wapotich (she/her/ella) is passionate about guiding children and their families into deeper relationship with nature, greater knowledge of self, and the cultivation of multi-generational community through long-term, nature connection mentoring. She has worked in the field of outdoor experiential education for nearly 30 years, including founding Feet on the Earth Programs, a local nonprofit which for 10 years provided Boulder County families with exceptional nature-based programs for children.
She holds a Bachelors Degree in Education from Prescott College, with an emphasis in Wilderness Leadership and Natural History Education, and a Masters of Education from Lesley University, with a concentration in children’s development, nature-based education, and rites of passage.
In addition to her extensive training and experience as a nature-based educator and naturalist, Lorene studied and practiced the 8 Shields Cultural Mentoring model, wilderness survival skills, outdoor emergency medicine, is Certified Clinical Herbalist, and is Large Childcare Center Director qualified
Cultivate
Connection