I have been running workshops, teaching courses and speaking at events for twenty years and might be JUST the speaker you are looking for. My aim is to address serious topics using a highly engaging, story-based method. Take a look below for some of things I love to deliver at conferences, festivals and parenting support groups. If you want to talk about dates and fees send me an email on lulasticblog@gmail.com. And scroll down for upcoming engagements!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Disco: bring joy and freedom into your Self Directed Learning adventure (online)
Are you drawn to the unschooling life but feel overwhelmed by the prospect? Enter this safe space to go deeply into your motivations, address your fears and resistance and become excited about the possibility of a life with your kids at home, learning in a self-directed and curriculum-free way. This pop up community of fellow travellers will give you chance to ask the questions and imagine a different future for your family. This course is for parents considering Self Directed Learning at home or those needing to add more fizz to their current unschooling life.
Weekly on Sundays between 2nd February and 23rd February.
Register here.
Autumn Equinox Retreat, Dancing Forest Sisterhood
Register here.
The autumn equinox (Mabon) invites us to reap what we have sown, to celebrate that which has born fruit and mourn that which has not come to pass. It’s a chance to dance with our shadow and listen in to our wisest selves. Through song, movement and meditative craft, we will get to experience the deep insight and calming sense of balance that Mabon can hold. This retreat is for the women who long to connect with the wilder self they know resides inside. For those who want to bring a sense of this freedom back into their everyday lives. Through ritual and ceremony we will connect with our collective magic and through the creation of sacred space we will enter a liminality where we can receive vision and intuition for the areas we most need it. Let’s dance, play and weave a little wonder together.
Friday 20th March – Sunday 22nd March 2020
Sudarshanaloka Retreat Centre, Thames, NZ
Ally: be the guide, advocate and friend your child needs (online)
The future of a fair and equal society lies in adults using their power to come alongside children in a supportive role. Learn more about the principles of this kind of parenting and how to apply them to your life in a practical way. Discover how a fresh perspective and response to everything from tantrums to mealtimes can super-charge the connection and cooperation between you and your child, bringing you more joy and a sense of purpose into your home.
Weekly on Sundays between April 5th and April 27th
Registrations Open March 5th
Dwell : step into the sacred (online)
Put legs on your belief in the “Something Out There” and let her walk right on in. This four week long programme is for women who are unsure of their spiritual home, who are hungry for a sense of connection to the mysterious, “otherness” of life. Through deep thought and practice women will come to a place where they feel connected to the sacred and have the tools to daily experience the full heartedness of a spiritual life.
Weekly on Sundays between June 7th and June 28th
Registrations open May 7th
TINY HOUSE CONFERENCE, Keynote Speaker
23rd May, Auckland
Nest: nurture an earth centred spirituality (online)
The Earth invites you into sacred relationship. You’ve heard the call but are hesitant or unsure of where to begin. Or perhaps you feel like you are walking a lonely path. Many of us who have moved away from institutional religion, or have never experienced a spiritual faith, have a sense that our full aliveness, our wholeness, can be found in nature. It can! For we were never meant to be an isolated species. We have evolved to be in deep kinship with earth. This conversational and practical online course will give you the space and motivation to respond to the urge you feel to connect deeply to nature. This course is experiential, empowering you to step into Earth-centredness not just by talking about, but by doing the practice together.
Weekly on Sundays between 2nd August and 23rd August
Registrations open July 2nd
Spring Retreat, Dancing Forest Sisterhood
Stride out of hibernation with a sense of purpose and clarity, freedom and joy. We will gather together at this stunning beachfront retreat to restablish our intimate kinship with the earth and to embody our interconnectedness with our fellow travellers. We will sing, dance, gather around the fire and vision quest in order to enter the new season with all the gifts available to us firmly under our belt. Expect to be held in a safe container so you can go deep and open to the wild magic within us and all around us.
4pm Friday October 2- Sunday 4th 2020 4pm
Ashram Yoga Retreat, Ohui, New Zealand
ENDORSEMENTS:
“Lucy recently spoke at our NZ Tiny House & Alternative Living Conference for almost 300 attendees. Lucy’s energy, passion, endurance and connection with the audience was beyond impressive. Her message was relatable and her humour kept the audience’s attention for the entire presentation. From the moment Lucy came into the conference to the moment she left the conference her focus was on our attendees and her professionalism did not go unnoticed. Our attendees left her presentation energized and excited about her message and her performance. We have already received a tremendous amount of positive feedback on Lucy’s presentation and many saying Lucy was their highlight speaker!” Sharla May, Founder, NZ Tiny House & Alternative Living Conference
“I just loved exploring my thoughts, ideas, beliefs via the questions you posed. The questions I have been asking for 50 years have given me so much fruitless angst; the ones you asked me to consider have been so much more productive and enlightening.”
2019 Course Participant
“I was blown away at the amazing content and scope and how much you were meant to run a course just like this and how valuable it was to me right now.”
2019 Course Participant
“Dwelling Place was a thoroughly enjoyable course – thought provoking and inspiring – it has helped me to consolidate the place of spirituality without organised religion in my life. Lucy has a wealth of theoretical knowledge and lived experience that she brings to running the course in her uniquely warm and inclusive way. Highly recommend.”
2019 Course Participant
““Lucy created a safe and loving space for once strangers to connect deeply on an emotional and spiritual level. Baring our souls together through guided visualisations, circling, singing, dancing and connecting with nature was a profound experience and one that’ll stay with me for life!”
Emma – 2019 Dancing Forest Sisterhood Retreat Participant
“I’ve been blown away by the contrast between how effortless and peaceful the weekend felt, and how overwhelming the learnings that I have taken away from it have been. Thank you, Lucy!”
Harriette- 2019 Dancing Forest Sisterhood Retreat Participant
I am also available for a limited number of presentations throughout the year:
Talks – typically 25 – 40 minutes, these keynote addresses are perfect for conferences and large groups
Why the world needs adults who are allies to children
Children are one of the last groups of people who are routinely marginalised. In this address Lucy outlines how parents and caregivers can realise the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child in their lives and what happens, both to their immediate experience and the future of the world, when they do so.
When the mountain speaks
Restoring the ancient connection between humankind and earth is one of the most important things we can do for our well being. In this session Lucy addresses how families can raise children that love nature and how she ended up getting arrested on a drilling rig, wondering if she should tell the police “the mountain made me do it!”
How to set your face free
How can we raise daughters that love their bodies in the face of toxic messages from the beauty industry? Will my body lotion stop me getting pregnant? Can women be interested in beauty and still love themselves? Should we shave our body hair? Lucy discusses these questions and many more in this session; the end of it you may just be ready to shake off some of the shackles of a beauty industry based on toxic ingredients and toxic self-hate.
Workshops – these sessions tend to be around 1.5 hours long and are interactive and practical, often delivered to smaller groups (12 – 30 people)
The first two workshops (Parent Allies and Motherhood and Wilderness) are designed to be either delivered in one session or at a far more in depth and practical level over a whole day.
The principles and practice of allied parenting
The future of a fair and equal society lies in adults using their power to come alongside children in a supportive role. Learn more about the principles of this kind of parenting and how to apply them to your life in a really practical way. You’ll leave this interactive workshop with the tools to help you be the kind of empathetic parent or caregiver you want to be.
Motherhood, creativity and wilderness
In this workshop Lucy explores how restoring our connection to the wilderness can provide a deep well of healing for mothers. Using a sharing circle, bushcraft and creative practice, mothers will set their feet on a path of self-care and creativity.
Rewilding childhood
It’s said that more children can identify a dalek than a blackbird. What does this kind of disconnection mean for our children? How can we help restore our children’s natural affinity for the natural world? Come away from this workshop buzzing with hope and practical ideas for rewilding childhood.
Potions of the earth
Lucy outlines why we need a beauty regime that is less toxic for our minds, bodies and the earth and we make some beauty products together – featuring locally foraged ingredients.
BIO
Lucy Aitkenread graduated from the London School of Economics in 2008 with an Msc in Social Policy. She went on to work for a global NGO as a climate change campaigner, helping community activists to organise effectively.
After her second child was born, Lucy’s love of social and environmental justice took a turn towards the impact our lifestyles have on the earth’s resources, and the different ways that raising children can promote or impede a fairer world.
Three years ago Lucy and her family moved from their brick house in South London to an off grid yurt in a forest in New Zealand, where they try and live in deep connection with nature. Lucy has written two bestselling books on living without shampoo and body products and wants to enable women to shrug off the toxicity, both in ingredients and self-hating messages, of the beauty industry. Her third book is about raising a family that loves the earth and was called “A manifesto for life lived in nature” by the Telegraph. Lucy is completing her formal training in Integrated Wellness.
Through her work online and in-person speaking engagements Lucy hopes to inspire people to live in peaceful relationship with the children in their life and the earth they tread upon.
Website: https://lulastic.co.uk/
Youtube Channel: youtube.com/channel/UCi0vcdkMEVvAYjdCTQ9KyCw
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LulasticAndTheHippyshake/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lulasticblog/
