kinยทship n. Relationship by nature, character, affinity or common origin
wษrkยทshop n. Site or place where making or repairing happens
Studies show that we are rapidly losing our connection with nature, which significantly contributes to the ecological crises of our times: environmental degradation, species decline, climate change. We care for what we love, so rekindling kinship with all life has never been more important.
Kinship Workshop offers a contemporary nature connection practice that centres experiential, somatic tools and practices for remembering and reconnecting with nature.
We run a seasonal programme of workshops taking groups of participants out into wilder landscapes to spend unhurried time in and as part of nature. We explore connection to land and other living beings through embodiment exercises.
How do we: move, sense, play, feel, touch, propriocept, balance, hang, hang out, congregate, assert, negotiate, observe, wait, rest and be with others? Through experiencing or remembering our human physicality, senses, desires and close connection to others (human and non-human), we find our “place in the family of things” (Mary Oliver).
Kinship Workshop invites participants into experiential, embodied and ever-deepening relationship to nature, landscape and other species through grounding physical practices. Participants are guided through simple activities to tune into being outside, how we sense and how we move through and relate to landscapes.
From these enlivening and thought-provoking experiences we can reconsider our felt relationship to nature and catalyse personal responses in a time where crucial and loving action to global issues is much needed.
Kinship is a catalyst for โreturningโ toward non-hierarchical and symbiotic sharing of place. It is an exploration into how we relate to and meet โotherโ in non human-centric rural places. Through a series of physical and attuning exercises both indoors and outdoors, we explore how we experience landscape, in which we consistently share with other animals, plant-life, fungal-, mineral- and weather-systems etc.
– Tom (workshop facilitator)
By remembering activities that are fundamentally familiar to our bodies and faculties: moving, listening, observing, congregating, negotiating, resting, and being with others – we acclimatise to trans-species spaces and prepare us to meet non human-centric perspectives with โfresh eyesโ.
The landscape, the environment and the weather provide and hold a framework for meetings and encounters to happen, and reflective dialogue amongst the group of participants, helps to process experiences.
For more information please visit the WHAT TO EXPECT and WHAT PEOPLE SAY pages, or get in touch on the CONTACT page.
Kinship Workshop facilitator and founder Tom Goodwin has a background in various movement practices and somatic trainings including contemporary dance, martial arts and bodywork, and has extensive experience in teaching and facilitation (www.tomgoodwin.info).
Kinship Workshop draws from his experiences of spending time with other animals both in sanctuaries and through wild and domestic encounters. He completed an internship at The Kerulos Center in 2014 studying trans-species psychology and self-determination (internship overview video link), from which developed the material included in Kinship Workshop.
image description: this colour photo shows Tom looking off to his right, resting his left hand on his cheek and neck. He is a white man, bald, with a bushy salt and pepper beard. Heโs wearing a dark blue shirt. Heโs in a sunny summer meadow with long, sun-bleached grass and a fallen tree in the background.
Katye Coe has been involved with Kinship Workshop since 2016 and joined as a facilitator in 2018. Katye is a dancer, performer and teacher working collaboratively in the UK and internationally (www.katyecoe.org). Katye is a certified Somatic Experiencing practitioner, a Skinner Releasing Technique teacher andย has completed 4 years of site and movement work in Helen Poynorโs Walk of Life Programme.
Katye grew up on a farm and later worked extensively alongside horses. Her intention in the context of Kinship Workshops relates to the importance of negotiating our place among other animals in these current times.
image description: this colour photo shows Katye looking off to the right. She is a white woman with long, wavy red hair tied back. She is wearing a short-sleeved black top and carrying a backpack and hazel walking stick. Behind her is a sunny meadow with distant tree line in full summer leaf.
PHOTO CREDITS: All photos on the website are by Tom Goodwin unless otherwise credited.
(The below photo gallery shows various wildlife photos, photos from some early Kinship Workshops and Tom’s trips to different animal sanctuaries, photo of Tom and mountain dog: Frank van de Ven, photos of Tom at Ape Action Africa and Animal Aid Unlimited: volunteers and staff)
KINSHIP WORKSHOP 