Mentoring for Gifts: Activating the Attributes of Deep Nature Connection
An Online Course March - June 2023
With Jon Young and Claire Dunn
We are re-running this program after it received rave reviews in 2021.
“Claire and Jon are exceptional at what they do. Their knowledge, wisdom and guidance is second to none and just listening to their online teachings is like balm for the soul. I highly recommend this course.” — Sophie
We all know the feeling of being out in nature totally absorbed in our experience and suddenly we’re flushed with a feeling of immense joy and happiness, of electricity and vitality in the body and mind. You’re feeling true aliveness - awake to the world and to yourself. In this state your own innate gifts naturally surface via inspiration, vision and personal confidence - the gifts of being truly you.
So how might we start to embed this state in our lives as more of a trait? A more sustained experience of being in the world? And what relationship does this experience have to surfacing ours and others’ gifts in the world?
Nature and the gifts embedded in our own true nature are intrinsically interlinked. This nine week series aims to develop our capacity to help bring forth both our own and others’ gifts in the world through exploring and practicing the routines of deep nature connection, and learning to mentor each other for the strongest connective outcomes.
About the Attributes of Connection
By understanding our relationships with the animals, plants, weather and wind, and various aspects of the natural environment around us, we actually repattern our brain and nervous system to activate what we call the attributes of connection. Working in this way, we begin to dependably unleash happiness, vitality, the ability to listen deeply, increase empathy, helpfulness, true aliveness and gratitude for life, compassion, forgiveness and the quiet mind. Find out how to integrate these attributes into your everyday experience in order to aid yourself in becoming a solid, nature-connected leader with the ability to bring these practices to others.
About Mentoring for Gifts
Surfacing of personal gifts is a deeply neurobiological process. We use the word gift here to talk about our inborn potential; our essence. It’s not an aptitude or a vocation or a skill even. When we are in full connection with each other and ourselves and nature, and we’re experiencing the attributes of connection, we are actually in our gift. It’s when we’re more ourselves than ever. You can think of mentoring (either yourself or others) as a way of drawing these gifts out by helping to draw out the attributes of connection. If you do this regularly enough, your nervous system will shift its baseline and you’ll start existing in the YOUness flow state more and more.
Testimonials
“This course was amazing. I highly recommend it. It's made the book 'Coyotes Guide' so much easier to digest and I've found working with the different directions and energies to be so beneficial in many aspects of my life. Sincere thank you to Claire and Jon for putting this course on and everyone behind the scenes who also helped make it happen.”
— Emma Swann
“Mentoring for gifts run by Claire Dunn and Jon Young was one of the best online courses I have done. Skillfully lead, fun, connective and motivating to get out there and learn from nature. I feel like I have replenished my tool box for running my own nature connection programs.”
— Nikki Brown, Wildcraft Australia
“Mentoring for gifts is one of the most thorough and 'in-depth' ways to understand and realise the relationship to both our inner nature and our outer natural world. It was a huge leap forward in my understanding of nature connection and I will take that with me every day.”
— Zoé
“This is life changing work, and being on line we could immerse in our homelands...and then just keep it going... It feels like we have been gifted some amazing multi sensory digging tools to connect with all that is life... and that we are back in preschool with the rest of life to dig in and grow from, in our own unique ways... and all that will ripple out toward the changes we crave... deep gratitude for these gifts”
— Trace Balla
“Claire and Jon held skillful space for our journey. Theirs and the group energy was gentle yet strong. I feel more connected with myself as the soft animal that I am. At the same time I feel more at home on the earth, my mother; with awe embodying my Nature powerfully.”
— Kaveh Monshat
“The Mentoring for Gifts was a sensational platform to further explore the essence of nature connection whether as a beginner or as one with ample knowledge. The community that was created on this online space was beautifully orchestrated and allowed for regular storytelling sharing throughout the weeks. I always felt inspired and excited about being part of this and connecting in with like minded souls. There was a ongoing evolution of many different facets of nature connection that I had never been exposed to. I feel greedy for more learning in this space under the facilitation of Claire and Jon. It was a delightful nature journey! Many thanks from the heart for your dedication in providing such a solid comfortable platform for such an adventure.”
— Jacquie
“I wasn't sure what this course entailed, but I knew I wanted to do it, being a huge fan of both Jon and Claire's work. Without a hint of hyperbole, it has changed my life, offering new ways of seeing and being that feel foundational to a healthy human existence. From sit spots and bird language to story catching and cultural healing, everyone needs these teachings!”
—2021 Participant
“This course has truly changed me. The way I carry myself in the world, relating to nature certainly but also to people even in a built environment. I feel included in a privileged community, a tribe connected to and cradled by the natural world.”
— 2021 Participant
Structure
Nine week course with classes on Fridays from Mar 24 - Jun 16.
The first week will be 1pm-2:45pm Melbourne time
All following weeks will be 12pm -1.45pm Melbourne time
(This is because the clocks change in Melbourne and we are keeping the class at a consistent time of 7pm Pacific Time, California, or 2:00am UTC. We’ll send plenty of reminders so no one need miss a class due to timezone confusion!)
Class dates: Mar 24, Apr 14, Apr 28, May 5, May 19, May 26, Jun 2, Jun 9, Jun 16
No classes on Mar 31, Apr 7, Apr 21or May 12.
What to Expect
Calls will be a mix of presentations from Jon and Claire as well as break-out rooms to share stories and experiences. Calls will be recorded. Each week we will send out a video to explain and elaborate on the practice we are focusing on.
Factor in some hours each week to work with the practices between sessions.
Cost
$270 (conc)
$315 (low wage)
$360 (average wage)
We’re offering previous attendees the chance to repeat the course for 25% off.
Bookings have now closed. Please email emily@naturesapprentice.com.au if you want to hear about future offerings of this course.
Facilitators bios
Jon Young
For over 40 years, Jon Young has been a leader in the field of nature-based education, implementing vital advancements in the understanding and benefits of effective nature connection modeling. Jon is a deep nature connection mentor, wildlife tracker, peacemaker, author, workshop leader, consultant, inspiring public speaker and storyteller.
Jon Young has appeared as an expert in numerous documentaries concerning nature and ecology and travels to teach widely throughout North America, Europe, Australia and southern Africa. He has authored and co-authored several seminal works on deep nature connection and connection mentoring, including What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World (2013), and Coyote's Guide to Connecting to Nature (2007).
Read more about Jon >> www.jonyoung.online
Claire Dunn
Claire is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator and founder of Nature’s Apprentice. Claire is passionate about human rewilding and believes that a reclaiming of our ecological selves and belonging is key to regenerating wildness on the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection, ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soulcentric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of memoir My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild. Her recently released memoir Rewilding the Urban Soul explores how we might embody wild consciousness within a modern city context. Claire lives in Melbourne where she lovingly tends her garden, community and her own wild heart. www.naturesapprentice.com.au
Cancellation Policy
Up until one week before the course begins (17th March), you may cancel and receive a full refund minus a $15 admin fee, or else onsell your ticket to someone else for no cost.
After 17th March, no refunds or transfers are possible.