The Team

Who brings this course to life?

Who brings this course to life?

We warmly welcome you to this course!

Over the course of the five weeks, we will be holding and shaping this experience together with you — with care, curiosity, and openness to what may emerge along the way. We are looking forward to meeting you, learning alongside you, and sharing this journey together.

As a team, we bring together different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, connected by a shared commitment in creating spaces for experiential learning, community building, and meaningful human connection in exceptional times of unravelling change.

The Core Team

Meet the organisers and main facilitator team, who holds the vision of the project! Throughout the year, the core team nurtures and shapes the course while guiding its ongoing evolution. The Core Team hosts the course, facilitates most sessions and holds the learning journey together with the Team Players.

Sonja-Vera Schmitt Glarisegg, Creator & Trainer

Sonja-Vera Schmitt

Glarisegg

Co-founder & Trainer

Since 2003 Sonja-Vera has been one of the founders of the Schloss Glarisegg community. Her interests in structural developments, communication and improvisation in groups enabled her to help develop the joint project. In her commitment to encounter processes in the social life of the community, she was able to …

easily apply her training as a voice and speech therapist and her love of music/dance. Coupled with stamina, her gift as a village weaver became a key in a much larger game of empowerment. The complex processes of the project awakened her entrepreneurial spirit. As a member of the Board of Directors of Schloss Glarisegg AG, she familiarized herself with the long-term financial and construction planning of this property, coordinating the maintenance, renovation and expansion of the large, historical property. Through Vipassana meditation and genuine love for people, she stays vital. In 2010, the discovery of the Global Ecovillage Network was a very important milestone in community development. Since 2016 she brought the Ecovillage Design Education course named “Creating a Transformative Culture” to Schloss Glarisegg.

Jashana

Hawaii

Co-founder & Trainer

Jashana has always had an intense desire to figure out how humans could live in harmony with the natural world. For this goal, she got degrees in Anthropology and Environmental Science which lead to a Masters in Social Ecology. Having identified Indigenous Wisdom as a base she could not help but to try and stop the …

war in Guatemala that killed 200,000 Mayan people in the 80’s. Having failed that mission, she began exploring intentional communities ‘to be part of the solution’, eventually moving to the Findhorn Community in Northern Scotland. She then traveled for Findhorn teaching workshops throughout South America for two years. Returning to the US, she immersed herself in the world of awakening consciousness studying every offer from Holotropic Breathwork with Stan Grof, Vipassana Meditation, Yoga, Skydancing Tantra, 5 Rhythms, Deep Ecology, Contact Dance and sitting with Adyashanti. Preparing for the world to collapse she helped found a reforestation community in Hawaii.

Jashana Creator & Trainer Hawaii
Conflict Resolution, Traumainformed Mediation, Sociocracy, Annabelle Schapals

Annabelle Schapals

Co-organiser & Trainer

With an alive interest in human connection and communication, Annabelle opens spaces for transformation and exploration. Originally from Germany, she lives in the Ecovillage Schloss Glarisegg. Having turned her passion into her livelihood, she accompanies group processes, decision making, and conflict transformation with clarity, compassion, and sensitivity …

From early on, Annabelle has been interested in community based projects. Since 2016, she has lived in various communities, from a wild and colourful squat in the Netherlands, to a family-focused community in the country side of Switzerland. Since one year she is rooting in Schloss Glarisegg, a place that has felt like a second home since participating in the EDE in 2020.

Annabelle expresses herself as a creative vegan cook, body painting artist, and movement enthusiast. You might meet her in the morning at the lake for a dip in the cold water, dancing in the Seminar Rooms, or doing AcroYoga.

Next to the EDE, she pours her love and energy into the yearly Dragon Seed Camp – a magical skill sharing gathering, space of abundance, exploration, and learning. She is the co-founder of Pathways a collective offering trainings to foster inner and outer regeneration for the flourishing of all life on Earth.

Her vision is that by empowering individuals to manifest their dreams and live according to their values meaningful social transformation happens.

https://linktr.ee/annabelleschapals

Amneh

Co-organizer & Trainer

Over the past 10 years, Amneh has been involved in Climate Justice movements in various projects that have led her from coal mines in Germany to monoculture deserts in southern Spain and on to the reality of the EU’s borders in Serbia, where she has worked with people on the move in different settings. She seeks to …

… build bridges between different movements and professions, finding common ground to take responsibility for the crises modern societies created.

 

Amneh is invested in offering the exploration of human relationships through a structural lense. which opens up the complex awareness of the fragile place within the greater web of life. It revealed both the existential need for connection and the bliss of conflict resolution. Since then, she remained closely involved with the course and, more recently, stepped into the role of co-organizer — being a companion and midwife to its ongoing evolution.

Experiencing the power of regenerative (agri-) cultural practices and the power of community as antidotes to exploitation and separation are her sources of inspiration.

Teamplayer Amneh

Team Players 2026

Meet our wonderful Team Players and co-facilitators, who form the container at the heart of this shared community experience! Having participated in the course in previous years, the Team Players prepare the journey, accompany you during the course, facilitate collaboration groups and offer their valuable capacities in various ways.

Team players 2026

Iva

Participant EDE 2025

Walking on new pathways. On the one hand I chose it, on the other I feel as I don’t have any other choice. Sometimes it feels liberating and amazing, sometimes it feels hard, as if it would take ages to turn thoughts into reality. Then being surrounded by visionaries, pioneers for a more alive and loving life supports …

greatly in this quest. It helps me finding new pathways in my thoughts, feelings, perceptions, but also in my body, voice, hands and movements.

One of these precious moments was the EDE. There I could feel surrounded by so many explorers of different forms of living on this planet – in the team and amongst the participants. The impact on my journey was surprising me and really beautiful.

One of my teachers once told me: “If you want to keep it, you need to share it.” So now I am happy to share what I received and also offer my presence, some music and support where it is helpful.

Mag

Participant EDE 2025

Taking the choice to participate in the EDE 2025 did not open doors for me. It opened gateways to many many maaaany opportunities! I’m super grateful for that and I’m very happy that I will be part of the team in EDE 2026. I don’t like …

talking much about myself, so, I I’ll share just a bit. I love animals, especially cats! I like learning new things, asking questions and following my intuition, which I learned not so long ago. It’s been a blast so far, not gonna lie. I also like playing the guitar.

Anna

Participant EDE 2025

I’m a deep lover of the Earth and her wild inhabitants.

To me, they are masterful teachers – showing us what it truly means to coexist in harmony within an interconnected web of unique beings.

One of the few things I know …

for certain is this: if we, as humans, are to take the next step toward a healthy and loving culture, we must get better at connection. I’ve dedicated much of my life to this and love being in – or creating – spaces where we can practice this art of connection:

healing together, holding each other through the scary, messy parts, and weaving, thread by thread, a new, sparkling culture.

Buket

Participant EDE 2019, Team player 2022

I grew up in Turkish culture and the classical education system, already carrying as a child the question and belief that “something else is possible.” Being myself while being a student, a woman, and often feeling like a stranger, came with pain, and yet I arrived at the relief of saying: “Well… I am different, and that’s actually a gift.” …

Now, I find myself in a kind of awakening, messy at times, vibrant at others, where I touch the understanding: “neither I exist, nor others as I thought I knew; we are simply different forms of the same one thing.”

The way here has been gradual, shaped by countless encounters, events, and experiences. A fundamental milestone was joining EDE in 2019. Not because EDE is a magic button that “changes lives”. Rather, the way I lived it and how I integrated my experience into my life turned that four-week bubble into a threshold toward another step of awakening.

That awakening step whispered that I am not a single, fixed shape. Life beyond the familiar, with its languages and cultures, shows me how identity can stretch, shift, multiply, and take many forms.

In Turkish, there is a proverb: “Bir lisan, bir insan”—literally, “To know a language is to know a person.” Its deeper meaning goes beyond words: it is to feel a culture, understand its way of thinking, and experience the ways people relate to one another. After fifteen years beyond the borders of my birthplace, many identities coexist within me now:

  • the playmate who speaks the joyful, silly language of children,
  • the educator who sprinkles creativity and closeness into rigid or boring systems,
  • the interpreter supporting Turkish people in Italy to express their needs and create connections,
  • the bridge connecting empowering practices with women’s communities in Turkey,
  • the cook who loves exploring flavors and serving the language of awareness at the table,
  • the theatre lover devoted to improvisation, expression, and curiosity,
  • the clown-in-training who takes life’s seriousness and turns it into play.

This is my second time being part of the team, and this time my intention is to bring and practice with participants deep and wholehearted curiosity for life, for ourselves, and for each other; presence; and the ability to embrace both joy and challenge. Together, I hope we can fully dive into life’s treasure-hunt game, discovering its surprises, mischiefs, and delights.

Jasmin

Participant EDE 2020, Team player 2021

Hello seeker, hello dreamer, hello friend…
my journey with the EDE Glarisegg started 6 years ago, and it changed my life in unimaginable ways. It has been so healing, empowering and just mindblowingly new and good – and I won’t leave any opportunity to support gifting this experience to more people.
…

Because I deeply care about the living and I believe that perfecting the art of being a human is worth a try.

How ready are you to question what you know to be true?

How much more can you allow yourself to love?

How much pain are you open to feel?

Co-creating a container where we can explore in a loving and connected way, the intricate facets of life that we so often forget in the fast-pace modern world is what calls me to be a part of the team. To gift you and us the space to just be in the presence of one another and see what wants to emerge…

Patrick

Participant EDE 2023

I don’t know where I picked up this phrase, but I can really relate to it: A ship in the harbour is save, but a ship is not meant to be in the harbour. That’s why I left my harbour six years ago and set sail to explore the unknown waters of communities and ecovillages. It’s been an incredibly inspiring cruise which still continues. I …

navigated rough seas, cast anchor at beautiful islands, dipped into Permaculture, established myself in Vipassana meditation, got into cooking and somehow found my route to the EDE in Glarisegg. I came with a spark, but this course literally set me on fire. Now I want to return the favour and ignite more fires in order to create this transformative culture we are all longing for!

Timon

Participant EDE 2020, Team player 2024-2025

The EDE 2020 in Glarisegg was a significant landmark and catalyst for me on a journey of being and exploring world through embodied presence, nervous system regulation, and with a deeper, wider, and inward-oriented framework. This allows me to meet intimately with life …

and to discover more of the relational, collective, emergent, and creative nature of conscious experience. It is an expedition that has continued since and that has brought me back to the EDE several times as a member of the team.

Here, I‘m looking forward to assisting you on your journey, as well as caring for our group field and container. Honoring our uniqueness, being, and love, I intend to be in service of a transformative experience. May we walk on a shared and inspiring path, and may I contribute to making it possible for others to encounter the same kind of magic that I did.

External Facilitators

We are delighted to welcome our External Facilitators of our upcoming course!

Edward Groody

Community building

Edward Groody is a leading Community Building thought leader, author, and teacher. He is founder, CEO and Senior Trainer, of Community Building International (CBI), a global training, certification, and consulting firm. CBI is also a global network of professional, certified Community Building facilitators.

Edward has devoted a lifetime to spreading the vision and experience of peace and genuine Community into diverse settings and sectors. He is committed is to making the experience of genuine Community commonplace and abundant everywhere for everyone.

He is one of a handful of individuals to train and work with his mentor and colleague M. Scott Peck, M.D., renowned bestselling author of The Road Less Traveled and The Different Drum, and developer of the original Community Building (CB) process. Edward is committed to preserving and protecting the integrity of Dr. Peck’s work while also offering new CB formats to meet today’s many urgent challenges.

https://communitybuilding.com/

Stimmvolk Karin Jana & Matthias

Karin Jana & Matthias

Singing for Peace & Community Building

Stimmvolk: Karin Jana & Matthias

www.stimmvolk.ch

www.tschatscho.ch/karin-jana-beck

Claudio Beretta

Foodwaste

Claudio Beretta is currently working as a research associate in the group of Food and Beverage Innovation at the school of applied sciences ZHAW.
He is responsible for sustainability in food systems and expert about food waste. Besides his position at ZHAW he is president and co-founder of the association …

foodwaste.ch destined to reduce food losses at the various stages of the food value chain.

In 2018 he finished his PhD at ETH Zurich, analyzing the environmental impact of food losses in Switzerland. For him, raising awareness about food waste is a first step towards questioning our consumption habits and seriously facing the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Claudios profile at ZHAW.ch

foodwaste.ch

PhD at ETH Zurich ->
https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/347342
Foodwaste, Claudio Beretta