The Team

Who brings this course to life?

Who brings this course to life?

3 main roles

  • The core team; the organizers of the course, including the 2 founders

  • Team players; every year, 8 former participants come back to support the unfolding of the course and the group in its best way

  • Facilitators; the content is co-created by the organizers, together with team players, seminar leaders from the community, from the alums network or other GEN related trainers

The Organizers

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
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.

Amneh

Co-organizer & Trainer

Amneh has been involved in climate justice movements over the past ten years in various projects that have led her from coal mines in Germany to monoculture deserts in southern Spain, to the reality of EU-borders in Serbia, where 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.

Participating in Creating a Transformative Culture several years ago profoundly shaped her personal and professional path. The experience brought her an invaluable understanding of human relationships and our fragile, interconnected 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

Kaleï

Co-organizer & Trainer

Kaleï brings the curiosity and versatility of a true Swiss knife — though he is French at heart. Trained in visual communication, nursing, and collective trauma facilitation, he has gained experience across a wide range of fields: from videography and design, facilitation and mediation …

to jewelry and wood crafting, natural building, and group cooking. He embodies a spirit of exploration and lifelong learning, with a calm and grounding presence that thrives in spaces of deep listening and authentic exchange.

Fascinated by group dynamics and human consciousness, his path has been deeply shaped by extensive trainings with Thomas Hübl — the Timeless Wisdom Training and the Collective Trauma Facilitator Training — where he explored cultural dynamics, collective trauma, and the unseen energetic layers of group process. He has also organized and facilitated circles of presence and men’s retreats, learning profoundly from these experiences.

A participant of the EDE in 2019 and later a returning team member, Kaleï discovered within this network both life-long friendships and his life partner, as well as a space where authentic expression could flourish. For the past four years, he has served on the board of the association Creating a Transformative Culture. Today, it is his honor to serve the EDE’s vision as a co-organizer and trainer — a midwife of an emergent regenerative culture, supporting the unfolding of inner aliveness and collective transformation.

Team players 2026

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.

The Facilitators

The Work That Reconnects, Breathwork, Contact-Improvisation, Jashana Kippert

Jashana Kippert

The Work That Reconnects, Breathwork, Contact-Improvisation

Facilitator of Transformative Processes who loves Dancing in Chaos, Adventuring into the Mystery, Grounded in Nature and Gratitude, Devoted to a Deeper Intimacy with All of Life, Ready to Play …

* Holotropic Breathwork
* Embodied Leadership
* Sacred Activism
* We are All in This Together: Our Global Predicament
* Deepening Intimacy
* Living into Questions
* Ecovillage In Hawaii: Designing new models of land aquistion and
community structures, the multi-benefits of Food Forests, alternative
finance models, tackling legal and financial hurdles
* Degrowth!
* Contact Improvisation

Annabelle Schapals

Conflict Resolution, Trauma informed Mediation, Sociocracy

With an alive interest in human connection and communication, Annabelle Schapals opens spaces for transformation and exploration. She co-organises events that bring people closer to each other and themselves. With clarity, compassion, and sensitivity, Annabelle accompanies decision making, conflict transformation, and individual processes …

Annabelle lives a semi-nomadic life, with a home base in the countryside of Bern, Switzerland. She expresses herself as a creative vegan cook, body painting artist, and movement enthusiast.

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

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

Conflict Resolution, Traumainformed Mediation, Sociocracy, Annabelle Schapals
Community Building, Authentic Voicing, Conscious Celebration, Sonja-Vera Schmitt

Sonja-Vera Schmitt

Community Building, Authentic Voicing, Conscious Celebration

Since 2003 my learning and training field has been initiating, designing and developing the thriving community project Schloss Glarisegg. During this time I have gained many powerful community tools that enable me to successfully work through the complicated processes of community projects …

People are multilayered, groups are even more so. I enjoy exploring and navigating these complex fields. I offer clear spaces for awareness, so things can emerge, be recognized and therefore start to change and move again.

Our community and me within learned a lot since our start in 2003 and could always and again rely on the experience of very experienced outside coaches. Their help was invaluable. Being trained in all these community questions I do love to offer these gifts to other community projects.

Worldview
– awareness in nature
– introduction into the morning circle ritual of the community Glarisegg
– introduce „Pinakarri“
– introduction to “Global Ecovillage Network”
– “cults: red flags of communities“
– individual & project group coaching
Economy
– initiation, development, structures of eco-projects and communities
– finances of community project Schloss Glarisegg, yearly turn over: 3 Million Swiss Francs
Embodiement
– Authentic Movement
– „Authentic Voicing“, developed by Sonja-Vera
– Song-leader: singing & accompanying with guitar spiritual, community songs and rituals (love tunnel)
– introduction into “Contact-Improvisation“
– „LifeDance“: nonverbal, respectful playground for adults, improvisation with dance & music
Social
– „Map of 4 feelings“, „My story about you“, „Frying pan, WOK“, „intimacy negotiation” inspired by Possibility Management
– introduction & practice “community building Scott Peck“ – introduction of Fishbowl, Way of Council, Forum, continuums & constellation work
– “emotional release ritual“, inspired by Stimmvolk / Malidoma Some

Email: sonja-vera.schmitt(a)schloss-glarisegg.ch

A german language interview with Sonja-Vera from the Pioneers of change Online Summit:
Watch the interview

Karin Jana & Matthias

Singing for Peace & Community Building

Stimmvolk: Karin Jana & Matthias

www.stimmvolk.ch

www.tschatscho.ch/karin-jana-beck

Stimmvolk Karin Jana & Matthias
Mediator, Possibilitator, Kathrin Jehle

Kathrin Jehle

Mediator, Possibilitator and holding space for Love, Connection, Vulnerability, Integrity and Healing

Since I live in the community Schloss Glarisegg I discover new possibilities of being together and co-create a new culture.
I realized that my linear life so far is not nurturing me anymore. I quit my career as a professor for mediation and conflict management at the school for applied science in Berne to become a possibilitator and …

holding space for Love, Connection, Vulnearbility, Integrity and Healing.
I’m searching how to provide my non-material value as a spaceholder. Besides opening spaces for Rage Club, Healing Void and Possibility Management, I’m teaching as a trainer for mindfulness in organizations at the school for applied science in Lucerne. In Lucerne I also co-create the gift-economic based project Pinakarri where I take a stand for social regeneration.
In Schloss Glarisegg I’m co-creating the academy for community building. I’m very glad to bring my skills as a mediator to the EDE. Conflicts are inevitable and I care that they are considered as a chance to deepen relationships. The way through the pain opens the space to peace and selfdirected possibilities.

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
Permaculture, Sociocracy Roos Derks

Roos Derks

Permaculture, Sociocracy

After finishing a master in Cultural Sociology and traveling several continents on a low budget, Roos started learning more intensively about permaculture in 2015, with the blessing of many inspiring gardens, natural places, teachers and courses. Settling down and growing her own food since 2018 grounded her on this journey. She loves teaching permaculture …

its principles, ethics and applications. and feels honored to open the door to the possibilties and creativity of land-based lifestyle at the EDE.

From discovering “ecosystem thinking”, learning about the intricate ways of nature, to taking a closer look at indigenous practices.

Having initiated several projects, such as the Dragon Seed Camp, Roos also bring experience with regenerative design for social systems. Design can be seen as a conversation, between ecosystems, people and possibility, where the designer facilitates the right conditions for collaboration and emergence, inspired by natural patterns. She facilitates these conversations, for individuals, groups and projects. Find more about her work on her websites:

Petra Heid

Dynamic Agroforestry,
Worldwide Cocao-Production

Petra has 20 years of experience and brought interdisciplinary knowledge in the area of cocoa sustainability and certification of the whole cocoa value chain.
She realized several sustainability projects in different cocoa growing countries always in cooperation with smallholder cocoa farmers and their communities.
Dynamic Agroforestry, Worldwide Cocao-Production, Petra Heid