Getting Free
The Foundational Work of Deep Change
Starting Wednesday, April 8
Something keeps happening.
You push for change and find yourself replicating the very patterns you're trying to transform. The urgency, the overwork, the conflict that never quite resolves, the sense that something more fundamental needs to shift but you can't quite name what.
This isn't a personal failing. It's what happens when we try to remake the world using the same stories that made it.
The stories of separation, domination and scarcity don't just live in our systems. They live in us. In how we work, how we lead, how we respond under pressure, what we believe is possible.
Until we can see them clearly and begin composting them, we keep reproducing what we're working against.
That's what Getting Free is for.
The Work of Getting Free
Many of us absorbed these stories without realising it.
When change feels slow, we push harder. When conflict arises, we fight or withdraw. When resources feel scarce, we compete rather than collaborate.. We replicate the very patterns we're trying to transform.
This is what it means to use “the tools of the master's house” - to approach liberation with the energy of domination, to seek regeneration through extraction.
Getting Free requires something different.
Because these stories underpin the crises we face. Climate breakdown, rising authoritarianism, extraction and violence, epidemic loneliness and so much more emerge from shared roots, not separate problems.
And this matters: these stories aren't natural laws. They're cultural constructions.
So what we need isn’t to fight harder, but see more clearly. Not fix ourselves, but compost inherited patterns. Not just pursue individual healing, but a collective cultural shift.
This four-week series offers deep inquiry into the cultural stories shaping our world and our work. Through systems thinking, embodied practice, and ritual, we learn to identify these paradigms, understand how they operate, and begin the work of composting them.
Week One: Our Predicament
We begin by naming where we are. We're living in the space between the world as it is (unravelling) and the world as it could be (not yet born). This week sets the scene for the work ahead and introduces the skills of Getting Free.
Week Two: The Story of Domination
How separation, domination, and scarcity function as cultural operating systems. We examine the story of domination, what a culture built on domination looks like - how they maintain power through shame and violence, how they shape our relationship to authority and worthiness, and how we can unlearn this story from the inside out.
Week Three: The Story of Growth and Scarcity
Capitalism's operating system. We explore the growth imperative, extraction as logic, urgency culture and the pace of change. We look at how this paradigm shapes our relationship to time, resources, and what "enough" means.
Week Four: The Story of Separation
The belief that humans are separate from nature and each other. We examine how this enables extraction and isolation, what it costs us collectively, and what remembering interconnection makes possible.
Throughout: Composting Practice
Each week includes space to consciously compost these inherited patterns: exploring the story, the way it lives in us, what it costs us and choosing to let go of what no longer serves.
What You'll Explore
The Methodology
Getting Free integrates multiple ways of knowing.
We work with stories and systems - not just intellectually, but in the body, in relationship, in ritual. Because these paradigms don't just live in our minds. They live in how we breathe under pressure, how we respond to conflict, what we reach for when things feel scarce.
Each session moves between making sense of the bigger picture and feeling into how it lives in you specifically. We think together, we sit with what's uncomfortable, we create space to consciously let go of what we've inherited.
The goal isn't to fix something broken. It's to see clearly what we've inherited and begin living from something different.
You might be leading an organisation and noticing how it unconsciously replicates the patterns it was created to disrupt.
You might be doing work that touches people's lives - in healthcare, education, community, justice - and sensing that how you do that work needs to fundamentally shift, not just what you do.
You might be engaged in movement work and wanting to understand how paradigms actually shift at the root.
You might be building something new and needing to ensure you don't rebuild extractive systems with different language.
Or you might be doing something else entirely, but you've felt the friction. The sense that something deeper needs to change, in the work and in yourself, and that these two things aren't separate.
If you believe a more just, loving and regenerative world is possible, and you're willing to examine the inherited stories shaping how you work toward it, this series is for you.
Getting Free begins on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 and runs for four weeks at 10am Pacific | 1pm Eastern | 6pm BST | 7pm CET.
Who is this for?
About This Series
Getting Free is drawn from Cultural Wayfinding - Scintilla's core methodology for navigating paradigm shift and regenerative leadership. We've distilled this aspect of the work into a focused four-week series for those ready to go to the root: understanding the cultural stories we've inherited and beginning the work of composting them.
This series stands completely on its own. You don't need to have done any other Scintilla programmes to join, and you'll leave with something whole and usable.
If the work resonates and you want to go further, Cultural Wayfinding takes this deeper, moving from composting old stories into seeding new ones, through embodiment practices, relational work and systems thinking. When it runs, anyone who has done Getting Free will receive a discount.
Getting Free is one of several focused programmes Scintilla is offering this year, each addressing a different dimension of this work, from finding your calling (Rise) to practicing nonviolence to the full Cultural Wayfinding journey. They can be taken in any order, and each stands alone.
Facilitator - Laura Hartley
I’m Laura - founder of the Scintilla Centre.
I came to this work through climate activism. And what I kept noticing - in movements, in organisations, in myself - was that we were often running on the same energy as the systems we were trying to change. The urgency, the pushing, the burnout, the unhealed conflict. We were trying to build something new from inside the old stories.
That tension is what Scintilla was born from. And it's what Getting Free goes to the root of.
I'm a writer, a trained facilitator in Kingian Nonviolence, and someone who has spent a long time at the intersection of inner work and systems change. I don't think these things are separate. I think how we show up to the work is part of the work.
The Scintilla Approach
Scintilla Centre works at the intersection of systems change, contemplative practice, and cultural transformation. We create learning spaces for changemakers developing the wisdom and capacities this time requires.
Our programs integrate systems thinking with somatic wisdom, radical imagination, and relational practice, and we work with those who believe a more just, loving & regenerative world is possible.
We believe transformation happens at multiple scales simultaneously, that inner work and outer work are inseparable, and that shifting culture requires understanding the paradigms we've inherited and consciously choosing to seed alternatives.
Getting Free begins on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 and runs for four weeks at 10am Pacific | 1pm Eastern | 6pm BST | 7pm CET.
This 4-week program includes four live 90 minute Zoom sessions and a homework material to help support and guide your journey outside of and beyond the program.
If you use the code EARLYBIRD before March 27, the program price will be £245.
Program Investment: £275
Ready to join Getting Free?
Praise for Cultural Wayfinding
Lucy, United States
“From the readings, to the discussions, to the facilitation and pace, this course offers an opportunity for both seasoned activists and newcomers to find a reflective place to deepen their understanding and practice, while leaning into envisioning new possibilities...”
Ruth, Australia
“Every session left me full of ideas, thoughts, questions, and a much deeper understanding of myself and my purpose in this world. I loved this course - and all the wonderful people from all over the world who shared this space - and, while so thankful to have been involved, I'm quite sad that it has come to an end.”
Frequently asked questions
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Live sessions are 90 minutes, and this is where the majority of the content is delivered. You will have a workbook that we recommend allowing 30-60 minutes per week to go through the workbook and any homework.
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All sessions are recorded. We encourage live attendance when possible for the community connection and collective inquiry, but we understand schedules vary.
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Getting Free begins on Wednesday, April 8 2026 and runs for four weeks, concluding on Wednesday, April 30 2026. Sessions are 90 minutes at 6pm BST / 7pm CET.
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Getting Free draws from Cultural Wayfinding, our twelve-week flagship programme.
If you do enrol in Getting Free, and then decide to also enrol in Cultural Wayfinding - you will receive a discount on the course price.
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Yes. Getting Free is designed as a standalone series accessible to anyone.
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Rise focuses on discernment work - finding what's yours to do in this time through inner compass development. Getting Free examines the cultural paradigms we've all inherited and how to compost them. Both are valuable; which to start with depends on your current situation.
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Changed your mind? No worries. You've got 14 days from purchase to let us know, and we'll refund you in full.
The only catch: once you step into the course and start exploring, or the live cohort sessions begin, that's your signal you're committed, and the refund window closes. Think of it as opening the door – once you're in, you're in.
Any questions before you begin? Just reach out – we're here to help.