Getting Free
The Foundational Work of Paradigm Shift
We live inside cultural stories. Stories about separation, domination, and scarcity that shape how we work, lead, and relate. These aren't abstract concepts. They're living forces that move through our bodies, our organisations, our movements.
The story of separation positions humans as separate from nature and each other, enabling extraction and isolation.
The story of domination operates through patriarchy, white supremacy, and supremacy culture, maintaining power through shame, violence and control.
The story of scarcity drives capitalism's growth imperative, creating urgency culture and the belief that there's never enough. The story of growth as success is at the heart our economic system - and one we’ve often internalised in our endless quests to do more.
The Stories We've Inherited
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.
But here's what matters: these stories aren't natural laws. They're cultural constructions.
And what's cultural can be composted.
Getting Free begins on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at 6pm BST, and runs for four weeks.
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.
Not fighting harder, but seeing more clearly. Not fixing ourselves, but composting inherited patterns. Not individual healing, but 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: paradigm literacy, pattern recognition, and practices for interruption.
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
Liberation requires release. Each week includes ritual space to consciously compost these inherited patterns - not bypassing them, but acknowledging what they've cost us and choosing to let go of what no longer serves.
What You'll Explore
The Methodology
This is paradigm work, and the course integrates multiple ways of knowing:
Systems thinking helps us understand root causes and leverage points - how paradigms function, where they're vulnerable, what shifts them.
Somatic practice grounds the work in embodied wisdom rather than purely intellectual understanding.
Ritual and reflection create space for deeper transformation, for consciously releasing old stories and preparing soil for new ones.
Collective inquiry builds shared capacity. This work doesn't happen in isolation.
The goal isn't to fix what's broken in us. It's to see clearly what we've inherited, understand where it comes from, and begin living from different paradigms.
You might be leading an organisation and noticing how it unconsciously replicates the patterns it was created to disrupt. You might be engaged in movement work and wanting to understand how paradigms actually shift. You might be building alternatives and needing to ensure you don't rebuild extractive systems with different language.
Or you might be doing something different entirely. 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.
This work is best suited if you're:
Looking for depth, not just information
Interested in systems-level thinking alongside embodied practice
Ready to examine how cultural paradigms live in your own work and leadership
Wanting community with others asking similar questions
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 the material of Cultural Wayfinding, our twelve-week flagship programme exploring paradigm shift and regenerative leadership. We've created this focused series for those who want to explore this specific aspect of the work: understanding and composting the cultural stories that underpin the polycrisis.
If you're interested in the full Cultural Wayfinding journey, it runs in Autumn 2026 and explores these paradigms plus the work of seeding alternatives - embodiment practices, relational work, and systems prototyping. This series stands alone and can be taken independently.
If you plan to join Cultural Wayfinding in Autumn 2026, you may wish to wait for that rather than taking this series, as the material overlaps. If you're not ready for a twelve-week commitment or want to explore this specific aspect of the work, Getting Free is designed for you.
Lastly, if you do join Getting Free, and then enrol in Cultural Wayfinding, you will be eligible for a course discount.
Throughout 2026, Scintilla Centre is holding space for those navigating the transition between worlds.
We're offering focused programmes on different aspects of this work: finding your calling (Rise), understanding power, practicing nonviolence, and inner work for systems change (Cultural Wayfinding).
Getting Free addresses foundational work: seeing the paradigms we've inherited and beginning the work of composting them.
Facilitator - Laura Hartley
Laura Hartley is the founder of Scintilla Centre.
Her work emerged from her experience in climate and environmental activism. She understands the challenges that change-work brings and the skills required for impactful work: relationship building, creativity, conflict reconciliation, storytelling.
As a coach and the founder of Scintilla Centre, Laura supports changemakers in developing the skills, wisdom, and community needed to remake the world.
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 & 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.
Cultural Wayfinding represents our foundational offering in this work; a space to develop the paradigm-shifting capacity that makes all other change work more effective.
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.
Program Investment: £350
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.”
Prefer to join Cultural Wayfinding, or not ready to join this cohort?
Register here to be the first to hear when future versions of Getting Free or Cultural Wayfinding begin. You’ll also join our newsletter, where you’ll hear of other courses and early bid prices.
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 material and journal prompts.
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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 weeks 1-5 of Cultural Wayfinding, our twelve-week flagship programme. If you plan to join Cultural Wayfinding in autumn 2026, we recommend waiting for that rather than taking this series, as the material overlaps. If you're not ready for a twelve-week commitment or want to explore this specific aspect of the work, Getting Free is designed for you.
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.