CLICK ON THE DOCUMENT: Stories that Change – call for participants
“Once upon a time…”
“Stories that Change – reviving the art of storytelling” is an Erasmus+ training course which aims at revitalizing the art of storytelling and supporting it in becoming a fundamental practice in the fields of human development, education, and youth work.
In a world of fake news, AI-generated narratives, doomscrolling, endless reels, and social media ‘stories’, we need to return to the old ways of relating, learning, and evolving.
‘Logos’ and ‘Mythos’ are two ancient Greek terms that represent different ways of understanding reality, telling stories, and finding truth.
As modern humans, we have created an existence where Logos is largely dominant. The logic of the mind controls and manages life, resources, and the environment, and thus we have estranged ourselves from the world of Myth.
The Mythic world is a portal into living life in a more sacred way, more aligned with our Deep Self, the original instructions on how to live on the Earth, our Souls, and the Great Mystery that holds the web of life.
Are you willing to step into the Mythic world?
For 7 full training days we are going to work with several interconnected elements:
Stories, lots of stories
Throughout the training, we will listen to and explore a wide variety of stories: myths, fairy tales, teaching stories, trickster tales, initiation stories, short stories, long stories. We will explore their teachings, wisdom, symbols, and deeper meanings, and discover how they speak to our own lives. We will work with stories through dialogue, embodiment, guided imagery, journaling, wandering on the land, creative expression, and encounters with the more-than-human world.
Stories of the land
We will wander the land and allow its spirit and creatures to speak and reveal their stories. We will practice listening beyond words, becoming attentive to the subtle movements and invisible pulsations of the Mythic world. We will open ourselves to the stories carried by forests, waters, stones, animals, winds, and places. We will become channels through which the stories of the land can emerge, take shape, and find a voice and explore what it means to become their keepers and stewards.
Stories of our hearts, bodies, and souls
We will open ourselves to the stories breathing beneath the surface of our everyday consciousness. We will listen to our longings, pain, hopes, dreams, callings, and grief, giving them space to be heard and expressed. Through voice, movement, sound, colour, imagery, and other forms of creative expression, we will allow these inner stories to take shape. And we will court our personal myth, the deeper story held within the hidden chambers of the soul. We will explore our lives as Mythic journeys: odysseys of departure and return, loss and discovery, descent and transformation.
Awakening the storyteller within
We will seek, awaken, and nourish the storyteller within each of us. We will explore authentic ways of becoming storytellers and story keepers, expanding our capacity to tell stories through voice, body, sound, rhythm, movement, presence, and enactment. We will learn not only how to tell a story, but how to inhabit it, allowing it to move through us and come alive. We will explore how storytelling can become a practice that touches hearts, opens minds, awakens imagination, and ignites personal, cultural, and social change.
Practices and activities
We will offer a bundle of practices and activities rooted in the principles of soulcentric development and Indigenous wisdom, such as: wandering in nature, embodiment practices, deep imagery journeys, symbolic art, the Way of Council, praying, fasting, guidance through questions, mirroring and personalized invitations, silence and solo time in nature, singing, drumming, dancing, soul-poetry, community work, ceremonies, rituals, explorations of dreams, conversations with the natural world… and a lot of storytelling.
The trainers/guides
Bogdan Romanică is a human development guide, trainer, and mentor from Romania. His work weaves together ecopsychology, nature connection, experiential learning, outdoor education, storytelling, ritual and music. He loves exploring nature and the human soul and feels most alive when inspiring people to become truer versions of themselves. He has worked in the field of human development, locally and internationally, since 2010. In 2019, following a vision quest, he reconnected with his calling for storytelling and felt invited to weave it into the heart of his work. Since then, stories have become an essential part of his path and practice.
Sandra Horea is a Soul Initiation Guide and a mythic storyteller from Romania. For the past 14 years, she has guided hundreds of people across Europe through transformative learning spaces, inviting deeper relationship with themselves, the living world and the mysteries of human becoming. Her work is rooted in more than a decade of training with the Animas Valley Institute, including the six-year Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Process (SAIP), where she trained and apprentice-guided as a Soul Initiation Guide under the mentorship of founder Bill Plotkin and other senior guides. Sandra has a particular devotion to life’s thresholds – listening for what is ready to die, what is longing to be born, and what deeper love is asking of us.
Location and venue
The program will take place at a peaceful mountain retreat in Băișoara village, located about 50 km from Cluj-Napoca, at an altitude of 1,400 m in the Carpathian Mountains. Surrounded by forests and mountain landscapes, the venue offers a simple and authentic Transylvanian setting, ideal for connecting with nature and stepping away from the rhythm of everyday life.
Participants will be accommodated in several cabins and lodges. The venue is located in a popular mountain area, surrounded by other cabins and chalets, while still offering easy access to the surrounding forests and natural landscape.
Participants will stay in shared rooms (2-6 persons/room), with shared bathrooms, and the meals will consist of vegetarian food.
The training will take place at the end of November, when temperatures at this altitude can be quite low. Participants should come prepared for cold mountain weather, with snowfall also being a possibility during this time of year.
Who can participate?
We are looking for participants who are actively involved in the field of human development and education, working primarily with young people, but also with adults. Suitable profiles include trainers, youth workers, coaches, mentors, facilitators, counsellors, wilderness guides, outdoor instructors, and others working in related fields.
Participants should have a strong interest in and passion for storytelling, as well as a genuine curiosity about exploring how stories and storytelling can be integrated into their educational and facilitation work.
Participants must be at least 18 years old and fluent in English.
Participants can apply to this training if they have legal residency in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Ireland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Spain.
25 places available.
2-3 participants/country.
Arrival and departure
– Arrival day in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) is the 22nd of November (no later than 16.00).
– Departure day is 30th of November (ideally after 12.00 from Cluj-Napoca).
– There are 7 full training days.
– The training location is approximately 70 minutes away from Cluj-Napoca.
Travelling costs
The project is financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, thus, all the activities, accommodation and food are 100% covered by the EU grant. The travel costs will be reimbursed to the participants after the course in the amount limit presented below.
- Romania – from Cluj-Napoca to the location and back
- Bulgaria – 255 Euros (green travel)
- Cyprus – 290 Euros
- Italy – 290 Euros
- Hungary – 255 Euros (green travel)
- Czechia – 375 Euros (green travel)
- Latvia – 290 Euros
- Ireland – 365 Euros
- Poland – 375 Euros (green travel)
- Spain – 290 Euros
* Green travel: means of transportation with lower carbon footprint, such as trains, buses, carpooling. Green traveling may take longer but is a necessary action for the environment.
Financial contribution
Each participant is asked to offer a financial contribution, on a sliding scale from 60 to 120 Euros (each person will choose the amount that feels right).
Other aspects
Each participant must have comprehensive travel and medical insurance, covering both the travel and the stay from the first until the last day of the way back home. The insurance should be covered by the participants.
If you plan to arrive earlier or leave later your expenses for accommodation outside of the days of the training will not be covered by the project.
Principles and preparation
Those who will be accepted in the training should follow an online learning process (reading different materials, articles, watching videos) related to the topic of the training.
The participants will receive several suggestions for personal work before coming to the program (e.g. journaling on certain questions, self-time in nature and several other invitations). Applying to this program also requires the commitment to follow the preparation process.
A dissemination activity
As a continuation of the experience, each participant will have to implement at least one ACTION in their own community (dissemination event/workshop for youth).
IMPORTANT: NO alcohol – NO drugs policy
The practices and activities that will be done during the training require our full mental and physical capacities. Thus, we invite the participants not to consume any alcohol and drugs during the whole training duration.
Application process
If you feel a deep calling to participate in this training course, you must fill in the application form available at this link:
APPLY HERE: https://forms.gle/gULH7Gvn81AvYtbu7
Deadline for application: 27th of September
Selection results: 30th of September
Contact
Bogdan Romanică – coordinator and guide
romanica.bogdan@gmail.com
