Living Wholeness Institute

Maria Scordialos is a co-founder of the Living Wholeness Institute, that is researching and prototyping systemic transformation projects and practices, based at Axladitsa Avatakia, a farm and home that hosts immersion learning in Pelion, Greece.  She is also a co-initiator of the Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations, a practice that invites people to create new collective intelligence through generative dialogue.  Maria specialises in strategic process design and dialogue of systemic transformation initiatives.  She works with the principles of self-organisation and participation in order to create the conditions where both individual and collective learning and discovery can emerge.  Maria is passionate about citizen led democracy where people can be part of crafting their own lives by living their soul’s purpose.  She works in the place where invisible meets the visible, where chaos meets order and where the individual meets the collective.  Maria has worked in strategic management positions and since 2000 has co-created learning opportunities and led projects in Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East.

You can listen to Maria's TED talk in Leiden - The Greek in All of Us

Vanessa Reid (M.Arch) is a pioneering leader who brings her unique brand of artistry to the field of social innovation. She cut her teeth in Canada as executive director of Santropol Roulant, a vibrant non-profit founded by young people in which food as a catalyst for social change. Ever since, she has been immersed in creating cultures - personal, organizational, societal - that are alive and deeply aligned with all of life. This includes working with transitions, tranformation and the natural cycles of life - from the mess and excitement of creating new systems and initiatives to Conscious Closure and the living that is activated in the Dying.

Most recently, Vanessa has been based in Jerusalem, working in the Middle East and Europe, and partnering on radically new systemic transformation initiatives like the Finance Innovation Lab-UK, hosting depth learning with people and places, co-founding the Living Wholeness Institute - and witnessing massive change all around. As an architect, she brings a design practice to create spaces of individual and collective transformation; as a writer and former publisher of the award-winning ascent magazine, she brings a depth of spiritual, reflective, body and awareness practices. And as a global soul, she knows there is a great journey ahead and can't imagine a better time to be alive.

Watch Vanessa's TEDx Talk: Conscious Closure and the Wild Life of Dying