4 Courses in Cardiff

Light Language attunement for stepping into the Age of Aquarius and unfolding your passion and magic.

LOOKING FOR: ADULT FICTION Louise Buckley has worked in publishing for well over a decade. She was inspired to enter the publishing industry after completing an MA in Creative Writing and then spent a hugely enjoyable year working as a bookseller for Waterstones, wishing that she could have a hand in publishing books. After a year working at Dorling Kindersley, she then spent almost five years working in the commercial fiction division at Pan Macmillan, where she published a mix of commercial bestsellers and award-winning authors. Most recently, she was an Associate Literary Agent at Zeno Agency Ltd. As an agent she represented a roster of commercial and literary fiction, including Anne Griffin’s When All is Said, which spent five weeks at number one in Ireland and sold into 17 territories. She is delighted to be working with Hannah at Hannah Sheppard Literary Agency. Louise is looking for:- Literary and upmarket fiction that focusses on the underdog, the repressed, the suppressed. Louise is especially interested in novels that represent working-class people or children going through difficult circumstances (think Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal or Boys Don’t Cry by FÍona Scarlett). Irish literary and book club fiction. Think Claire Keegan, Louise Kennedy or Anne Griffin. In commercial fiction she loves novels set during the Second World War, such as The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christi Lefteri or The Midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart. Louise recently read and loved The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson and would love to see anything in the same ‘older person going on a journey’ category, a more recent The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Louise had a lot of fun publishing a ‘pet fiction’ novel as an editor (Molly and the Cat Café) and would love to find an author who can write an Alfie the Doorstep Cat/Dog. She has a soft spot for novels featuring time-travel or parallel universes, a ‘what if’ that plays around with conventions. At the literary end this would be books like Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes or This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. At the more commercial end Louise loved Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and Oona Out of Order by Martina Montimore. She also enjoys novels set in the real world but featuring a hefty dose of magic or the supernatural. They can be commercial or literary, present-day or historical. Think Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, Threadneedle by Cari Thomas, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness or The Gifts by Liz Hyder. And also cosy fantasy in the vein of Legends and Lattes or The House in the Cerulean Sea. Cosy or humorous crime. Recently, Louise absolutely loved Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans. When she was an editor Louise published the hit Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll and would love to represent incisive, intelligent suspense written by authors such as Jessica Knoll and Gillian Flynn, or something a little more subversive and blackly comic like My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. More generally, Louise would also love to see novels with a disabled protagonist or someone (like myself) who is living with an invisible disability. As an ex-primary school teacher, she also warmly welcomes submissions from teachers, especially if the submission falls into one of the other categories she has listed. Following-on from this, she enjoys reading stories that follow a ‘beating the system’ narrative. Louise is NOT looking for: -romance -romantasy -epic, traditional fantasy -space opera -straightforward women’s fiction -children’s fiction of any kind -non-fiction Louise would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 page synopsis and the first three chapters or 5,000 words of your manuscript in a single word document. (In addition to the paid sessions, Louise is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print).  By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Friday 6 December 2024

Life is hectic. Finding time out feels almost impossible. We want to pray, we want to reflect, but when we do find a snatched moment to ourselves, we remain distracted. I've designed this space to help you reconnect with your breath, to gently stretch your body, and to listen... to the voice of your inner wisdom, and to the voice of your Beloved.  We will meditate with scripture, we will journal, we will use creative means to listen to the Spirit. We will sit with Love. I hope you will come away feeling centred, refreshed and assured of your belovedness.  Two hours, on Zoom. "Come away with me to a quiet place" The sessions will be shaped around the following themes this year: October: Teresa of Avila November: Letting Go December: Advent / Expectant Hope January: The Gifts of Winter Darkness February: Love March: Lent April: No Session May: Resurrection / Spring June: TBC July: The Gifts of Summer August: No Session You are invited to participate from the comfort of your own home. Ideally you'll be able to find a little space where you won't be interrupted. You might wish to ask those you share space with to help you protect this time by respecting your privacy. All who sign up will be sent a link to the recording of the retreat which will remain live until the following session. If you would like to participate via recording, simply register for the event. It would be great if you could let me know that you won't be with us in real time. Past Participants are Saying: "A really well led session allowing time for reflection and prayer." - Ellie Virtual Mini-Retreats are hosted by Lissy Clarke, Spiritual Director, Yoga Teacher and the voice behind the meditations at Contemplative at Home.  NB: Virtual Mini-Retreats are FREE for members who support the show at £15/ month and above (thank you!! ✨) - but you must still register to secure a place on a particular date, as places are limited. Memberships can be started or stopped at any time. More information here.

In this transformative course, you will learn to step into your power, follow your intuition, and live your full potential!

Make the most beautiful wedding stationery or personalise gifts with this decorative and elegant modern calligraphy style. 

In this course we explore how we have attempted to build inclusive circles of support around individuals and contrast this with a radical approach to hospitality and community building – the Community Circle. The purpose of community circles is to bring people from a local community together to share their skills, talents, gifts and resources. This idea is based upon the premise that ALL of us need three things in our lives to make us happy and fulfilled: these are money, friendship and meaning. We believe that everyone needs community, everyone needs to be heard and everyone needs to have fun. Online Course now available via Teachable Platform – Creating Community Circles Learn at your own pace… lots of text and video support Category Inclusion Peer Support Parents and Carers   Description  Building Community Circles In this course we explore how we have attempted to build inclusive circles of support around individuals and contrast this with a radical approach to hospitality and community building – the Community Circle. The purpose of community circles is to bring people from a local community together to share their skills, talents, gifts and resources. This idea is based upon the premise that ALL of us need three things in our lives to make us happy and fulfilled: these are money, friendship and meaning. We believe that everyone needs community, everyone needs to be heard and everyone needs to have fun. Community Circles are based upon reciprocity and the assumption that EVERYONE has both gifts and needs – whether these are labelled or not. The circles adopt the fundamental value of inclusion that ‘all means all’, no one is excluded from community circles, instead the circle members work out how to include everyone equally and safely. A community circle is made up of participants and allies from the local community. The meeting starts with everyone sharing food and conversations. Next the group comes together in a circle so that everyone can see each other and shares what is good and new in their lives, everyone gets a turn to be listened to. ‘New and Good’ breaks the habit of thinking about and acting from what’s wrong, it is an exercise of giving and receiving attention with one another and it also provides a strong foundation of strengths from which we can think about and tackle difficulties. The group is then asked the question what do they want, need or have to offer. Community circles provide a great foundation or starting point from which to explore connections, build relationships, locate resources and share skills. These circles will be a particularly important resource for Brokers and the people that they work for. They provide a safe forum in which people can meet and friendships can start, a natural reservoir of people and relationships where people can be invited to offer their time and capacity. To be successful we have to start from a belief in inclusion. A belief that: 1 We are all born ‘in’. 2 All means all. 3 Everyone needs to belong. 4 Everyone is ready. 5 Everyone needs support. 6 Everyone can communicate. 7 Everyone can contribute. 8 Together we’re better. Learning Objectives For participants to learn how to create a Community Circle. For participants to understand the underlying rationale and ethos of this way of working. To explore ways of maximising an individual’s inclusion and connection with the wider community. To explore ways of helping with friendship, social connection and education. To increase confidence, social skills and presence of disabled adults and those with a wide range of need in their local community by focusing on their contribution. Who Is It For? Anyone interested in mobilising the community to make it more inclusive around disabled or challenging individuals. Course Content Understanding ordinary needs – plus the true dimensions of social inclusion Building relationships Creating natural circles of support Creating a community circle If you like this you will almost certainly enjoy: Person Centred Planning using PATH and MAPS

To facilitate a group, family, team or organisation in thinking together around a given challenge or issue here is an opportunity to experience for real the person centred, futures planning tool – MAP (Pearpoint, Forest et. al. 1989). This is a process not a training day. Let us facilitate your planning and refocus your story whilst strengthening you and your group. This tool uses both process and graphic facilitation to help any group develop a shared vision and then to make a start on working out what they will need to do together to move towards that vision. MAPS are great for threshold moments. Is your team stuck? Want to move on, haunted by the past cannot get any useful dialogue about the future? Facing a challenging transition into a new school or setting? Leaving school? Bored with annual reviews, transition plans and review meetings? Want to find a way of making meetings and planning feel more real and engaging? Need an approach, which engages a young person respectfully together with his or her family and friends? Want the ultimate visual record of the process of a meeting, which will help everyone, keep track? Want to problem solve and plan for the future of a small or large group, service or organisation up to the size of an LEA Learning Objectives To create a shared vision To talk through the story so far and reflect upon it To name the worse nightmares that will block progress To strengthen the group by focussing on gifts and capacity To detail needs To specify an Action Plan To create a visual graphic record of the whole event Course Content The MAP process has 6 Steps: The story so far. The group is required to think back over the years to describe their collective experience of changes and events over time within their settings. Stories and events are recorded on the graphic. Building Shared Dreams. The group thinks together about what they would love to see happening for children, families and practitioners in their settings if they could have it all. If there were no constraints on time, money, resources, people or anything else what do they see happening in their imaginations? The various ideas that the group comes up with are then recorded in key words, images and colours on the MAP graphic. The purpose of this Step is to give the group a sense of direction, their North Star, an image of the place they want to work towards. Nightmare. In this Step, the group imagines the worst scenarios. What is the opposite of their dreams? How bad could it get? This is a shorter but powerful process that can give some groups more energy than dreaming together. Gifts and Capacity. In this Step the group is asked to take explicit stock of their capacities and what they already have going for them as they begin working towards the vision. This is a strong reminder for any group of the wealth of knowledge and experience that is already and always in the room. Needs. In this Step the group is invited to begin to name some of the needs they will have if they are to move forward to wards the dream and away from the nightmare. Actions. This is the final Step in the MAP and calls for individuals within the group to name a range of very specific actions (however small) that they will take within a definite time scale. This is not a time for declaring good intentions or suggesting good ideas for someone else to do. The purpose of this Step is to end the MAP process with a range of clearly understood actions that carry this planning process forward into the real world.

Acts of bribery and corrupt business practices are still an all to common part of business to business activity in the UK and Worldwide. Inducements can range from small 'facilitation payments' to gifts worth millions of pounds. They can come in many different forms and can sometimes be hard to track down. This course examines some of the reasons why bribery and corruption occur as well as providing an overview of how common these practices are believed to be, before discussing how normal business activities, such as gifts, hospitality, sponsorship and donations, can be manipulated to become bribes. It goes on to cover the legislation that is in place both in the UK and internationally and the severe penalties that can be brought against someone found to be acting a corrupt way. It also looks at the effects of bribery at a national level, including corruption in state-owned enterprises and governments, worldwide. Finally, on a more practical level, it will show you some of the ways management and employees can reduce the risk of bribery and corruption in their organisations, particularly through anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies.

In a personal session of 60 min. there is space for any transformation you would love to achieve. If you have questions, especially those realated to your sensitivity or giftednesss, and want to open the space of spiritual guidance, for healing and clearing, this session could assist you deeply and with long-term effects on your development. It will be held online via Zoom - and you are most welcome!