🇱🇻 Erasmus+ Training Course in Latvia 🍄 Dreamwork Embodiment and Nature Based Practices 🌌

Description

A 7-day Erasmus+ training exploring dreamwork, embodiment, expressive arts and nature-based practices, offering experiential methods and tools for youth workers to bring into their work with young people and communities.

It is dark, our eyes drop heavy, and behind them another world invites us in, no matter if we remember that world upon waking. As our bodies rest, our psyche takes us towards images, memories, emotions and stories that often remain outside our everyday awareness.

Dreaming from the Mycelium of the Earth is an invitation.

An invitation to become curious about the intelligence that lives beneath our usual ways of knowing. Like mycelium moving quietly beneath the forest floor, much of what shapes us remains unseen.

An invitation to tend dreams as wild and meaningful parts of ourselves.

An invitation to be guided by dreams, movement, art, imagination and nature — allowing them to move with us and within us.

And an invitation to explore how these practices can enrich youth work and non-formal education, creating spaces where young people can deepen their relationship with themselves, their communities and the more-than-human world.

Dreaming from the Mycelium of the Earth is a 7-day Erasmus+ training course combining dreamwork, embodiment, storytelling, poetry, expressive arts, deep imagination and ecological and nature-based education.

The training will offer youth workers and other professionals working with people a space to first experience these approaches themselves and then explore how they can be adapted to their own educational contexts.

We believe that meaningful youth work begins not only with methods, but also with the capacity of the practitioner to be present, listen, notice, imagine and create spaces where different ways of knowing and expressing ourselves are welcomed.

Throughout the programme, participants will therefore move between personal experience, group learning and professional reflection: What does this practice awaken in me? What does it teach me as a facilitator? How could it support the young people and communities I work with?

The deep winter landscape of rural Latvia will become part of our learning environment — a place for slowing down, listening, creating, moving and experimenting.

We hope participants will leave with new resources, perspectives and practical methods that can be brought back into their youth work, educational activities and communities.

DURING THE TRAINING WE WILL EXPLORE - dream-tending and approaches to working with dreams; - embodiment and somatic awareness; - movement and expressive arts; - storytelling and poetry; - deep imagination; - nature-based and experiential learning; - ecological awareness and relationship with the more-than-human world; - reflection and council practices; - intercultural learning; - resilience and self-care; - ways of adapting experiential and creative practices to youth work and non-formal education.

The methodology will be highly experiential. Participants should be willing to engage actively in individual practices, group processes, creative exploration, time outdoors and reflection.

YOUTH WORK & LEARNING An important part of the training will be exploring how creative, embodied and nature-based approaches can support contemporary youth work.

Young people increasingly need spaces where they can slow down, reconnect with their bodies and creativity, explore identity and emotions, experience meaningful relationships and develop a deeper sense of belonging to their communities and the natural world.

The training aims to expand the methodological toolbox of youth workers by introducing practices that can support self-expression, self-awareness, creativity, emotional resilience, connection, participation and ecological awareness.

Participants will be invited to reflect on how the methods experienced during the programme can be adapted responsibly to different groups of young people and different educational and community contexts.

The intention is therefore not to train participants to become therapists or dream analysts. Instead, we will explore dream, imagination, embodiment, art and nature as creative and educational resources within non-formal learning and youth work.

WHO IS IT FOR? We are calling in people who work with people — those who create spaces for learning, growth, connection and transformation.

The programme is particularly relevant for: youth workers, facilitators, educators, mentors, coaches, guides, artists, community workers and nature-based practitioners, as well as those whose work does not quite fit into a single box.

You do not need to arrive as an expert, nor do you need previous experience with dreamwork or nature-based practices.

We are more interested in your curiosity: your willingness to listen, experiment, participate fully and bring what you discover back into the communities and people you work with.

Participants must: be 18 years or older; be able to communicate and participate in English; be willing to participate in the whole programme; be interested in applying or sharing the learning in their youth work, educational practice or communities; legally reside in one of the participating countries.

Applications are open to residents of: Latvia, Romania, Cyprus, Italy, Iceland, Estonia, Czechia and Slovakia.

DATES & LOCATION 4–12 December 2026 4 December — arrival day and organised transportation from Riga to the venue 5–11 December — 7 full programme days 12 December — departure and organised transportation back to Riga

The training will take place at Vonadziņi, Stāmeriena, in a rural area of North-Eastern Latvia.

Activity details

Activity type

Training Course

Activity dates

4-12 December 2026

Location

Stāmeriena, Latvia

Application deadline

1 October 2026

Selection date

4 October 2026

Participants

22

Recommended for

Youth workers, Trainers, Youth leaders, Youth project managers, Youth policy makers, Volunteering mentors, Youth coaches, Youth researchers

Working language

English

Organiser

Costs

Participation fee

There is no mandatory participation fee. Participants who wish to support the development of future educational activities may make a voluntary donation of €80–120, according to their personal financial possibilities. The donation is entirely optional and will not influence participant selection or participation in the training.

Accommodation and food

The project is supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. Accommodation, food, programme activities and learning materials during the training are covered by the Erasmus+ grant.

Travel reimbursement

Travel expenses will be reimbursed after the training up to the applicable Erasmus+ travel limit. €50 from each participant's travel budget will be reserved for the organised transportation between Riga and the training venue. Maximum remaining reimbursement amounts: Latvia — €0 Romania — €260 Cyprus — €340 Italy — €340 Iceland — €350 Estonia — €240 (green travel) Czechia — €370 (green travel) Slovakia — €260 We strongly encourage green travel whenever possible. Green travel means choosing lower-carbon ways of travelling, such as trains, buses or carpooling. It may take a little longer, but we believe that the way we travel matters too.

Looking for participants from

8 countries can apply. The activity takes place in Stāmeriena, Latvia.