I’m Anna-Marie. People often mis-read, mis-pronounce, and mis-spell my name as Anne-Marie but each time that happens a puppy dies; so, up to you.
I am in love with what's needed to steward humane, relational-led organisations and communities that grow strong roots internally and in line with the needs of their communities; self- and shared-enquiry; embodied facilitation; and exploring ‘what’s alive here?’ as a practice to disrupt unhealthy patterns and alchemise healthy ones, and as a route into reconciliation and repair.
I am also fascinated with self-organisation and distributed decision-making. I am trained in Sociocracy 3.0, a partner in a Holacracy-governed org, and a freelance consultant and facilitator.
My perspectives and experiences are moulded by over twenty-five years of scraggy and inconvenient health issues that often bring my gaze to my inner experiences with laser focus. Over time this has brought me a relationship with life that is private, intimate, queer, intense, and utterly important to me. These experiences have also shaped my work for the better.
When it comes to living my life as a participant in dominant global systems, I often feel in wrong relationship. I am daily aware of all the ways my life has an impact on individuals and communities I can both see the impact of and those I can’t, on the ecosystems we rely on and are nurtured by, and the planet that so generously gives me solid ground to walk on.
For a long time I’ve been wondering how I might meet my needs in a way that doesn’t make life so tough I cannot usefully participate, and at the same time aligns me with life in a way that feels closer to right relationship.
In early 2023, I set up the Seaspray Collective to bring me closer to financial right relationship. The Collective is an ongoing experiment and I post three-monthly updates on Substack and Patreon about subscription and gifts raised and how they’ve been allocated to clients, as well as reflections and adjustments as I learn from this experiment.