“Where I once saw merely a collection of natural ‘objects’ that I felt very, very distant from; now I see all Life, as alive! Not simply as beautiful or useful objects, but as dynamic, creative expressions of Being that are just as alive as I am, and as you are.

So I now feel a deep sense of connectedness to all around me, every day.

Quite frankly this shift in perception has had such an impact on my life that I would like everyone to be able to experience it!”

– Dr. Emma Kidd

 

Small-Group Learning Journeys with Dr. Emma Kidd –

July/August 2026:

Feel more connected to Life, and to yourself, through expanding and deepening your perception with simple, practical exercises and gentle guidance.

• Learn to see ‘more’ by increasing the sensitivity and depth of your awareness
• Understand how to learn from your own lived experience
• Build confidence in your own way of knowing the world
• Develop a deeper connection with Life

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Small-Group Learning Journey Format:

Online – Live on Zoom

Level – Beginners (or Refresher)

(Maximum 12 people per group)

Starting w/c Monday 27^th July for 5 weeks

• Mondays at 7pm-8:30pm BST

Or

• Thursdays at 10am-11:30am BST

This Small-Group Learning Journey will be based on the first five chapters of Emma’s book, First Steps to Seeing.

Each week you will be sent a book chapter by email, and a worksheet of simple, experiential exercises.

We will meet online once per week, for five weeks, to reflect on our experiences and to explore each book chapter more deeply.

(Please note – Zoom sessions will be recorded and a link can be sent to participants who cannot join live, or who would like to follow along in their own time.)

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Live Zoom Sessions:

(Introduction will be emailed w/c 20^th July)

Week 1 – w/c 27^th July: Rediscovering Our Own Experience – Tending to the possibility of ‘Notitia’, a form of Attentive Noticing that provides a gateway of connection, and of learning, between ourselves, others, and the world around us. Experimenting with becoming aware of, and directing, awareness (meta-awareness). Beginning to loosen the connection between sense experience and meaning-making.

Week 2 – w/c 3^rd August:  More to Seeing Than Meets the Eye – Becoming familiar with the ‘naiveté of everyday perception’…which means the way in which our brains automatically turn our sense experience into meaning without us even noticing! Learning to create space between our ‘minds best guess’ and life ‘as it is’ so that we can begin to connect with and to Learn from Life, in a deeper way, through our own lived experience.

Week 3 – w/c 10^th August: Developing a Dynamic Way of Seeing – Learning to use the imagination to bring together our sense experiences in a way that allows the life we have experienced to more fully, and wholly, come to life in our mind. Recognising the ‘invisible’ aspects of life that can become ‘visible’, or known, in this way.

Week 4 – w/c 17^th August: Understanding Wholeness – Exploring the nature of Life from a holistic, rather than a mechanistic, perspective. Exploring how this holistic view of life can help us to shine a new light on the creations and systems of modern society that fill our everyday lives, and give us insights on how we might help create the conditions for Life to Thrive, individually and collectively.

Week 5 – w/c 24^th August: A Fresh Approach to Life – Learning to take Wonder and Curiosity seriously. Taking this practice of ‘seeing with fresh new eyes’ back into our everyday lives and relationships. Remembering to practice a Dynamic Way of Seeing by situating Life in-context. Recognising that Attentive Noticing is a way of offering Love and Compassion to All Life, including ourselves. Exploring the importance of developing a ‘love and trust of the Real’ in Modern Life.

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 Small-Group Overview:

These small-group sessions provide a unique, warm, and accessible invitation for people of all ages, and all backgrounds, to come together to learn from our own individual experiences of life. We will co-create a bespoke learning community for five weeks, in a relaxed, non-academic setting.

We will explore how we might each learn to see ‘more’ in our everyday lives, how to deepen our awareness of life, and how to Learn from Life, through developing our skills in direct attention and sense-making.

Emma has been fascinated by attention, perception, and a Dynamic Way of Seeing, for the past 18 years. She has worked with diverse individuals from across the world to expand their perception, to deepen their relationship to Life, and to build confidence in their ability to learn from their own lived experience.

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Testimonials from Readers:

 

“A beautiful book to awake our perceptions and intuition. Lots of useful exercises to work and develop other ways to perceive the world.”

 

“I read this book over a year ago and often find myself thinking about it so I figured I should write a review. This book achieves that rare balance of bringing me closer to myself and my experience, while teaching me about the wider world. There is something really delicate and precise about her writing and it works!”

“I highly recommend the book! It’s a great guide towards living and working more attentively, so that we can create conditions for life to thrive. The book is an important signpost in my own search for life-giving ways of working.”

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Contribution: (For 5 online small-group sessions of 1.5 hours, and 5 book chapters emailed as a PDF)

Suggested amount – £150

Supporter rate – £250

You are welcome to select the amount that is most appropriate for your financial circumstances.

Please get in touch if cost is a challenge.

For bookings, or questions, please email Emma directly: emmakidd81@gmail.com

(If you are unable to make the suggested dates or times please email with possible alternatives.)

Refunds: A full refund minus a £10 administrative fee for cancellations 48 hours before the start date. Cancellations less than 24 hours before the start date are nonrefundable. 

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Experiential In-Person Workshops (for all inquiries please email: emmakidd81@gmail.com)

“Adventures in Perception”

“Re-cognition”

“Henri Bortoft’s ‘Dynamic way of Seeing‘“

“The Art of Seeing: An Evolution in Being”

To create a truly sustainable world it is imperative that we develop our capacity to get to know the world in terms of itself . By developing a ‘living’ thinking that is alive as life itself we can live healthier and more peaceful lives and expand what it means to be human.

By responding to the world with curiosity and wonder, we allow new possibilities to emerge. We can nurture our inner transition, and global transition, by cultivating the ability to give the world our full attention.

Through lifting the veil of judgments and assumptions that fix and categorize our world, we can reveal a way of seeing that is more dynamic and relational, allowing us to experience the living nature of what we are engaging with – and in turn develop living, dynamic ways of knowing within ourselves.

This reveals a whole dimension of Life – a new set of organic patterns, relationships and ways of being.

I aim to grow people, and communities, by cultivating more integrated ways of knowing from within. I do this by leading people into a more sensuous/intuitive ways of perceiving and experiencing, by delving into directly observing and experiencing the qualities and expressions of the life that is in front of us.

I mostly do this work in a very practical, experiential way. I use a gentle, playful guidance into observation, with plants, people and ideas, that allows people to experience this shift in perception. I aim to nurture and guide, rather than to impose.

I am greatly influenced by my former teacher, Physicist and Philosopher of Science, Henri Bortoft, especially his work on the Wholeness of Nature and the Dynamic Way of seeing in European thought.

If you would like more information about the workshops that I develop and teach, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly: emmakidd81@gmail.com

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 “Learning to Sense Life in our everyday lives”

“Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better” – Albert Einstein

 Dartington Estate

Saturday 22^nd March 10am-1.30pm £15 (£10 conc.)

How can our sensory focus and attention improve our wellbeing everyday? In offices? In homes? In classrooms?

Aesthetic (sense) experience is when:

– Our senses are operating at their peak

– We are present in the current moment

– We are resonating with the excitement of the thing we are experiencing

– We are fully alive!

Educator, writer and researcher Emma Kidd will explore practical ways in which we can improve our wellbeing by becoming more open and alive to the world around us. This will be the first in a series workshops made up of practical indoor and outdoor exercises from her new book: “First Steps to Sensing Life: Practicing a Dynamic Way of Seeing in Everyday Living”.

 

Photo credit: J. Van As

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New Workshop!…Dates TBC “Re-cognition”:

Re-cognition – Developing A Practice of Learning From Life

Re-cognition is a practical set of skills that can contribute towards developing a relational whole person cognition and perception; a way of seeing that suspends what is ‘known’, and embraces the unknown by developing a pathway to a living knowledge that lets nature; life; a person; or a situation be known in terms of itself.

During this course you will learn how to practice a phenomenological way of getting to know the world. I will guide you in this process of how to meet with Life, and to know it in terms of itself; rather than just relying on abstract, second-hand knowledge about it.

Together we will ask questions such as: Am I letting go of my pre-conceptions? Am I present? Am I attending to what is directly presenting itself to my experience? Am I attending to detail? Can I use my intuition and imagination to get a sense of the whole picture?  Am I exploring its living context and relationships? Am I being actively receptive? Am I seeing with fresh new eyes? Am I attending to what is arising within me, as well as outside of me?

To develop Re-cognition means employing all of our faculties as human beings, including our intuitive, imaginative, and emotional ways of ‘knowing/understanding’, as well as (not instead of) our intellectual, analytical capabilities. Most contemporary education is specifically directed towards maximizing our intelligence quotient, but to facilitate an ‘understanding’ of the world around us in terms of itself, rather than just projecting ‘knowledge’ onto it, new methodologies need to be employed. Rather than just an ‘educational’ approach, we need practical, creative and intuitive methodologies focused on self-learning and discovery rather than just taught ‘knowledge’, which result in an evolution in being human.

Through the dynamic way of seeing that develops, a new pathway is created which is crucial for any attempt at ‘Sustainability’. Re-cognition concentrates on evolving current ways of seeing, being and living, and through this creates dynamic, context, and process focused pathways for imaginative and innovative solutions to our current environmental, economic and social crises to emerge.

There will be a combination of indoor and outdoor sessions formed of practice, discussion and reflection. Re-cognition draws on a range of influences, including; recent studies on the bi-modal brain such as “The Master and his Emissary” by Iain McGilchrist; Phenomenology; the work on a dynamic way of seeing by my former teacher Henri Bortoft; whole biology, such as Goethean Science; and modern interpretations of Eastern traditions such as the Zen of Seeing.

This course is suitable for anyone interested in expanding their existing capacities of ‘knowing’ the world and in developing new organs of perception. In a professional development context it would be especially relevant to educators, coaches, business consultants and senior managers, to learn how to employ new ways of seeing in their professions and industries. However it is also equally relevant to all individuals for personal development, especially those who are interested in evolving their current way of meeting with and responding to life. All participants can benefit from the tools and exercises that we will practice during the week, by taking them home and integrating them into their professional work and personal practice of developing relationships in everyday life.

Be prepared to leave all that you think you ‘know’ at the door, and get ready to be warmly welcomed into a safe but mind expanding space of getting to know all things in terms of themselves.

Email Emma for more details: emmakidd81@gmail.com