Join the community working to get off autopilot together.
Learn to embody a healthier story and begin to act with purpose and confidence in your context and communities.
We know what it’s like to run on the default operating system:
Always drifting from one thing to the next, going through the motions, trying to get through today so we can start again tomorrow. Just keeping on keeping on. Survival mode.
Our society incentivizes it – we’re trained to stay busy and conditioned to accept feeling stuck.
Capitalism wants us to mindlessly consume.
Meritocracy demands we continuously produce.
Systems of oppression strip us of our autonomy and coerce us into staying silent and scared.
And even when we look around at the harms of the world and tell ourselves we want to help make a difference, it’s hard to move beyond the disillusioned phase.
But being disillusioned doesn’t have to shut us down or burn us out.
Becoming dis-illusioned is the first step in moving beyond the illusions handed to us and beginning to see a bit more honestly the shape of our world and the shape of our lives. It’s by metabolizing our experiences of disillusionment that we can take next steps that feel good for us.
This is what The Gentle Change Collective is all about.
Rather than consuming more content or continuing to ignore what we’re feeling, we work side-by-side to build our capacities for resilience and presence. We choose to get active, overcoming that creeping feeling of stuckness, and begin to make gentle, confident changes in our lives and communities.
The Gentle Change Collective is designed for those of us who know all-too-well those feelings of disillusionment and half-presence, exhaustion and almost-but-not-quite-apathy – and want to makes changes now.
“I am so grateful to have participated in this cohort. A big shift for me was discovering that one of the most significant wisdom teachers in my life is me. After decades of disentangling from the belief that I need to go to an external source for power, wisdom and truth, I am becoming acquainted with the power, wisdom and truth that reside within me.” –Stephanie S. (Cohort Member, 2024)
The Values We Move With
Gentle and Honest Action
In The Gentle Change Collective, we don’t have to figure it all out alone.
Rather than continuing to find ourselves caught up in the disorienting swirl of “there isn’t enough time,” “but what can I do?” and “it’s too big to change” narratives, we work together to find the life-affirming and practical ways to move with healing in our communities.
We practice taking a real and honest look at what’s going on inside us and outside us so that we can each, to borrow a phrase from poet James A. Pearson, take our “next halting step.”
Embodied Listening
Too often, our bodies get treated (and mis-treated) as if they are just vehicles for our brains.
Not here. The Gentle Change Collective is a space to play and to reconnect and listen to the needs of our bodies – including our well-conditioned tendencies toward control, comfort, and the status quo.
No more feeling isolated from others and disconnected from ourselves.
By learning to listen to our bodies, we become more skillful in how we navigate conflict and harm, as well as experience more textures of beauty and joy in our day-to-day lives.
Affirming Relationships
In our shared spaces, we work to practice active solidarity with each other. Counter to so much of what we’ve been trained to do, we center dignity over conformity. What does that look like?
We don’t try to fix, save, or change each other.
We know we don’t have a right to each other’s stories or experiences – and that we can affirm and support each other without trying to control each other.
Inside The Gentle Change Collective
The Story Cohort
Week 1: The Origin and Function of Our Stories
Week 2: Personal Narratives and My Story of Me
Week 3: Belonging, Community, and Social Context
Week 4: Putting Words to the “Why” of It
Week 5: Developing an Ethic of Living
The Practice Cohort
Week 1: Creating Daily Practices That Fit Us
Week 2: Tinkering and Embodying an Experimental Mindset
Week 3: Practices that Build Our Capacity for Resilience
Week 4: Guest Workshop
Week 5: A Celebration of Capacity and Change
The Solidarity Cohort
Week 1: Our Experience with Solidarity
Week 2: Naming the Moves of Everyday Activism
Week 3: Bystander Intervention Training
Week 4: Guest Workshop
Week 5: Action Planning and Sustainability
The In-Between Seasons
Between cohorts, we have several “in-between seasons.” These include:
Weekly: Online check-in and discussion opportunities
Monthly: Live workshops
Quarterly: Special events and experiments
“I came into the cohort with a lot of prior conditioning around what a practice ‘should’ or ‘shouldn't’ be. Through the workshops and check-ins I came to learn there doesn't need to be any notion of rigidity or doing it "correctly;" my practice can look however it needs to on a given day. I'm so grateful for the space to learn and grow, and for the wisdom shared not only by the facilitators but also my fellow participants.” –Justin D. (Cohort Member, 2024)
Our 3 Annual Cohorts
The Story Cohort
The stories we carry – about ourselves, our world, and the ways our universe works – shape much of who we are.
It’s the stories we internalize that often keep us frozen in place, unable to feel present or take confident steps in our day-to-day lives. And yet, we rarely spend much time questioning them and allowing ourselves to lean into the stories we want to carry into our future. We’re too busy just surviving.
In this five-week cohort, we explore our relationships with these narratives and get clarity on which we want to lean into as we move forward.
Live sessions include explorations of the narratives we carry around our bodies, our value and worth, relationships with others, issues of harm and justice, and more.
The Story Cohort includes:
Live Sessions (virtual) in 2025: February 2, 16, 23, March 2, March 9 from 4-5:30PM Pacific.
A physical “story journal” for us to keep track of our insights during the cohort.
Multiple prompts each week for you to work with at your own speed.
The Practice Cohort
“Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it.”
These are Mary Oliver’s famous instructions for living a life and they serve as a great roadmap for this cohort.
During these 30-or-so days, we each experiment with finding a set of daily practices that truly fit us – who we are, what our bodies need, and our sense of who we are becoming. By embodying and tinkering with these practices, we begin to develop:
a new quality of intention,
a posture of awareness and attention,
and the persistence to come back to them over and over and over again, with support, community, and guidance.
Live sessions include guided exercises for finding practices that fit who we are, understanding the toll of living in the midst of various intersecting crises, and developing tools that support us in times of personal and societal conflict.
This cohort includes:
Live Sessions (virtual) in 2025: May 4, 11, 18, 25, June 1 from 4-5:30PM Pacific.
Weekly practices and activities to experiment and play with.
Daily check-ins and optional small group experiences.
The Solidarity Cohort
In the face of communal harm and societal struggle, it can be hard to know what to do – and to actually do it.
The problems can seem too large, too immense, and too unstoppable for us to even make a dent. And even when the conflicts are within our intimate communities and families – our fight, freeze, fawn, and flee mechanisms can get in the way of the response we want to give.
This cohort is all about learning how to make relational change in the midst of conflict in our specific contexts and supporting each other – which includes holding each other accountable – in gently and confidently moving into action.
Live sessions are centered on our individual stories and the conflicts we each find ourselves navigating. Along with engaging pre-planned exercises and practical trainings, such as bystander intervention training, we will use our time together to support each other in identifying each of our “next steps” for the conflicts we’re currently facing.
This cohort includes:
Live Sessions (virtual) in 2025: October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2 from 4-5:30PM Pacific.
Honest and open feedback and ideas for how to move in the midst of conflict.
Creating personal and family Action Plans for relevant conflicts.
The In-Between Seasons
Sometimes it’s not about having access to new content or signing up for a whole new course – we just need a bit of spaciousness and time to integrate what’s already been alive and percolating within us.
Between cohorts, we have several “in-between seasons” consisting of monthly one-off workshops and special events. These are meant to support us in metabolizing what we’ve been experiencing during our cohort sessions. This is the perfect time for Sunday evening walks, scheduling your 1:1 Mini-Retreat, and even snapping a picture of your story journal to share and celebrate insights and ah-ha moments with other members of the community.
In 2025, our in-between seasons will be March-April, June-September, and November-December.
“This cohort was put together with so much thought and intention. Whether people were sharing their "successes" or challenges, the level of connection was inspiring and uplifting. It brings me joy knowing there are people all around the world connecting in this way. What a rich experience.” –Caryn B. (Cohort Member, 2024)
Become a Gentle Change Collective Member
All Cohorts + Workshops
The Gentle Change Collective includes three cohort programs each year, each consisting of five weeks of live, group workshops and small group experiences built around exploring inner narratives, addressing communal harm from a place of dignity, and navigating conflict in the context of societal crisis. By becoming a member, you’ll gain access to all of these, including workshops and special events hosted during our in-between seasons.
Online Community Space
We don’t have to figure it all out alone. Along with the connections you’ll make during live sessions, we also have an online community space where we can support and check-in with each other. This serves as our digital home and primary space for sharing, connection, and communication between sessions. During cohorts, additional resources will also be shared here each week for you to explore in your own time and at your own pace.
1:1 Mini Retreat with Andrew
Included in your membership is a 90-minute 1:1 virtual session, customized and designed to support you in the midst of whatever crossroads experience or dilemma you’re currently navigating.
Small by Design
The Gentle Change Collective is small by design – it’s not meant to grow too large or feel too big. This is a space for us to work side-by-side on the intimate and deeply relational work of getting off autopilot.
Is this a fit for you and your story?
When we take a moment and look around, the swirl of life can feel disorienting.
All over the globe are massive unfolding catastrophes and crises; right here in the communities we navigate everyday, there are varying level of personal, institutional, and communal breakdowns.
We ask “what can we do?” but end up drawing a blank and doing nothing.
At work, we feel ourselves burning out, but we’re not sure of any other options.
Or we realize we’re parenting from a set of old scripts we never wanted to parent from.
If this resonates or connects with your experience, The Gentle Change Collective was designed with you in mind.
On the other hand, The Gentle Change Collective is not for you if…
you want to engage in intellectual conversation, debate, or heady dialogue. While the shape of your participation is entirely flexible, the central component we move with is active practice, not information gathering or consumption.
you are looking for teachings or practices rooted in a specific religion or tradition. The Gentle Change Collective is not religious, and while the facilitators of our live sessions mostly come from Christian-influenced backgrounds that inform our worldviews, whether or not we still practice those particular traditions, religion-specific teachings, language, and practices are not centered in this space.
you are looking for a space to process an extensive trauma history. Instead, please seek a therapist or other mental health professional.
What Alumni of The Practice Cohort Say
Choose What Works For You
Join the Next Cohort
$140 one-time payment
5 live cohort sessions (Feb 2025)
Weekly prompts during Story Cohort
Physical story journal
Access to Story Cohort online community forum
Practice Cohort not included
Solidarity Cohort not included.
1:1 Mini Retreat not included.
Become a Member
$650 $500 w/payment plan options
15 live cohort sessions (full year)
Weekly prompts during all cohorts
Physical story journal
Access to ongoing online community forum
All 3 Cohorts ($1,500 value)
Monthly Workshops ($300 value)
1:1 Mini Retreat ($150 value)
Financial Accessibility
In order to provide financial accessibility and do what I can to counter the pressures of capitalism, membership in The Gentle Change Collective is being offered well below so-called “market rate.” (Most 5-week cohort-based programs are priced at around $500 – and that’s just for one of them!)
I also offer three “no questions asked” spots in each cohort at a reduced price of $65, or $250 for the year-long membership for those who cannot afford the full price at the current moment. (This can also be paid in installments.) Sign up here for one of these reduced price slots.
“I loved this cohort experience. Andrew was amazing at teaching us how to incorporate new practices, holding them loosely without judgment or guilt, and working to find new practices when those we chose got stale. A beautiful outcome of the work was a more expanded awareness and openness in my life. It was like waking up from auto-pilot mode.” –Erin A. (Cohort Member, 2024)
“But what if I don’t have much time?”
Every one of us is busy. That’s one of the core tenets of the default operating system.
Which is exactly why The Gentle Change Collective isn’t about adding more to our already-packed plates.
Instead, it’s about supporting us in making practical, actionable changes that can enhance our capacity for awareness, curiosity, and sense of aliveness in our day-to-day.
If you attend each weekly session, create space in your life for journaling or another reflective practice, and engage with the online community forum, you’ll likely get the most out of this experience. But if all you have time for are the live sessions and the reflection you do during long work commutes and bathroom breaks, there will still be plenty of depth to work with.
“Can this actually work for me?”
A few questions for you to reflect on:
Are you open to exploring and questioning the stories you’ve been living with and considering what you want to change moving forward?
Can you commit (gently) to weekly time for engaging with live sessions and reflection activities?
Do you desire to be more intentional in your life – both with yourself and your communities?
So much of our culture wants us to keep doing what we’ve been doing – but each of us has the power to make a shift.
The Gentle Change Collective won’t provide you with a quick, one-size-fits-all solution. But it will provide you with a container – of guiding content, community, resources, prompts, and practices – in which to expand your capacity for choicefulness, confidence, and moving into action.
“What if I can’t attend the live sessions?”
While live attendance is definitely the best (so you can ask questions, engage with others, and have set-aside time for this work), life has a tendency to happen!
So if you can’t make it every time, don’t worry! Each live session will be recorded and uploaded to our online community space within 24 hours.
An Ethical Refund Policy
There’s enough risk in the world without this adding to it.
If you engage with The Gentle Change Collective, attend a few live sessions, and find it’s just not for you, we’ll send a 100% refund your way within the first 120 days. And if life happens – as it tends to do – and you realize you can’t participate in a meaningful way, just reach out and let us know. We can either issue a refund or hold you a spot in our next cohort as well: whatever feels right for you.