NatureSense: Somatic Practices and Nature-Based Learning for Adult Career Transitions

Career transitions are among the most disorienting experiences an adult can go through. The external challenge — updating a CV, building a network, navigating the job market — is hard enough. But there is another dimension that rarely gets addressed: the somatic one. The way anxiety sits in the chest before a decision. The exhaustion that comes from the disconnection between what we do and who we are. The difficulty of thinking clearly when the nervous system is on high alert.

NatureSense was born from a shared conviction, developed between Inesto in Italy and La Fourmilière in France: that career transition support needs to go deeper than strategy. It needs to work with the whole person — body, mind, and their relationship to the living world around them.

NatureSense is an 18-month Erasmus+ partnership (KA210-ADU) running from September 2025 to February 2027. It brings together two organisations with complementary expertise — Inesto's work in rural development, digital innovation and inclusive programming, and La Fourmilière's practice in ecological education, nature connection and community living — to develop a structured, evidence-informed approach to adult career transition support.

The project integrates somatic awareness, nature-based methodologies and peer learning into a coherent educational pathway. It is designed both for adult educators — who will be equipped with new tools for their own practice — and for career changers directly, who will receive personalised support through the project's mentoring and retreat programmes.

The project prioritises participants from rural areas, those in regions with above-average unemployment, adults 45+ facing technological displacement, and individuals with interrupted educational pathways. Inclusion is not a footnote in NatureSense — it is a design principle.

NatureSense is structured around six interconnected activities, each building on the others.

The Online Webinar Series (April 2026) opens the project to a broad public. Four sessions, each led by a practitioner at the intersection of somatic work, nature connection and career development, offer a free, accessible entry point. Speakers include Amy Charnay (somatic coach and forest therapy guide), the founding team of La Fourmilière, Virginia Bailon (embodied wellbeing coach) and Marion Llopis (multidimensional coach). Sessions are recorded and made available as ongoing resources.

The Intensive Training Course (May 2026, France) is the methodological core of the project. Twelve adult educators — six from Italy, six from France — come together for six days at the Grain&Sens ecovillage in the Ardèche, to explore and practise somatic and nature-based approaches in depth. The week is designed as an immersive experience: sessions blend theoretical grounding with embodied practice, forest bathing, eco-art, and facilitated peer exchange. Participants leave with both new competencies and the beginning of a cross-border professional community.

The Nature Immersion Workshops bring the methodology directly to career changers. A three-day retreat in France and another in Italy (Autumn 2026) each welcome ten adults navigating significant professional transitions. Set in natural environments and led by trained facilitators, these workshops offer space for reflection, reconnection and forward movement — away from the noise of daily life and inside an experience designed to support genuine change.

The Mentor-Mentee Programme (May–November 2026) provides sustained individual support to twenty adults over six months — ten in each country. Carefully matched with mentors, participants receive structured guidance through clearly defined milestones, combining professional accompaniment with the somatic and reflective tools developed throughout the project.

The Somatic Practice Toolkit is the project's main tangible output: a practical, open-access guide designed for adult educators working in career transition support. Developed throughout the project and refined through participant feedback, the toolkit will offer concrete methodologies, exercises and case studies — grounded in both research and real-world practice. It will be hosted as an open educational resource and remain freely accessible beyond the project's closure.

Underpinning all of this is project management and coordination — regular partner meetings, robust evaluation using both quantitative measures (including the Warwick-Edinburgh Wellbeing Scale) and qualitative tools (reflective journals, narrative interviews), and a communication strategy built to reach both practitioners and the wider public.

La Fourmilière (France) is an alternative forest school and ecological third place rooted in nature connection, community learning and sustainable living. Based at the Grain&Sens ecovillage in the Ardèche, La Fourmilière leads the intensive training course and the French nature immersion retreat, contributing deep expertise in experiential, land-based education and in the kind of honest, human-scale practice that NatureSense is built on.

Inesto (Italy) is an Italian social enterprise with roots in a deceptively simple idea: that rural communities have something important to offer the world, and that the world has something important to offer them. From creative residencies in Sicilian villages to digital innovation for rural public services, Inesto works at the intersection of culture, territory, and social impact. Inesto's particular expertise in reaching underserved communities, including remote workers, rural residents and adults facing economic disadvantage, shapes the project's inclusion strategy throughout.

NatureSense aims to create a measurable, lasting impact at three levels. For the twelve trained educators, the project offers a genuine expansion of their methodological toolkit — and the beginning of a cross-border professional community. For the twenty career changers in the mentoring programme and the twenty participants in the retreats, it offers direct support at a moment when support is most needed. For the wider field of adult education in Europe, the open-access toolkit and the dissemination strategy — including at least six professional conference presentations and partnerships with eight adult learning organisations — aim to move these methodologies into broader practice.

NatureSense is open. The webinar series is free and requires only registration. The training course, retreats and mentoring programme each have specific open calls — follow our channels to stay informed.

If you are an adult educator curious about somatic and nature-based approaches, a career changer ready for something different, or an organisation interested in partnering on future developments, we'd love to hear from you.

 → Contact us: info@inesto.it 

→ Register for the webinar series

All the illustrations are made by Agata Sobiepanna

NatureSense is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.