Since May 2022 I have been working with the Wicked Elephants Cooperative, helping to facilitate regenerative change. www.wicked-elephants.coop

Navigating Complexity: a workshop series for developing your capacity to deal with complex situations.Sophia van Ruth has developed a series of participatory workshops that teach about the complexity sciences and provide you with tools that can help you to move beyond systems thinking to systems sensing. These sessions offer accessible teachings about complex systems science and also explore what kinds of habits of mind can help you understand complex situations better. You will be invited to play with different ways of paying attention and interpreting what is going on around you. You will begin to develop all of your ways of knowing as you learn how to tap into some of the embodied wisdom that your rational mind doesn’t always notice.Further, we will also be developing your skills in ‘being present’. Complex dynamics are often inherently unpredictable (even intuitively). We will explore together how you can stay connected to what is going on around you so you can better stay with a situation as it unfolds. With unpredictable dynamics the ability to be present and to improvise can take you a long way.Methodologies we will use include the principles and practices of InterPlay, Goethean Observation and the Oriental approach to understanding complexity based on Sophia's training as a shiatsu therapist.Sophia's masters thesis at Schumacher College made a case for using the improvisational arts in learning institutions to create more holistic learning expereinces. This workshop series has built on from this research.Please refer to Sophia's website for more details www.animatearts.net

InterPlay works with improvised movement, voice, story and stillness in an affirming culture designed to make people safe in spontaneously expressing their creativity. InterPlay is highly accessible to people with no background in the arts or with improvisation. It can be fun, build community, give people different ways of seeing things, and help people access their personal wisdom. Sophia van Ruth is an accredited facilitator of InterPlay, having completed her training with InterPlay Australia in 2007. Sophia is based in the Netherlands but hosts InterPlay classes and workshops in various countries. She has hosted, organised and led InterPlay at weekend 'untensives'​ as well as running shorter casual classes. She also uses InterPlay in her workshop series on complex systems dynamics titled "Navigating Complexity".

Sophia a qualified massage therapist and shiatsu practitioner. This remains a great passion of hers and she still does some work in a freelance capacity in this field. She has also been deeply influenced by the mindset of the oriental healing arts, which is where she first started to understand how to think in patterns and to embrace complexity. This continues to inform and influence her work across disciplines.Whilst living in Australia Sophia had own private practice in addition to teaching at the NSW School of Therapeutic Massage and working as a practitioner there. She currently lives in Rotterdam, where she offers occasional courses in shiatsu, sees clients on request and does some corporate massage work. However, she does not advertise her services anymore in this area as she is too busy in other areas of her work.Other work in this field includes:National Competency Standards – ShiatsuIn 2001 I was a member of a panel convened to define appropriate training standards for shiatsu practitioners in Australia. I was still a student at this time and thus participated in a limited capacity, as a representative of Zen Renaissance College. This process formed a part of an ‘across the board’ initiative to set competency standards for government accredited training organisations in Australia.Course Accreditation DocumentationDuring my time teaching at the NSW School of Therapeutic Massage, the Australian Traditional Medicine Society (one of the professional bodies our school was accredited with) required all courses to go through a ‘reaccredidation’ process in order to ensure they were meeting new industry standards. The school engaged my services to advise on any changes necessary and prepare all documentation for our reaccredidation submission. The new standards required us to add two subjects to our course and I compiled lists of competencies for these courses and found teachers to teach them. Our application was successful.

Urban Edibles is an initiative to resource busy city dwellers with the basics that they need to grow food and compost their kitchen wastes on their own balconies. We offer workshops, booklets and one on one consultations in this area. See our website for more information www.urbanedibles.euSophia's role in this organisation has been as a researcher and educator. She is the primary author of Urban Edibles' e-booklets on composting without a garden and growing plants from seed. She also runs workshops for the general public and offers one-on-one consultations.

I spent 10 rewarding years working in the field of community engagement with Wendy Sarkissian. We facilitated community involvement in design and decision making processes. We worked together on many projects including the redevelopment of an old industrial site adjacent to 'the block' in Redfern, Sydney into a multi purpose community centre and park and an award winning engagement program for the Bonnyrigg Living Communities Project. This was a private public partnership to redevelop an extensive public housing estate in Sydney's western suburbs.

I worked as a massage and shiatsu therapist from the NSW School of Therapeutic Massage from March 2001 and taught a 36 hour course in Zen Shiatsu from September 2002 and a 30 course in Swedish massage there from January 2003. These courses both formed part of a professional massage diploma. I finally left this school in October 2006 when I moved away from Sydney.

Urban Ecology Australia (UEA) and Ecopolis were created to make the vision of ecological cities a reality. They are both organisations on the forefront of ecological urban development in Australia.UEA is a non-profit, United Nations registered, non-government organisation and is the only organisation I know of in Australia dedicated exclusively to URBAN environmental initiatives. UEA promotes the concept of socially equitable, economically vital and ecologically viable cities. Ecopolis Pty. Ltd. is an architectural, urban and environmental design and land management consultancy, which works with UEA.I was an active volunteer at Urban Ecology Australia Inc. from January 1995 until June 1997 and an employee of Ecopolis Pty. Ltd. from early 1996 until June 1997. I was later a board member of Urban Ecology Australia from March 2007 until July 2008. My role here was primarily as an interior designer, but I also worked on facilitation of collaborative design processes and community education programs.