A bit more about me

I’m a creative practitioner, development consultant and teacher.

For thirty years, I’ve been developing people, organisations and places. I’ve assisted them to step through metaphoric portals to encounter the parallel worlds of the different other people and to step into the alternative realities they’ve envisioned for themselves. My clients have included educators, artists, indigenous leaders, corporate and NGO managers, and politicians.

My work has taken me to ecovillages in West Africa and Latin America, social enterprises and spiritual communities in Scotland, climate change initiatives in Beijing and Singapore, art collectives in Brussels, and significant political and corporate institutions across Europe. Most recently, my focus has been on supporting indigenous leaders and their organisations and projects in Northland, New Zealand.

I have engaged with a diverse range of  people(s) and beliefs. For example, I was part of the greater Findhorn Community in Scotland for five years, working for Findhorn College and consulting to the Findhorn Foundation and the many smaller organisations that make up that famous spiritual site. I’ve also been part of other communities: art collectives, counselling and faith groups.

I have also trained in an number of different tools and technologies, many of which are focussed managing altered states,  creating parallel realities and going through portals of consciousness to more expansive ways of being. Tools include NLP (Master Practitioner), appreciative inquiry, group dynamics, process consulting, client-centred counselling, accelerated learning, values-based consulting transformational education,  action inquiry and team and organisational supervision.  

Using these tools I’ve run a number of personal and spiritual growth programmes around the world, particularly for women. This blog celebrates my spritual practice and provides a portal through to courses and coaching programmes that I run regularly throughout the year 

Concurrently, for the past fifteen years, I’ve run a creative production studio and innovation lab, AwhiWorld (pronounced aafi-world). AwhiWorld emerged out of my cross-disciplinary PhD which researched how best to support the spirit of place using a range of tools including emerging technologies and new art practices. My PhD (AUT University, NZ) was focused on portals, the spirit of place and cross-disciplinary practice.

I also have a Master of Science Degree (Sheffield Business School, UK) in Organisational Development and Consulting, and my BA (Auckland University, NZ) was in Education and Political Studies.

For more information about my cross-discplinary background go to my personal site: www.maggiebuxton.com