Helena ter Ellen

Hello dear all of you!
I'm Helena, a Dutch woman having studied, worked and lived in many countries, but mainly in Belgium - and now settling in Colombia for a new WTR and peace related mission, called "Re-Connecting: Laboratories of Truth and Reconciliation in the womb of Mother Earth" (see hereafter).

My main studies were languages, international politics, intercultural dialogue and psycho-energetic coaching, as well as many themes around Deep Ecology and WTR. I've been feeling drawn to sacred activism from my early thirties. My experiences as a peace observer in the Middle East & in Colombia many years ago made me - painfully - aware that protection for human rights should be extended to the protection of the rights of Mother Earth. I also realized that outer activism without an inner, spiritual dimension is not only unsustainable, but can be harmful - for ourselves and for others.
After having participated in several WTR-workshops in Belgium, the UK, France and Germany - which made me fall in love with it's vision and methodology - I translated "Coming Back to Life" into Dutch. In 2009 I cofounded with Gauthier Chapelle and Corinne Mommen the association Terr'Eveille that dedicates itself to offer WTR-workshops for french speaking public. First in Belgium, but rather soon also in France and in Switzerland, where we helped the arising of new WTR-hubs.

For many years I've had my home in Belgium/Brussels, - but from 2019 I am based in Bogotá, Colombia to accompany the Colombian Truth Comission with WTR-inspired workshops. I've been actively promoting WTR in this South-American country since 2014, with a clear focus on peace building. I live(d) since 2016 in a cohousing project in the heart of Brussels, l’Echappée. In that year, I also left my translating job at the European Commission to dedicate myself to the Great Turning and the creation of resilience in times of collapse. And so in 2018 I co-initiated a new project in Colombia, “Re-Conectando: Laboratorios de Verdad y Reconciliación en el vientre de la Madre Tierra”, which will take me living and working in Colombia for more than three years, the time of the mandate of the Commission.