Leading from the Well:
A 10-Week Interpersonal Group for Those Ushering Change
A space to explore being, belonging, and becoming with an intimate group, over time.
To be seen, reflected, known, and witnessed in their life as it is unfolding during our time together.
Wednesdays 6:30pm - 8:00pm, beginning April 29th, 2026
CERES Environment Park, Brunswick East, Victoria
Leading from the Well is…
A 10-week interpersonal group for people dedicated to serving a more beautiful world — and who are ready to return to themselves, and deepen the well from which they live, lead, and love.
Not as a strategy for doing more or better work, but because they long to feel a greater wholeness.
With a knowing that wholeness facilitates true cultural change, Margaret Wheatley reminds us, “the world does not need more leaders who know how to manage. It needs leaders who know how to be present — who have not outsourced their inner life in service of their outer mission.”
This is not coaching. It is not a leadership program. It is genuine therapeutic work — interpersonal, embodied, ecological — held in a small, trusted circle of people who have made their work an expression of what they care most deeply about, and are living with the full weight of that choice.
Otto Scharmer writes that leadership, in its essence, is the capacity to shift the inner place from which we operate. Not the outer strategy, but the inner ground. Not the doing, but the source of the doing.
The group itself becomes the well. What is drawn up in the room — the grief in what we witness, the patterns of disconnection in ourselves, the long-held silences, the things we have never said in a professional context — is not a detour from the work; it is the work. The dynamics that arise between people in this circle are the same dynamics that run through the organisations and movements they are pouring themselves into. The group makes the invisible visible, and holds it.
"The world is not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong… Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing."
- Joanna Macy
In ancient traditions, the well was the place a community gathered to draw what it needed to live. It was also the threshold — the entrance to the world beneath the world. To go to the well was both practical and sacred.
For those of us leading in community- and impact- sectors or “changemaking” spaces, there is often a well inside we have not visited in a long time.
We have been so busily tending outer-change that we have forgotten how to descend. So busy building what is needed in the world around us that we have lost contact with the ground we are standing on, and the rich textures of our own wholeness as both clarifying and sustaining forces. The work continues — urgent, necessary, beautiful — but something in us is running dry.
Leading from the Well is an invitation to go back down.
Not away from the work. Deeper into the source of it.
The group in-brief:
-
Wednesdays, 6:30-8pm;
April 29th - July 8th, except June 3rd. -
Over 10 weeks, the group will move through themes most present for each person, and may include:
Body & Nervous System — where the weight of this work actually lives in the body, and how to work with it rather than around it;
Relational Patterns — illuminating, holding, and wholing patterns carried from personal history into relationships across family, friends, organisations, teams, and community at large;
Shadow — the saviour complex, perfectionism, martyrdom, and the parts of self that the mission has been protecting us from seeing;
Grief & Despair — the accumulated emotional weight of caring about what you care about, for as long as you have;
Ecological Connection — connection to place, the seasonal rhythm, the more-than-human world as a genuine source of belonging, renewal, and guidance;
Meaning and mortality — what actually sustains commitment over years and decades.
-
10 weekly sessions of 2.5 hours, in-person at CERES, Brunswick East;
A circle of 8–10 people — small enough for real depth, large enough for genuine encounter;
Facilitated by a practitioner with backgrounds in psychotherapy, nature connection, and regenerative leadership.
-
A brief intake conversation before any commitment is made — the right group matters;
Sliding scale pricing: $1,200 – $2,200 (see below).
Feeling called to the Well?
This program will not help you do more.
It might, over time, help you do less — and have it mean more to more of you.
It is not for people who want tools and takeaways.
It is not a retreat, a masterclass, or a wellbeing program.
It does not start or end with a framework.
It is for people who are sincerely ready to engage in the heat and revelation of relational change — slowly, in the company of others who understand something about the gravity of this work.
“The act of revealing oneself fully to another and still being accepted may be the major vehicle of therapeutic help.”
- Irvin D. Yalom
What is Group Therapy?
What is Interpersonal Group Psychotherapy (IGP)?
In group psychotherapy, individuals gather in a supportive environment to explore and address their psychological concerns. Drawing from Yalom's existential approach, participants engage in interpersonal interactions, gaining insights into their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in relationships. Through shared experiences and feedback, members develop self-awareness, empathy, and new social skills. Through recognising and validating shared experiences, there is often a profound sense of belonging, reducing isolation. Guided by a skilled therapist, participants challenge maladaptive patterns, cultivate resilience, and deepen their understanding of themselves and others. Group therapy offers a transformative journey toward healing, connection, and fulfillment.
What typically happens inside the group?
Within this weekly time together, the focus will be on creating the conditions together, for sharing honestly what is happening in the ‘here-and-now,’ within yourself and in response to each other. With an ‘interpersonal’ focus, the facilitators will support in maintaining the conditions for both difference and collaboration to exist. In this way, each session is a rich personal and social learning opportunity to make contact with your history, as it presents in these particular relationships, in a deeply supportive way.
Who is Interpersonal Group Therapy for?
Interpersonal group psychotherapy is for individuals who have ideally undertaken 1-3 years of personal psychotherapy, and who are seeking to:
Deepen their self-awareness and understanding of how behaviours and emotional experiences influence and shape relationships with others.
Practice connecting to themselves more authentically and honestly.
Engage in authentic and honest conversations and explorations about life’s ‘ultimate concerns’, which oftentimes go unaddressed in the day-to-day.
Learn how to relate and connect with others whilst honouring and prizing difference, without engaging in conflict.
Learn to foster and cultivate emotionally intimate friendships.
How many people will be in this group?
There will be between 8-10 people in this group, to support both intimacy and diversity. Intimacy supports us in each having sufficient time to explore our own life and minds, and diversity allows there to be a rich representation of life experiences in our space to be in relationship to.
What are the dates of meetings for this group?
Wednesdays, weekly from 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Beginning April 29th until July 8th, except for June 3rd
What is the level of commitment?
This group meets once per week for 90-minutes for 10-week terms in an ongoing way. Attendance is required at each of the meetings. Following our first 10 week term, the group and facilitators will convene to discuss the ongoing nature of the group, and in turn, you may have the opportunity to continue ongoingly into the next terms.
Will this group run continually, after this initial 10-week term?
Most people experience the most meaningful personal and social change in their lives over a period of 12 to 24 months of weekly group therapy.
Given this, our groups run with the view to continue. This first 10-week term is framed as a beginning and a trial period, during which time the participant and facilitators can decide whether this group is a good fit for each member.
During the group, we will discuss the potential to continue, and if so, the group will typically close for 2 weeks after a Term, members may exit the group, and new members may join.
This is also a caring and kind space for our queer, indigenous, and trans community members.
Who facilitates this group?
Al Jeffery
Al is a co-founder and Director at Turning Ground, an integrative psychotherapist and certified Mindful Leadership trainer from NYU and Naropa University. He has trained in Irvin Yalom’s Interpersonal Group Therapy, under the guidance of Dr. Traill Dowie at Integrative Psychology and Medicine.
Fees & Payments
Places are offered on a sliding-scale fee structure for this group:
Standard: $1,600 per term (founders, NFP leaders, and social sector professionals)
Supported: $1,200 per term (individuals from community organisations or lower-resourced contexts)
Pay it Forward: $2,000 per term (impact investors, funded founders, resourced; the excess directly funds supported places)
A 50% deposit will be required upon accepting the invitation to join, with the balance required prior to the commencement of the term.
Payment plan options:
We want to make this available to those who feel a strong commitment to participation, so have allowed for entry at 3 levels depending on your current financial means. If, however, you feel a strong commitment to this group, and finances pose a barrier for you, please note this in your expression of interest below, and we can discuss this on our call.
Called to join us by the Well?
1. Expressions of Interest
If something in this has stirred, and you feel called to join us in this group, fill in the Expression of Interest form below.
2. Discovery Call
Once we have received your expression of interest, we’ll be in touch to book a time for a 1:1 call. On this call, we’ll connect, discuss a bit about the group and how it works, and hear from you about your intentions for participating.
3. Invitation to Apply
If we agree that this group might be a good fit for you, we will go ahead and send you our intake form for a more comprehensive overview of some personal information. If we both agree this group might not be best-suited for you, we will aim to offer a referral.
4. Follow-up Call and/or Invitation to Join
Following a review of your intake form, we will either have a follow-up call to discuss any final questions we may have or will send you an invitation to join the group.
Your invitation to join will include a Welcome Pack outlining all of the finer details for the group, participant agreement, and payment information.
