Living Learning Experience

What is Living Learning Experience (LLE)?

Living Learning Experiences, also known as transient Therapeutic Communities (TC), are residential, experiential learning spaces, specifically designed to help individuals develop reflective practice skills, in the context of a structured program of activities, and to explore the experience of being a member of a residential community. Everything that happens, in formal therapy time, cooking groups, or social activities is available for reflection and learning. LLEs promote an understanding of processes in groups, and how to harness them to therapeutic benefit. They provide a unique opportunity to experience belonging, agency, social learning, and personal development. Most of the learning happens by being present, living as a community, and experiencing the power of groups. The primary aim is to offer a robust experience of psychosocial awareness and growth, provided by structured participation, attachment, and empowerment. It also provides the opportunity to participate in creative therapeutic work and learn a sustainable way of living.

The LLE structure comprises of:

• Community meetings at the start and end of each day

• Three small groups

• Community cooking

• Community time and social activities

• Crisis meetings as required

• Staff meetings before and after all groups

Who is it for?

Despite increasing awareness and advancements in the biomedical field, there is a significant lack of specific reflective, relational, and emotional skills (defined below) in many areas of mental health, care and teaching of children, and more generally in managing and treating people in a compassionate and suitably sensitive way. LLEs are therefore highly suitable for frontline and senior staff working in a variety of organizations such as mental health care settings, hospitals, and residential care institutions, children’s services such as shelter homes and schools; forensic mental health settings such as prisons and juvenile homes. They also facilitate the development of healthy working environments in corporate spaces and other group settings.

Living Learning Experiences are suitable for anybody who wants to know:

• What is a Therapeutic Community (TC)?

• How does it work?

• What does it feel like to be a member of a TC?

Learning Outcomes

❋ PRACTICAL SKILLS

LLEs enable individuals to learn how any organization or psychosocial environment can be made more compassionate and enabling, use relationships meaningfully at work, and be confident in using one’s own and others’ emotional reactions and responses as valid parts of workplace relationships.

❋ INTELLECTUAL SKILLS

LLEs help to experience, understand, and critically evaluate the nature and impact of intensive group processes, describe the impact of one’s self on another and vice-versa, and apply this knowledge in understanding one’s own emotional development.

❋ KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING

LLEs help develop an understanding of power dynamics and how they are used and misused in organizational settings, how emotional and physical safety is best established and maintained through interpersonal relationships, and how to apply knowledge of one’s own patterns of behaviour in the formation of work and personal relationships.

Who is facilitating this experience for me?

How It Works

Day One

Arrive & Meet

As everyone arrives, we take time to settle in, get comfortable, and begin connecting with those around us. The journey starts here.


Check-In

9:00 – 9:30am


Group Activity

11:00am


Lunch Break

12:30pm


Creative Workshop

2:00pm


Dinner

6:30pm


Day Two

Set Intentions & Reflect

Together, we pause to consider our goals, hopes, and direction. This is about aligning with ourselves and with the journey ahead. This is a chance to reconnect with what brought you here—your questions, your hopes, your turning points—and consider how they’ve shifted or deepened.


Check-In

9:00 – 9:30am


Group Activity

11:00am


Lunch Break

12:30pm


Creative Workshop

2:00pm


Dinner

6:30pm


Day Three

Look Forward & Wrap Up

We explore the possibilities beyond this moment, making space for growth, action, and forward momentum. As we end our time together, we honor the experience, the growth, and the connections made along the way.


Check-In

9:00 – 9:30am


Group Activity

11:00am


Lunch Break

12:30pm


Creative Workshop

2:00pm


Dinner

6:30pm


  • "What I love most is the flexibility. I can go at my own pace, revisit lessons, and keep learning whenever it works for me."

    Former Customer

  • "Even as a total beginner, I never felt lost. The step-by-step structure and encouragement along the way made all the difference."

    Former Customer

  • "This has been such a worthwhile investment in myself."

    Former Customer

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