OUR PEOPLE
Seraphina Bianconi
Seraphina holds a PGDip in Psychosynthesis Coaching from the Institute of Psychosynthesis, a PGDip in Coaching from Henley Business School, is a qualified mindfulness for stress, pain and addiction teacher, and a Level 2 iRest Yoga Nidra for PTSD teacher. She also holds a Coaching Constellations qualification, has recently completed a Trauma Informed Facilitator Training and has also completed an Apprenticeship in Grief Tending in Community. She is currently undertaking a two year teacher training in Scaravelli Inspired Yoga and is working with Uma Dinsmore Tuli to obtain her Yoni Shakti Women's Yoga Therapy qualification. Seraphina has worked for many years with organisations at all levels from intern to CEO, women in prison, drug and alcohol rehab centres and for the past few years, in community holding women's circles, grief tending spaces and a community singing and drumming circle.
Seraphina is passionate about the role of community in our individual, collective and planetary healing. She also cares deeply about the transformative power of being witnessed in community and for the meaning making that happens when our challenges are given a place and not pathologised.
Seraphina is an avid cold water swimmer, loves spending time with friends singing, drumming and dancing and generally having fun. She has has three grown up children and is known for bringing a compassionate, trauma informed, intuitive and playful presence to the work she is called to do. She lives with her beloved husband by the sea.
Marnie Padmai
Marnie has had a long career in the charitable sector, working to empower those disadvantaged by a wide range of disabilities. She has an avid interest in and wealth of experience of working with those with learning disabilities and those who are neurodiverse as well as roles in mental health work. Her most recent roles have focused on a specialism in autism.
She is passionate about community and the power of supporting one another, bringing together the varied strengths of a group to build a strong unit of togetherness.
Her main offering presently is kirtan, a practice from the Bhakti path of yoga - the path of the heart. She has seen and experienced the transformative effect of both group and personal practice. She is also experienced in co-hosting drum and song-circles, and is completing training to lead harmony singing.
Marnie loves being outside year-round - walking and making the most of the treasures of the South Downs and South coast, and in the warmer months also enjoys sea swimming, paddle boarding and walking the wild places. She enjoys camping and fires with her community. Colder times are the perfect excuse for her to gather fireside and she can usually be found where there is song and drum!
Dan Bianconi
Dan is passionate about building communities of care and belonging. Borne out of his own experiences of isolation and loneliness, he started a community singing and drumming circle which is thriving over a year later. Dan enjoys supporting people to thrive, to fulfil their potential and to learn to believe in themselves. For the past four years, he has supported individuals with learning difficulties at Friary Gardeners, a branch of the Parchment Trust Charity. In this role, he particularly enjoys working creatively with art and with wood work.
Dan had a challenging journey with mental health at a young age and this has equipped him to bring a calm, empathetic and non judgemental presence to those he supports. He has a lived experience that in our greatest challenges, we find our greatest strength and often our life purpose. He has worked for the past five years with a Taoist teacher learning how to teach Qi Gong and studying Taoist philosophy including the Tao Te Ching.
He is currently involved in launching the Grief Tending in Community Project and is particularly interested in de-stigmatising grief in men and supporting other men to allow their vulnerability. He is undergoing a Grief Tending in Community Apprenticeship.
Dan lives with his cherished wife by the sea and in his spare time loves roller skating, painting, cooking and eating, drumming and singing with friends.
