Your NameSonia Teruel
Email Addresssoniatheregenlab@gmail.com
Cohort AssignmentHybrid In-Person/Online with Intensive in Lisbon, Winter-Spring 2025
1. What do you see as your primary work at this stage of your life?

In 2020 I founded The RegenLab for Travel, to help the tourism sector transition to a regenerative model. I work with grassroots initiatives, entrepreneurs and Destination Management Organisations. I do this work through consulting / facilitation and education.
This is my primary work.

2. What role do you see as yours to play?

I see myself as the facilitator that builds capabilities for ecosocial regeneration in a place.
To inspire people to take back their power, to use collective intelligence, to see potential, to be creative, to serve a bigger system and create the conditions for life to thrive.
To show that tourism can be a great ally of a destination to contribute to their flourishing, by creating connections across different stakeholders/levels, helping restore ecosystems, creating meaningful connections where there is reciprocity, etc, instead of being an extractive industry.

3. What goals or aims do you have in regard to the above?

As well as working with communities at places that host or want to host visitors, which I already do, I want to resume the educational / training programmes and make sure that people really embody the principles and are able to be, feel and do according to those principles. Help them with tools to develop their capabilities so that the transformation can be exponential.

4. Where do you feel your next arenas for personal growth are?

I spent a few months on a regenerative farm and a similar period in an ecovillage, to immerse myself in the living systems view. I am in the process of certifying to become a facilitator of "Think like a Tree", which has helped me understand more profoundly about living systems.

I want to continue implementing this way of thinking in myself/my life, in order to be completely congruent. I want to explore more in terms of personal alignment and giving birth to new projects always with a regenerative design.

5. And for professional growth?

I want to get better and better at working in regenerative design.

This programme, for starters, is fantastic to learn new tools and frameworks that will assist me in doing part of this work, especially when working with places.

I would like to use less theory and more practice; it's important for people to truly feel, not just think, what regeneration means. Help them use their instinct and creativity.

6. What have you invested in to get you where you are?

Since I first started my journey into regeneration (in 2016, and delivering the first ever Master thesis about regenerative tourism) I have invested so much of my time to learn about regeneration: volunteering work, webinars, courses, etc, you name it. I have dedicated my life to it, which has meant suffering financially.
When I started offering courses, there was low demand for it, so I always had to have a side job to pay for my bills. Now I have decided to give it my 100% and it's scary, but it's gaining momentum and I also feel more confident, so I can live in alignment with my values and my purpose!

7. What fields of learning and which thinkers have been important in your life?

Related to regeneration, mainly: Anna Pollock, Regenesis (I quoted them a lot in my thesis), Carol Sanford, Jenny Andersson, Michelle Holliday, Dianne Dredge, Laura Storm, the Global Initiative for Regenerative Tourism (Chile), Eduard Müller (International Cooperation University).

8. Can you frame your philosophy or cosmology of life? What role(s) do humans play in it?

Humans are nature, we are one more species within our whole ecosystem, so I do believe in our obligation to serve the whole system. Any extraction practices are not just against nature, but obviously against ourselves. The more we understand this and can be aligned to how living systems work, the better.
I believe in the power of relationships, reciprocity and how everything is cyclical and impermanent.

Date CreatedJanuary 21, 2025