{"id":403,"date":"2021-08-23T14:49:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T12:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpws2020.umainstitut.net\/?page_id=403"},"modified":"2026-09-23T09:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:13:06","slug":"ursula-and-david","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/renature-institut.org\/en\/ueber-uns\/ursula-und-david\/","title":{"rendered":"Ursula and David"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ursina and David Seghezzi
A brief introduction<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Living and working as a couple<\/strong><\/h5>


We live in the Wendland in northern Germany in our old farmhouse with a large garden and have been running our organic seminar house here together since 2013. In 2003, Ursina founded the institute (then under the name Ursula) as the \u201euma institut\u201c in Switzerland; since 2013, we have been developing it further together as a couple, regularly taking our experiences out into nature and using the insights for our work and publications. In spring 2026, we then renamed the institute in accordance with our approach to the \u201ere:nature institut\u201c.<\/p>

We live \u201eat the end of the world\u201c with our two sons Mio (born 2018) and Anuk (born 2021). Ursina is also mother to her adult daughters Lea (born 1996) and Fiona (born 1994).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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About Ursina (*1971)<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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After studying religious studies, theology and ethnology, I trained as a naturopath for Chinese medicine and ran my own practice. I became a mother at the age of 23. Fairy tales have accompanied me since my childhood and I enjoy telling them. After working briefly as a counsellor, I discovered my way into nature rituals through the seasons, inspired by Prof. Heide G\u00f6ttner-Abendroth's critical view of cultural history. For over 30 years now, I have been researching the Central European tradition and making it fruitful for today - in nature rituals, children's books and my own formulated re:nature Compass<\/a> as a European wheel of life.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Born in 1971, I grew up in Liechtenstein as the youngest of four siblings and completed secondary school there. At the University of Fribourg\/Switzerland, I studied \u201eBuddhism and Feminism\u201c and peace work with Prof Friedli. Ulrike Zalokar and Peter von Blarer opened up the world of Chinese medicine to me, Heide G\u00f6ttner-Abendroth shaped my view of the connections between seasonal rituals and cultural-historical tradition, Trudi Thali taught me about light path therapy and intuition. I learnt the craft of vision quests from Haiko Nitschke, worked intensively with him and took over the management of the training course for vision quest guidance that he initiated in 2012.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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My first job was as a parish counsellor in Horw\/Lucerne, where I wrote my first book on rituals with children in 1999. In 2003, I founded the uma institut and began working with nature rituals, in particular seasonal rituals for women and rites of passage for young people, which resulted in the film walkAway<\/em>. I worked for eight years as a boarding school director at the Immensee\/Schwyz grammar school, developing my naturopathic practice in parallel and working independently as director of the uma institute from 2007. Publications followed from 2012. I became a mother at the age of 22, married for the first time and two years later my second daughter was born. After a divorce in 2007, we looked after the children together. I've been with David since 2011, we move to Wendland in 2014, get married and our two sons are born in 2018 and 2021. With the help of a lot of trauma therapy and nature rituals, I have found a fulfilling motherhood.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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At a young age, my path led me through depression and early on to a variety of therapies and self-awareness seminars such as breathing therapy, TCM, kinesiology, constellation work, tantra seminars, talk therapy, astrology, enneagram, channelling and theta healing. I utilise all of this, thereby gaining more and more competence in accompanying others. However, the deepest healing experiences happen in rituals in nature - this is where my nature mystic path is formed. My rich inner world gives me access to inner masters; an inner \u201eMaster Ho\u201c led me to an inner arrival, which is reflected in the outer arrival here in Beseland. Without the radicality to penetrate my own wounds, I would not have recognised the treasure in the near-death experience at the birth of my youngest child. As a result, I live and work even more powerfully in this dimension of reality today.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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My initiation was the Way of St James after my A-levels - 1500 km on foot, which shaped my relationship with nature and the connection between cult and culture. Buddhism fascinated me early on and I meditate regularly. Today, nature mysticism is my living \u201ereligion\u201c, especially spirituality in the flow of the seasons. Sometimes we jokingly call ourselves the \u00abnature-religious minority\u00bb.<\/p>

I am often shocked by people's disconnection from themselves and their spiritual guidance and the resulting destruction in the world. At the same time, I believe that we already have the answers to personal, social and global questions within us. We need a trusting space in which these answers can emerge and take shape - on the outside in nature, on the inside in ourselves. I serve this space in my work. Co-creativity with all nature siblings makes us lively, joyful and humorous - because humour is also sacred!<\/p>

During the birth of my youngest child, I had a near-death experience. Naturally, a defining turning point. The transition into a new living space took place in early autumn 2026. Since then, I have borne the name Ursina. The bear in the Swiss mountains. I have felt a deep connection to the strength of this animal since the near-death experience.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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About David (*1980)<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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My curiosity was focussed early on on the relationship between culture and nature and the question of how humans can fit harmoniously into the living world. After studying cultural and social sciences at the European University Viadrina, I trained as a wilderness educator, coach and facilitator and worked in climate protection and education for sustainable development. The two paths of \u201eculture\u201c and \u201enature\u201c are finally combined in the vision quest training programme.<\/p>

Since 2013, the uma institute \/ from 2026 the re:nature institute and the joint work with Ursula have been my professional, intellectual, and emotional home. In addition to training courses, seminars, and nature rituals, I have been supporting teams, organisations, and leaders in transformation processes and sustainable realignment for over 20 years. The development of the organisational concept \u201ere:nature \u2013 Organisation\u201c and working with our re:nature approach fill me with joy and purpose. I work with passion as a visionary.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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I was born David Wagner, the first of four children, in West Berlin in 1980. In 1985, the family moved to a village near Aachen, where my parents set up a shared flat with two other families. The separation of my parents put an end to my sheltered childhood. I was drawn out into the world: a school year in the USA, a 15-month peace service in Poland, later longer stays in the former Yugoslavia and Georgia.<\/p>

During my studies in Frankfurt (Oder) and Berkeley, I was fascinated by sociology and anthropology - how do values, world views and transformations come about? But the academic world lacked a direct connection to nature. Training in wilderness education with Wolfgang Peham opened up new perspectives for me. Since then, I have been pursuing the goal of combining culture and nature. The climate crisis, species extinction and the shadows of our consumer society frighten me deeply. I now know that we can do things differently. I am committed to this with all my work.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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I initially worked for BUND as a climate campaigner and led seminars in global learning. In 2009, I sailed with the \u201eclimate pirates\u201c to Copenhagen for the World Climate Conference - the failure of which became a turning point for me: if demonstrations and conferences are not enough, how can real sustainability succeed?<\/p>

I then founded \u201eImpuls - the agency for applied utopias\u201c in Berlin and worked as managing director for three years. We focussed on major transformation, sustainable society and the connection between inner and outer change. Leadership approaches such as Theory U, Spiral Dynamics, Campbell's Hero's Journey and C.G. Jung's typology broadened my view of leadership and meaningful organisational development.<\/p>

In 2011, my path led me to the vision quest with Ursula Seghezzi and Haiko Nitschke - here I found the profound connection between man and nature that I had been searching for. Ursula became not only a creative partner for the work, but also my wife. The birth of our two sons and the happiness of unfolding the father in me with them fills me with astonished gratitude.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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The separation of my parents and the topic of \u00abimages of fatherhood and masculinity\u00bb accompany my path, as do relationship breakdowns, confusion and upheavals in my family of origin. My grandparents' history of displacement has also left its mark on me. The issues do not go away, but the support of coaches, therapists and self-awareness spaces such as Rebillot's Hero's Journey and Renggli's birth seminars enable me to follow my own learning and healing path towards more and more inner freedom and peace (including relapses). Even as a child, places in nature and being with my dog are moments of healing connection. Even today, I continue to find connection and rootedness in nature - and at the same time learn to fully arrive and settle among people and in social networks. A coronavirus illness in the summer of 2024 and the subsequent time with long-covid put me in a deep crisis. It's not fun, but luckily our own re:nature compass\/the wheel of transformation guides me into and through the deep zone. A new connection to the ancestral power within and the self-healing powers appear as the first gift.<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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I inherited my interest in the world from my parents' Christian and peace movement orientation, but even as a child I discovered that my sacred places lie in nature. Through wilderness education and especially my own vision quest, these spaces open up to me in a new and profound way - in essence, the experience of being an animated being in the midst of a magically animated and living world in which everything is already there. Nights in the forest give me moments of being at home in the great cosmos. More and more I experience the landscapes and the living earth as animated. Connecting with the largely industrialised agricultural landscape and the commercial forests around our village costs me a lot - but in the end it is an important part of my spiritual path. I can see that these landscapes were once wilder and more alive - and will be again one day. That is my hope.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ursina and David speak from the heart - a 2022 film<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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