Who Runs Ownership
At the Helm
Martha McAlpine is at the helm of the room, in charge of the change, the artform that is facilitation where the intellect pierces the heart.
A catalyst.
"Ownership is a point of intersection between the mind, body, and business. New solutions will come from new approaches. New approaches are available in new movements, new patterns of thought. As we integrate who we have been with who we can be as individuals, we will affect everything we do as a collective. Take Ownership to make possibility practical." Martha
About Martha
ORIGINS
I was born in rural Wisconsin, the youngest of 5 girls after my parents and 4 sisters returned from 9 years on teh coast of Nicaragua. My middle school was in the Saudi mountains and my high school/IB in southern Africa. We were raised to be global citizens; at home everywhere and nowhere, especially air terminals and long, mountain walks.
A global citizen.
I come from a physician father and a spiritual director mother. The intersection of physical health and spiritual health was part of every meal, in the books on the shelf, and the guests at our table.
I’m fascinated by..
systems theory.
new paradigms of nutrition.
the links between soil health and human health.
the role of fatigue and attitude as players in our immune function.
how our posture affects our hormone levels.
By how much affects us (sound, frequencies, seasons, moons, bateria, biomes), and how much effect we have on ourselves.
SCHOOLING
Schooled at Princeton University in Comparative Literature and Harvard Graduate School of Education in experiential education design, I crossed into Harvard’s schools of Design, Divinity, and Government to explore my research.
What makes a democratic citizen?
What drives our autonomy, self-regulation, and contribution?
I have a devotion to text, to the book, to the word as a means of transmitting our intellectual DNA from one place and time to another.
Oh, the feel of a book, the heft, its past life as a tree that now holds print and narrative and knowledgebut likely never as much knowledge as when it was a tree.
I have a love of the senses and the body as our truest home for memory. Designing their intersection, experiencing for ourselves the direct contact and consequence of an idea, is the heart of my work.
Designing intersections.
More than anything, my education has taught me that we are the authors of the stories we will become.
WORK
My superpower lies in blending data and research and content to create an experience that calls out a new response for a team to think/design from a place that hasn’t yet been named.
My work tends to be both vast/conceptual and immediate/practical.
I create both large-scale paradigm-shifting courses that take time and attention, as well as in-the-moment tools that encompass big ideas in quick actionable, comprehensible ways.
I have facilitated professional workshops for over 20 years, groups large and small, planned and spontaneous. One example, in the corporate world I designed and delivered training for interdisciplinary teams racing the tide of the .com boom. As part of a three-person team I delivered week-long immersions to enable leading edge designers to work with computer scientists to bring new paradigms of interaction to our modern businesses and lives. Clients have included Sprint.com, United.com, BluecrossBlueshield.com, Bankofamerica.com, Nike, Lululemon, Visionary Art Museum, Interfuse festival and others
PRACTICE
I am a teacher of teachers: You want to know more, I want to share more.
I am a perpetual student.
My teaching is not limited to teaching yoga teachers. We are each others’ teachers for all the ways we chart new paths forward through cooking dinner, organizing the trunk of the car, looking at ice cores, creating new theater. All these events teach us. We are always students.
Let’s teach each other to the highest possible caliber.
When I design material to teach - privates, 40 day sequences, corporate trainings - I feel like a seamstress, stitching together parts and pieces to a make a gown, a suit, just for this occasion. Tantra has 14 meanings in Sanskrit but the one that lands first for me is an act of weaving, an integration, a joining of one thing to another to make a third thing that is new, composite, whole.
Creating newness.
My yoga practice has held me steady for over 25 years of changing personal terrain and careers. Tantric yoga in the Srividya tradition and Kundalini yoga is my specialty. In 25+ years as a yoga student, teacher, and teacher of teachers I have seen how we all are served by greater awareness and participation in the creation of ourselves.
I’ve taught and/or facilitated
studio classes
private workshops
festivals
events
international retreats
I teach tools of philosophy for perspective, movement for fluency, and stillness to inform it all.
You will find me daily, without fail, on my mat to start each day.
My practice inspires me to inspire.